7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
Ex-con Gary "Gal" Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job. Desperate not to sacrifice his enchanted existence, Dove is drawn into a shocking and explosive battle of wills with Logan, a battle that redefines his notions of love, honor and commitment.
Starring: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, James FoxDrama | 100% |
Dark humor | 92% |
Heist | 28% |
Crime | 3% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Martin Sheen once quipped that the reason Gandhi won so many Oscars is that the title character epitomized everything everyone in Hollywood wanted to be—namely thin, tan and moral. Sir Ben Kingsley, the actor who helped bring Gandhi fully to life in Richard Attenborough’s biographical film, is on hand in a decidedly different kind of role in Sexy Beast, one which brought him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor, and for those who only associate Kingsley with “kinder, gentler” portrayals, it can be something of a shock to the system to see him careening through this film as a half-mad gangster trying to get a former associate to return to the fold (so to speak) for the vaunted “one last job”. In fact Kingsley is at least bronzed in the film, and rather slim to boot, but one would hardly call his character of Don Logan as anything approaching moral. Logan is nothing short of a sociopath, maybe even a psychopath, and Kingsley’s raw energy in depicting such a vile character makes Sexy Beast an often unbelievably visceral experience. Director Jonathan Glazer, making his feature film debut after achieving success with music videos and commercials, brings a free wheeling looseness to what is typically a cloistered genre governed by hard and fast rules. But the screenplay by Louis Mellis and David Scinto eschews typical caper tropes to concentrate more on character and ambience, often with an almost satirical bent. The main character of the film is not in fact Logan, but retired safecracker Gary Dove (Ray Winstone), who goes by the nickname “Gal”. Now, right off the bat, we have some indication of how Sexy Beast is going to defy convention—would you name a hardened criminal Gal Dove? Gal has left his criminal ways behind him and is happily ensconced in an impossibly luxurious Spanish villa perched high above the Mediterranean Sea on the aptly named Costa del Sol. We first meet Gal as he soaks in some of that sol, and while he is probably a bit too portly to qualify for Sheen’s trifecta of Hollywood desire, he is in fact very tan and, as we soon come to find out, rather remarkably moral.
Sexy Beast is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time (licensing masters provided by Fox) with AVC encoded
1080p transfers (yes, transfers) in both 2.35:1 and 1.78:1. It's odd that a non-theatrical aspect ratio is included here,
though videophiles will know that all too often 1.85:1 films are often either presented outright in 1.78:1 or overscanned to
appear that way. IMDb lists the OAR as 2.35:1, and my assumption is 2.35:1 is correct insofar as theatrical exhibition goes,
though the 1.78:1 framing is not inherently problematic in any major way. The 2.35:1 framing obviously has quite a bit
more information on the sides, with a bit less on the top and bottom, while the 1.78:1 framing reverses those aspects (no
pun intended). (I have
included screenshots from both versions so that readers can compare the "looks" of both of them.)
In terms of the actual quality of these transfers, the elements here are perhaps just slightly more problematic than with the
bulk of newer Twilight Time catalog releases, with a bit more specks, dust, and even white spots cropping up from time to
time. The overall look here is often quite soft, especially in midrange shots (see the screenshots of Kingsley walking in the
airport for a good example). Balancing these issues is really gorgeously saturated color, though it's obvious that Glazer
and DP Ivan Bird filtered many sequences, giving them odd tints at times (the opening, with its almost ultraviolet
appearance
is a good example, as is the great sequence where Don lets Gal in on the plot, which includes rapid cutting between blue
and red hued scenes). Fine detail is good in close-ups. No overtly obvious compression artifacts were noticed.
Sexy Beast follows its video protocol by offering two choices in the audio department as well, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (presumably recreating the film's original audio mix) and a nicely done DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix that capably opens up the film's fantastic music, while giving some extra oomph to the occasional foley effect (notably the great rumble of the boulder in the opening sequence). Dialogue is very cleanly presented, though the Cockney accents can be a bit thick to cut through (there are optional subtitles available, which are a major help in this regard). The source cues in the score are wonderful, running the gamut from Dean Martin singing "Sway" to Henry Mancini's gorgeously lush instrumental "Lujon", which became a well known hit for Brasil '66 as "Slow Hot Wind". Fidelity is excellent throughout both of these tracks.
When you have to watch as many films as I do, you become all too aware of the formulaic, cookie cutter approach so many filmmakers take with their projects. Kudos, then, to Sexy Beast for being willfully determined to contravene any number of accepted tropes as it wends it way through some fairly tricky character beats and plot machinations. This film is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, for it changes tone at the drop of a hat (and/or boulder) and is rather disturbing at times, especially as Kingsley's character devolves into a near atavistic state, but it's so breathtakingly original it's hard not to be swept up in its own peculiar form of divine madness. This Blu-ray has generally excellent video and superior audio, and comes with at least a few supplements. Recommended.
2013
1997
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1994
1999-2007
Limited Edition
1993
2009
1996
Includes Beanie
2014
1973
2017
2010
2019
기생충 / Gisaengchung
2019
1990
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Collector's Edition
1996
2008