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Simply Perfect

Memorable, crazy movie

Excellent adaptation.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

'The Limey' is a great film - spot on performance by Stamp and the rest of the supporting cast - Barry Newman,Luis Guzman and Lesley Ann Warren. The entire film is a man's desire for justice for his murdered daughter and the weak wealthy elitist played by Fonda surrounded by his sycophants and enablers.The ending is what Fonda so richly deserves - cowering as he (Fonda) looks at a real man with his (Fonda) fear filled face.This film is very apt considering the horrific remarks Peter Fonda typed today on Twitter re. President Trump's son . Casting directors 'know' their product especially their 'actors/actresses' because truth be told, most aren't acting - what you see is what they are and in Fonda's case his role as 'Terry Valentine' was tailor made for him. The only other name that comes to mind who would have fit this role would be John Lithgow.Let's see if the left leaning 'twitter' throws Fonda out as they would any of the right hoi polloi engaging in such - never hold your breath when it comes to Hollywood elite.

The Limey a juicy revenge flick to really sink your teeth into. This at the tell end of the '90s when Soderbergh still a young man at his innovative best, willing to try things structurally that he would eventually back away from in his post '90s work (with of course a few exceptions). Wilson's (Terence Stamp) daughter Jenny is dead. Her last known lover was Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), a nefarious music "promoter" who cashed in on the style, sound and myth of 1960's zeitgeist, who is known to be connected with shady businesses and equally shady characters. Now, Wilson, estranged father, lifetime criminal, freshly out of prison, is on a mission to find out why his daughter was killed, then possibly take out the man whom he believes murdered her. The intense tale of revenge is set against the backdrop of high-end Hollywood Hills enclaves, the scenic beauty of Big Sur and the more gritty elements of Los Angeles adding texture. Wilson tries to accomplish this vengeance with the help of his daughter's friends: One, an aloof chef who she met in acting class, Eduardo (Luiz Guzman). Guzman's character in particular allows for the creation of a tête-à-tête buddy movie that creates heart, humor and an unexpected element in a film that belies the fact that it is not your run of the mill revenge film, which ends up being more of an existential quest than the shoot'em up tropes of the genre. DP Ed Lachman does a wonderful job with the long takes. In which he keeps most of the violence at a distance, which is unusual for the genre, but brings more mystery, intensity and uniqueness to the film. The first scene of ultra-violence is when Soderbergh and Lachman keep the camera across the street from a warehouse where Valentine's cohorts work. We watch Wilson briskly walk back to the building in which he just had his a** beat and was thrown to the curb, but all we hear are screams, the ringing of gunshots, and a few flashes of gun blasts until finally a young man comes running out toward the camera, into the foreground and past the camera, half-chased by a double gun toting Wilson (face covered in blood splatter) screaming in his intense cockney accent, "You tell'im I'm coming! You tell'im I'm f*****g coming!!!" The detached long shot works just as well in another famous scene at Valentine's part in a posh mansion that overlooks the canyons. In the foreground Valentine mingles, safe, untouchable, but through the glass the viewer begins to see what Valentine sees, Wilson throwing a 400lb bodyguard over the railing into the canyon to his demise.The disjointed storytelling, the non-linear elements, the displacement of matching dialogue with scenes in which they don't belong, the obscuring of timelines and the way Soderbergh obscures the framing of certain scenes is an inventive way to keep the audience on their toes. I know it is the opinion of some that this is more of a literary device and not a filmic style device…but those folks are wrong. Soderbergh and writer Lem Dobbs work well in dipping back to the past '50s and '60 American and English noirs and New Wave crime dramas as well as French New Wave aesthetics for inspiration while making something fresh and new that is all their own, exploding with vital energy. Soderbergh also made casting decisions (Stamp and Fonda) that in themselves are aware and self-referential in themselves, from the aura, myths and careers of Stamp and Fonda have been associated with. Soderbergh even makes a genius choice to show flashbacks of Wilson that are actually vintage footage of Terence Stamp playing a character in Ken Loach's 1967 debut Poor Cow. These techniques had to be fresh in 1999 as it is still fresh today. Stamp is at his witty, faux-standoffish best (reminiscent of Stephen Frear's The Hit), with a quick fire half intelligible parlance that is simply perfect for the idiosyncrasies of this film. Guzman proves why he is maybe the most talented and versatile Latino actors we have working in America today. On the other hand Peter Fonda cannot act; he never could. All of that talent was drained by his father and his sister, but in the context of what was needed from his character in The Limey, it works, and is charming, much in the way a singer who doesn't have a "naturally great" singing voice or makes a habit of not singing in key, i.e., Lou Reed is charming and ultimately works. And as the sometimes subdued, but always neurotic, sun baked, Southern Cal ex-hippie, Peter Fonda could not have been a finer choice.The Limey is just different. Rememberances of an indie culture that has changed. Because it isn't often that there is a revenge-laden crime thriller that on the surface should be about drugs, guns, sex with beautiful women and straightforward Charles Bronson revenge that winds up being about what is truly important in a person's life: family, learning from one's experiences. As Stamp says, "If prison has taught me one thing it is how to bide my time…bide my time so I can think clearly and make the right decision." This is one of the most poignant soliloquies in The Limey. But I believe Roger Ebert said it best in his 1999 review, this film is really about "retirement."

The first time I saw this movie, I hated it. Then, 10 years later, I gave it another try when I saw that Soderbergh was the director. I'm really glad I did.Some of the scenes are hard to believe. Like the warehouse scene. Why would he walk into that so unprepared? In the real world, they would have just killed him, but then the movie would have only been 20 minutes long. This was the scene that caused me to hate the movie when I first saw it. But this time I overlooked it.What moved me on the second watching was the subtlety and the sadness in the movie. You feel the sadness of him not being able to be with his daughter as she grew up. As for Peter Fonda, he's just annoying. The way he's cleaning his teeth with the toothpick, and the annoying conversations he has with his girlfriend are pathetic and painful to watch. But maybe thats the point. Also, the two pool-playing hit men are annoying and Soderbergh attempts to make them interesting is a little over-elaborate. Like the scene where the one guy is talking to trash about all the actors and extras as he watches the movie set.But the scene with the DEA agent at the end accidentally slipping the file to Wilson was an interesting scene. Wilson's whole speech there was pretty interesting when he tells the DEA agent - I think we're after the same thing. But again, a little hard to believe that the DEA agent is just gonna let him go after Fonda. Like they wouldn't have shown a picture of Wilson to the witness from the warehouse shooting. At which point, the witness would ID Wilson, and Wilson gets arrested. But no, the DEA is gonna let him go after Fonda, and then after all the dead bodies pile up at Big Sur, they're gonna let him fly out of the country. Yeah right. Again, pretty hard to believe.So, while I think this is a flawed movie from a plot believability standpoint, it still has many interesting and poignant scenes, and I was able to overlook the flaws because I was entertained and riveted throughout the movie.

A year after Steven Soderbergh's The Limey was released, Stephen Kay unleashed upon us their remake of 1971 British thriller Get Carter; a film about a low level hoodlum travelling a relatively long distance to look into the death of a family member, before indeed uncovering sordid plots and such they always suspected were there. The fact The Limey is as good as it is would make it doubly unforgivable if one were to opt for the said Get Carter remake if faced between picking it and Soderbergh's film here. Principally, the man has taken a similar idea but brought a great deal of substance where in Kay's effort there was fatuity; a degree of life and ingenuity where there was formula and this sense of verve and energy where there was a just lot of bland 'muscle' going through the motions. Invoke Get Carter at your peril, remake it at your ***. But where The Limey's catalyst is the suspicious death of one of its anti-heroic lead's family on account of a driving accident, it does so well with the material anyway that it gets away with it – telling an engaging tale with a dynamic visual approach.The film is about a titular "limey" (American slang for an Englishman) in the sunny city of Los Angeles, a man omnipresent on account of doing some of his own investigations into a little driving incident wherein his daughter died. Where everything looks harmless and natural enough, our Limey lead Wilson (Stamp) has suspicions that he believes will lead to finding out what really happened. As a character, Wilson is almost certainly of both his era and ilk: that is to say, hardened and from a time and place in 1960's Britain that is light years from where he finds himself now. Rough and often emotionless, although not without a degree of kindness revealed through the way he reminisces and speaks enthusiastically about his past and things such as the music he likes, there is something appealing about watching a tale about this carefree Londoner, who knows what it's like to kill, maim, thieve and serve time, plopped into a contemporary California dominated by the beating sun; houses up in the bluffs and punk African American hit men.Soderbergh doesn't hang around, he drops us headfirst into L.A. and Wilsons's universe. A musical track belts out over the images, a singer singing about "searching low and high"; the lyric "they call him the seeker" as our Wilson stands on screen - immediately inferring a man on a mission to find someone/thing. We're at an airport, and Wilson has just stepped off the plane from Great Britain. Amidst all the activity out front, it is the two seemingly innocuous police officers of the L.A.P.D. that catches Wilson's eye suggesting some sort of history or link to the law. He knocks about town for a while; meets up with a man of Hispanic descent named Eduardo (Guzmán), who'll provide help and answers, then demonstrates his truly unhinged nature when he marches into a blue collar warehouse and starts pushing around those who run it. "Tell him I'm coming!" he shouts, and we get a feel for just how both determined and angry he really is.Cut to he who it is Wilson will eventually come to seek: Peter Fonda's Terry Valentine; a record producer who lives behind his bodyguards inside of a secluded mansion. Soderbergh pulls a trick on us here, in that while Valentine is essentially the villain of the piece, he is not some snarling; foaming-at-the-mouth; evidently evil individual who slots into the role of the antagonist just as easily as Wilson does the hero. Valentine is softly spoken, even frail looking. We get the feeling should Wilson and this man come face to face; it'll be over quite quickly. He talks to a young woman named Adhara (Heinle), his girl friend, about things such as how one should name their children after star consolations because, like, y'know, it's kind of a cool thing to do. Even his name, "Valentine", conjures up the sort of immediate imagery more inclined towards love and fondness and not spite or wickedness, etc. Wilson is, by comparison, much more aggressive and hard bodied; a man not afraid of violence nor probably much into talking about the esoteric qualities of naming kids after star signs.The editing in the film is of particular interest, a film unfolded using stock footage from an old Ken Loach film doubling up as flashbacks of Stamp's character's past; an array of filters and the sort of manipulation of time that sees Wilson recount the same story twice to two different people whilst only ever presenting to us one instance of him telling it. Such an approach calls to mind John Boorman's techniques that he applied to a similarly realist/avant-garde crime picture in 1967's Point Blank; a film told as such so as to replicate its lead's damaged, perhaps even confused, outlook on the world as they recovered from a gunshot wound. Here, having got a sense our lead Wilson (not too far from "Walker", Lee Marvin's Point Blank character) is as damaged (albeit in a psychological sense), the idea of splicing the film up by cutting back and forth from strand to strand; tense to tense is inspired so as to invoke a shattered mentality. In a sense, The Limey is the hard boiled revenge film for people who do not like hard boiled revenge films. It is the antidote to those people who get it into their heads that specific genres or 'types' of films are for set genders or those in a particular age bracket. The Limey is very much, as a standalone film regardless, works really well and should be seen.