An Awkwardly Titled Movie: Sexy Beast (2000)

I had this oddly titled movie, Sexy Beast, laying around and I always thought it looked like the strangest movie. Looking it up, it was definitely a content appropriate film, starring Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley. It even had a decent rating on IMDB. I'm not sure how much more space I can kill, so how about we just jump into the guts of the matter. You'll find that right after the jump.


The story centers on Gary Dove (Ray Winstone) as he lives out his retired life in Spain with his wife and a couple of friends. All they have to do is lay back, relax, and soak up the rays. One day, however, that all changes when an old employer contacts them and says they want Gary back for another job. It turns out he used to be somewhat of a thief. So there's one last job they want him to do, but he knows the risks of getting involved again when he's been out of the game for 9 years. The crazy and unpredicable Don Logon (Ben Kingsley) is sent to recruit Gary, and failure is not an option. He simply won't take 'no' for an answer.

Gary and Don have a talk over drinks about the job

Alright, lets get down to it, I have NO IDEA what the title of this movie refers to. It's probably something that I missed, an underlying meaning, but to be honest, I really don't care. This was an awful movie, and there wasn't a single sexy person in it... although I guess there was a 'beast'.

So for some reason unknown to me, the main character Gary occasionally has dreams or hallucinations of a really creepy rabbit demon that always walks up to him, and points a gun in his face. This is the 'beast' I guess they could be talking about, but I really have no idea. It was creepy for sure, but also kinda pointless to me.

WTF?!

So the big name in this movie is Ben Kingsley. Ben Kingsley has been in a ton of great movies, and plenty I haven't seen. I remember him in Schindler's List and he's famous for playing GHANDI in GHANDI! He is a good, well respected actor! He's classically trained! Why the hell was he even in this movie?! Was this just a pay check between real movies? He was just crazy and swore a lot and and was exceptionally obscene. I've never seen Ben Kinsley act like this, and no matter what, no matter how into the character he got, I could not separate him from seeing Ben Kingsley act really stupidly.

Everything about this movie to me was just bad. I didn't like it at all. Even the story goes nowhere fast. The entire first HALF of the movie is just Don fighting and arguing with Gary about whether or not he's going to take the job. Gary keeps saying no, but Don won't let up and gets more and more irate as the days pass. Finally he really loses it and Gary has to go on the job.

Don talks to himself in the mirror just before he runs into Gary's bedroom and kicks him in the head

The job is a bank heist, and they have to drill in from the store next door. Yeah I know, so original. The unique twist is that the store next door is a steam bath house, and so the drilling has to all be underwater. This would have been interesting if it wasn't all contained within about 15 minutes. So little time was spent on the robbery I'm ashamed this is called a 'crime' movie. After wards there's a bit of a conflict on something I don't want to spoil, and then the movie is over. That's it.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone. I can't believe it's got a rating as high as it does on IMDB. I really didn't like this movie at all and it all just seemed so pointless. So much time is wasted on characters I never liked and aren't likable. I'm not even going to waste any more of my own time on this. Avoid this movie. It sucks!