Limey, The

Wow. This movie was impressive. Revenge stories go back a long ways, like back to SHakespeare? Ancient Greece? Atlantis maybe? I'm always up for a good one and this is a good one, a very good one.What makes it so good? Well the acting for one. Terence really puts his " Stamp " on his role. ( Sorry) Although a cold, unemotional badass for most of the movie it's easy to see how he still loved his daughter, even though he was not openly emotional about her. His character was a hard man, probably grew up learning to not show any kind of vulnerability, but through little nuances it was clear how much he loved her. The other characters were well drawn and acted too. I gt the feeling hat behind each supporting character there was another interesting story waiting to be told.The editing is the other reason this movie takes a time honored theme like revenge and makes it fresh, something new. I can't really explain it, there's probably a film school term for it. but it's not 199% a linear story line. Let's just say it keeps you on your toes without trying too hard to lose you.Finally, it's a statement about Fatherhood. Really. I don't want to go on and on about it, but it shows not only how important dad's are to forming their little girls but also how important little girls are to forming their dads.It's an unusual film, difficult to classify, but it's a surprisingly rich film experience. I hope some day Soderbergh makes another one as different and interesting as this one.Side Bar: Great soundtrack too!

I liked this movie. With Terrence Stamp playing what is billed as a violent Englishman in a kind ofvengeance film I expected some violence, a coherent plot, a beautiful girl somewhere, andsome bad guys who had done something worth invoking vegeance. Yup. Check all the boxes and donepretty well at that. Competence all around. So this is a movie worth watching but get it on Prime orrent it. That girl Warren is a beautiful woman without doing a whole bunch of frontal nudity. She isreal eye candy. Don't know if she can act from this movie. I've known a few women like that andI still don't know if they could talk--nobody was listening to them anyway. I sure wasn't. They werelike ornaments or art work and just to be looked at and admired. Not something you take to bed or home tomother.

I thought closed captioning was now required. Apparently I was wrong but the makers of this DVD are wrong not to caption it anyway.

I remember being blown away the first time I saw The Limey in a theater, and it still holds up after all these years. Director Steven Soderbergh takes a fairly conventional, straight-up story of an ex-con come to the US to avenge/learn the truth about the death of his daughter, and fragments the narrative with fragments and short snippets that repeat over and over again, sometimes moving back, and sometimes moving forward. A critic noted that it's a striking evocation of the phenomenon of memory. After all, we rarely relive things in a straight line, but turn over elements and scenes repeatedly in our heads as we try to extract meaning from them. Add a steely-eyed performance by the great Terence Stamp in the title role, coupled with footage from his first collaboration with Ken Loach, add a terrific performance from Luis Guzmán as the unexpected Sancho sidekick, and Peter Fonda as the creepiest evocation of the sixties, and you have quite the viewing experience. The only downside is that it would have benefitted from more women, and some of the dialogue is embarrassingly sexist. Soderbergh would make up for this with Erin Brockovich, but this is worth a look.

I enjoyed this movie for the story and the writing. I love the noir-in-the-sun sub genre (that's a phrase I just invented). That is, crime, violence, evil and corruption in happy, sunny places like Hawaii, Florida or in this case, Southern CA. This movie has a lot of great language, character development, depth and nuance. I like how they invoke the 60's (a time of peace, love and harmony) and that the villain is a record producer from that era who's lost sight of those values and turns rotten to the core. Unfortunately, the writers allowed the emotional and tragic elements of the story (Wilson's daughter) to overpower the movie and all the cool stuff takes a back seat. Also, the editing is practically a mess. I wanted to see more of the funny, dangerous, quirky supporting characters (especially Stacy the hitman), learn more about them and see more of their world. The colorful lowlife are what made the Hammet, Chandler and Runyon stories worth reading. Still worth watching.

Your appreciation of this flick will probably depend to some extent on your level of Anglophilia. I don't want to spoil what I felt was a subtle but important take-away from this film relating to the father-daughter relationship; so I'll say that my favorite scene is a near-monologue by Terence that is all in Cockney criminal slang. Of course, Terence has a trademark intense stare that lends emphasis to it. There is also a comment on the commercialization rampant in our society which exploits and degrades, in this case, the pop hip culture of the late 60s and early 70s by an iconic, immoral, two-dimensional character ably portrayed by Peter Fonda, who of course has his own connection to that period.

The first movie that I am aware of that uses footage from an actors old movie as flash-back material. And its key to the heart of the story. I have watched it many times, first with the future mother of my children, and just recently with my own daughter the same age as the daughter in the film. Blah blah blah - just watch it, me ol' china! Then take a quick butchers' at Terence Stamps other work! Blimey!

This is a character study that's been mis-advertised in the same way that Clooney's The American has been mis-advertised. I would have given it 5 stars because it held my interest for quite a while and the acting was first rate, but the ending was a bit predictable with a few too many "telegraphed" lines for a movie of this caliber. I suspect this happened because the genre and the themes didn't quite mesh, at least for me.

I saw The Limey before it came out - at the London Film Festival - and was seduced by its idea of form following function. A story about memories where when, where or how something was said, isn't linear. Where we remember the people we love, and lose, in fragments, and how we look back on our lives with regret and how ultimately we have the ability to come to a sense of understanding and a kind of peace. That's the theme, rather than the superficial 60s fish-out-of-water revenge gangster vibe that writer Dobbs and director Soderbergh have fashioned into a stylish gem.The reason I bought this was for the commentaries - it features in a lot of 'best film commentaries" website discussions, and those commentaries were once online - but no more. It's rare to hear filmmakers talk so openly about the creative tension between them during a project, their disappointments, their hopes falling short, and somehow it all still working.Soderbergh is famed for his greater and greater experimentation and lack of preciousness in how he makes films. The Limey was an experiment that could have gone badly wrong (and certainly didn't work in its early cuts), but ultimately did. It seems strangely adult in today's comic-tinged world.I have no idea how long this DVD will be made, so get it while you can, for the sound, if not the picture...

I mostly don't like Steven Soderbegh films at all, but this quite original 1999 crime film is one of the exceptions. Below, you will find more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.Old school British gangster Wilson (Terence Stamp) who spent more than half of his life in prison, travels to Los Angeles to investigate the death of his daughter Jenny, who supposedly died in a car accident. He suspects that Jenny's last boyfriend (or rather sugar daddy, as he was easily 30 years older than her) record producer Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) had her killed. This film tells the story of his investigation and its consequences.This film immediately reminded me of old 1971 classic "Get Carter" with Michael Caine - and in fact Steven Soderbegh wanted initially Caine to play the main role. Finally he had to settle for Terence Stamp and I think that actually did to this film a great deal of good, as Stamp offers here a STELLAR performance! The atmosphere of the film is however very "getcarterish", even if Los Angeles in Year of Grace 1999, even in its least glamorous parts looks definitely less gritty and more cheerful than Newcastle 1971 AD.The character of Wilson (we never learn his first name) is different than that of Jack Carter. Here the gangster is older and speaks differently, frequently using a very colourful slang and his sense of humor is also quite different. Both men however are cold, ruthless career criminals, seemingly calm on the surface but boiling with rage inside, launched on a personal crusade against those who did them wrong and anybody who stands between them and their vengeance.As I already said, the few films by Steven Soderbegh I ever saw, I usually didn't like them a lot. I hated "Solaris" and "Traffic", "Ocean's Eleven" bored me almost to death and even if I found "Erin Brokovitch" and "Contagion" watchable I do not intend to see them ever again. And let's not even talk about his hagiography of Saint Che Guevara, co-creator of the vicious Cuban tyranny and brutal murderer of thousands... This film however I found better than others and I especially liked the quite unique technique of narration, in which the story is told simultaneously in a way linear and not linear, when in the same time keeping things clear and logical - this is quite an achievement!The one thing that prevents me from giving it five stars is the very ending, like the last minute of the film. I couldn't understand this thing very well - either the director decided to hide the whole solution of the film and deprive us of a real ending, or Wilson simply did all of this (including the killings) strictly for nothing... Maybe you will have better luck figuring this out.So bottom line, this is a good, solid, artistically very interesting gangster film, with just one big black spot in its final minute. The latter thing notwithstanding, I will keep my DVD for a possible re-watch.

Not the best DVD I've watched, the storey is weak and the acting leaden; another DVD for the charity shop.

Terence Stamp at his best. There is a wonderful light comedy element running through the film with moderate violence. I have watched this film three times already and note little points I missed previously.Love the East London accent Terence Stamp gives in his performance and the clips from his earlier work showing Stamp as a younger actor.Great film

In the main I like Steven Soderbergh's movies a great deal. The Limey doesn't disappoint - I love the sheer absurdity of it all - a two bit Cockney gangster no-body can understand decides to take on the L.A. Mob to avenge his murdered daughter. Crazy, surreal and a real favourite of mine. Terence Stamp's intensity carries all before it and Peter Fonda makes a nice villain. Recommended.