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Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Sexy Beast (2000) Reviewed by Martin Davis. Retrospect Film on Facebook. London villain goes into retirement on the Costa del Crime but is 'persuaded' back to do one last job. It's the kind of story told many times before, often badly. Jonathan Glazers' directorial debut however, revisits this old territory with a unique style of its own. From the surreal dream sequences to the razor sharp dialogue, it never lets up. Ex-con and safe-cracker Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) is enjoying his idyllic lifestyle in Spain with his beloved wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman) and his longtime friend Aitch and his wife Jackie. Their tranquillity is shattered by the arrival of an old criminal associate, Don Logan (Ben Kingsley). Logan has been sent out to bring Gal back for a major bank heist and he's not taking no for an answer. The reaction of Gal and DeeDee and their friends, upon hearing of Logans' imminent arrival, sets the tone for this most unwelcome of visitors. It's the measure of a great actor that the man who earlier in his career had played the title role in Richard Attenboroughs' 'Gandhi' is so convincing in the role of a vicious sociopath. From the moment he appears on-screen Kingsleys' ferocious portrayal of Logan dominates every scene he appears in and his fearsome presence begins a chain of events from which there will be no going back. Upon returning to London Gal is reunited with Teddy Bass, the heist organiser, played by Ian McShane, another superb performance. In any other film McShane would have won the acting plaudits. The film lingers long in the memory for Kingsleys' role though. The cast and quality of acting turn 'Sexy Beast' from a standard crime caper film into something quite different. Winstone is excellent as Gal, a man whose past demons come back to consume him and push him to breaking point. There is also a terrific performance from Amanda Redman as DeeDee, his beleaguered wife. Crime thrillers rarely portray female lead characters with any real substance but Amanda Redman here, like Sharon Stone in Scorseses' 'Casino' is a notable exception. Seventeen years on 'Sexy Beast' still stands as one of the best crime thrillers ever made. In 2004 it was voted 15th best British film of all time by 'Total Film' magazine. Highly Recommended. Martin Davis. Retrospect Film on Facebook

Quite possibly the most unique gangster movie I've seen. The part of Don Logan expertly played by Ben Kingsley is easily one of the most intimidating characters ever captured on celluloid. It delivers lines of dialogue that you'll never forget not that you'd want to. It's an absolute perfectly titled film. Worth watching and re-watching to catch any of the little bits you might have missed.

Whenever someone asks me to provide the showcase example of the actor's process done as close to perfection as one can get, I direct them towards one earthquake of a performance: Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. It takes a considerable amount of work to fully realize a character, bring them to life, make them seem genuine, lifelike and idiosyncratic so as to win over the viewer and elicit the modernized 'putting down the iPhone to engage with full attention' reaction', but Kingsley's rabid London hoodlum Don Logan is just that creation, and then some. He's not even the lead character either, yet royally steals the film, which earned him an Oscar nomination. The film itself couldn't be more brilliant either, cooked up via a stinging, gorgeously verbose script by Louis Mellos and David Scinto, glossy wit from director Jonathan Glazer and actors who go the extra mile to give a fairly arch story some tangible depth. Ray Winstone, reliably superb, is Gal Dove, a boisterous ex criminal who has retired to sunniest Spain with his sexy wife (Amanda Redman) and best friend (Cavan Kendall). Retirement is tricky for someone with Gal's past though, and soon his past barges through the front door in the form of Kingsley's Logan, a terrifying bald beast of a man that would give any sensible person cause to immediately run and hide in the nearest cupboard. From the moment he shows up, heralded by bad dreams that plague Gal and a literal boulder that cascades down the hill into his villa pool uninvited (hello metaphor), things go from worse to hellish. Logan isn't the type of man to take no for an answer, and is a complete and total nightmare to deal with even before Gal tries to shut him down. Logan wants him for a job in London, organized by shark of a mob boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane, creepy as all hell), but Gal has no interest leaving the sunny shores and just wants the nutter out of his house. Any time Kingsley is on screen you can feel the tension crackle in the air. He's the unvarnished hyena to Winstone's aloof, relaxed teddy bear, a force to be reckoned with and feared. His use of profanity lands like a backhander from Dwayne Johnson, his body language is erratic enough to induce seizures and that cobra gaze could melt adamantium. He's the penultimate antagonist and raises the stakes to the stratosphere, berating every person in sight and maintaining a cold, detached veneer that's more than slightly disconcerting. Not to mention the guy talks to himself in the mirror, which alone is cause for worry. While the story takes place in our world, there's an off kilter, demonically surreal undertone that derails genre conventions. The artfully dirty, near poetic screenplay, stark visions of some sort of evil Chernobyl rabbit thing, lurid editing transitions, whatever it is it's hard to pin down or describe, but you feel miles from your comfort zone and ever so slightly removed from our solar system while watching this odd, scary, compelling and uniquely peculiar piece of work.

The other day, my lady Tammy and I watched director Glazer's recent 'Under the Skin' and loved its otherworldly wackiness and ambiance, and as I had his first two films on DVD, we decided that at the very least, this first one demanded immediate investigation. I've adored Ray Winstone's work since his early days working in the films of Sir Alan Clarke, and Ben Kingsley's always a treat. Watching the characters brought back such awesome memories of my teenage days, traveling throughout England and continental Europe in December, 1986, as well. We can't wait to hopefully check out 'Birth' later this week...This was definitely one of the best and most original British gangster movies since the likes of 'The Long Good Friday' and 'Mona Lisa' from that era...