Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Ex-safecracker 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.
Sexy Beast is elevated almost entirely by Ben Kingsley's ferociously volcanic performance as Don Logan — one of the great villains in British cinema — earning a clear 4 for Acting. The film's novelty is equally high: its sun-drenched neo-noir aesthetic, darkly comic tone, and subversive inversion of the retirement-heist genre give it a singular, unmistakable voice. The plot itself is lean and functional but not especially complex — a solid 3. Cinematography is stylish with some striking compositions but not consistently exceptional. The ending, while satisfying in its dark irony, doesn't quite match the electric tension of the film's middle section dominated by Logan's arrival.