The Limey (1999) User Reviews

Artistic and simple

[FilmOtaku · 8/10 · 21 July 2004]

The `revenge story' is a pretty overdone plot device, so when a film comes along that employs this theme and still remains fresh and compelling, it is safe to say that is a truly good film. Steven Soderbergh's `The Limey' is able to do just that. In `The Limey', Terrence Stamp plays Wilson, a career criminal who, upon being released from prison in England, finds out that his estranged daughter has died (or perhaps been murdered) in Los Angeles. Wilson's mission is to find out what happened to her, and prescribe his own brand of justice on the man behind her death.

Soderbergh's direction in `The Limey' is superb. While I enjoy and admire most of his filmography, I was so enamored with his second film, the barely-seen, highly acclaimed `Kafka' for its originality, its daring style and intellectual feel, that films like `Oceans Eleven' and `Erin Brockovich', while quite good, didn't reflect what I felt was to be his true maverick style. Seeing `The Limey', made before `Erin Brockovich' and shortly a couple of years after `Kafka', I was happy to see that he kind of held on to that spirit (for lack of a better expression) for one more film before producing more commercial fare. `The Limey' is told in a very non-linear style, and not even as clearly delineated as say, `Pulp Fiction' was; rather it is flashbacks and real-time events expressed by fluttering scenes and an almost wispy presentation. Soderbergh also employs scenes from one of Terrence Stamp's films from the 1960's for some flashbacks, a thoroughly brilliant and creative tactic.

Terrence Stamp certainly deserves mention for his performance as Wilson. Whether seeing him as General Zod in `Superman II' or as the drag queen Bernadette in `The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert' he is a true badass. Watching him chase after Peter Fonda in `The Limey' was like watching a reincarnation of Yul Brunner in `Westworld'; he just never let up. Anyone who would get in his way were pretty much toast, but it was all so coldly done that it was almost clinical – just by the hard and distant expression on Wilson's face you know that all of these people were incidental and he wouldn't receive any pleasure until he comes face to face with his nemesis; and even then, it's possibly more of a duty than a pleasure.

Check out this film – you won't regret it. However, if you're expecting a film with the same kind of commercial tone as say, `Oceans Eleven' you may be in for a surprise, albeit, in this viewer's opinion, a pleasant one.

--Shelly

Quiet, effective revenge thriller

[adrian-43767 · 8/10 · 12 January 2018]

I first watched this film when it came out, 1999, and did not find it particularly memorable, apart from Stamp's steely performance, Fonda's sleazy character, and the film's conclusion.

I watched it again on 12 January 2018 and I have to own up to the fact that I must have been less than attentive when I first watched it. This time, I found the acting excellent across the board, the script far more interesting than I remembered, photography highly effective and economical, action sequences quite riveting, and director Steven Soderbergh to be in inspired form, even in his judicious use of flashbacks.

Do not take me wrong, THE LIMEY is not a masterpiece - and never purports to be anything even close. It is just a film well aware of its limitations, and highly credible because of that.

Decent Low-Key Revenge Story

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 25 February 2006]

For modern-day revenge movie, this is unusually low-key and pretty good. It's nothing super but it sneaks up on you. It might bore you, but it might not:. It's really hard to say.

If you enjoy a character study by an interesting actor (Terrence Stamp) you might like this. But, beware, it has its slow moments. What it is, is simply another revenge tale, so often told but so often fun to watch. This one is about a British criminal (Stamp) getting out of jail, finding out that something bad had happened to his daughter in Los Angeles, and going for the man (Peter Fonda) he feels is responsible for that.

There is a bit too much flashback in here, so you have to be prepared to put up with that. Of note, the filmmakers used actual film footage from a 1967 film of Stamp to show him in his younger days.

What I did really enjoy was Stamp's vocabulary and the interesting looks on his face. The supporting cast also adds nicely to this story, particularly Barry Newman, who plays Fonda's bodyguard. There isn't a lot of action in here but when it does occur, it's pretty intense.

Excellent revenge movie with one minor problem...

[Infofreak · 13 December 2001]

Soderbergh is a really odd director. His movies have run the gamut from the wacky, self indulgent surrealism of 'Schizopolis' to the pandering, sell-out mediocrity of 'Ellen Brockovich'. He's really hard to get a handle on. 'Out Of Sight' was stylish with an outstanding cast but left me cold. 'Traffic' featured a handful of great performances, most notably Benicio Del Toro's, but was overall simplistic, unconvincing and cliched. For my money his strongest achievements to date have been his overlooked noir-ish 'Underneath', and this, his involving revenge drama 'The Limey'.

Terrence Stamp, a fine actor who has appeared in more than his fair share of bad movies, really takes this role and runs with it. He radiates dignity and power as Wilson, the English career criminal out to avenge the death of his estranged daughter. My only problem with his performance, and the movie as a whole, is his Cockney accent, which borders on caricature. If you can get over that hurdle you'll be impressed by the depth of his performance.

Peter Fonda, who has never impressed me much as an actor in the past (not even his much lauded role in the overrated 'Ulee's Gold'), is also fine as the sleazy record producer who Wilson suspects of wrongdoing. Stamp and Fonda obviously relish playing these characters, and their chemistry together is the cornerstone of the movie. Both actors are supported by an impressive array of old and new faces - including a surprisingly effective Lesley Anne Warren (her best since 'Cop'), the always watchable Luis Guzman ('Boogie Nights', 'Carlito's Way', etc.), blasts from the pasts Barry Newman (cult classic 'Vanishing Point') and Joe Dallessandro (former Warhol superstar), and future star in the making Nicky Katt ('Strange Days', 'SubUrbia').

Soderbergh cleverly uses footage from Ken Loach's kitchen sink drama 'Poor Cow' for flashbacks, and plays upon Stamp and Fonda's 60s screen personas, but the film is no exercise in mere nostalgia. 'The Limey' is a rarity in Hollywood these days - an intelligent, thoughtful, well crafted and acted adult movie. I liked it a lot.

Steven Soderbergh style

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 16 January 2015]

Wilson (Terence Stamp) gets out of prison and goes to L.A. Eduardo Roel (Luis Guzmán) had sent him news that his daughter Jenny Wilson (Melissa George) is dead. His is convinced that her music producer boyfriend Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) is responsible. Valentine was involved in a drug deal which he is now trying to hide and presently has a young girlfriend Adhara (Amelia Heinle). Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) was once a famous actress and a mentor to Jenny. Valentine's right hand man Jim Avery (Barry Newman) hires Stacy (Nicky Katt) to kill Wilson.

Soderbergh is trying his disjointed editing style and a bit of shaky camera work. The style is really fascinating for awhile but it becomes more of a gimmick later on. It overwhelms anything happening in the story and takes away some of the tension. Even the dialog becomes secondary. I really like the use of the old movie but even that has diminishing returns. He's done this in the past like in 'Out of Sight' but it wasn't quite as pervasive. Terence Stamp has terrific menace. He's able to maintain the tension and there is a nice payoff at the end.

Atypical direction lifts an otherwise straightforward revenge thriller

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 17 August 2016]

This thriller might seem like some to be a simple remake of GET CARTER - but it's a lot more than that. Director Steven Soderbergh shoots his film in an unusual, unique way. Whereas most films follow a simple, chronologically-bound linear narrative (i.e. events happen after each other as time progresses), this film has scenes following a vaguely "diagonal" pattern - what I'm trying to say is that one scene plays out, then we have flashbacks and flash-forwards into the past and future, always going back to the same scene again. While this might sound confusing to watch, you get used to it quickly and realise how brilliant and disconcerting it is. Soderbergh also overlaps his dialogue from scene to scene which make the film even more interesting to watch.

While the plot is nothing new, the actors invest it with a real dynamite chemistry, a film to watch spellbound from start to finish. Terence Stamp is absolutely superb as the Cockney gangster, muttering rhyming slang and uttering such class lines as "Tell them I'm coming!", and gives a moving portrayal of a past-it hard man coming to terms with the cruel, modern world. We really get inside this guy's head. On the other hand, Peter Fonda is also good as Stamp's nemesis, a weak music producer hiding behind bodyguards and agents to protect himself. Barry Newman also pops up as Fonda's right-hand man to deliver a tough performance.

One classy scene has Stamp beaten to a pulp by thugs - only to return moments later to butcher them all in a bloody shootout. This is shot atypically from what you might expect by reading that description, as to add more impact the camera stays OUTSIDE the building while this happens! Other twists include a bodyguard being thrown over some railings in the background, whereas most flicks would shoot this in close-up. It's touches like these which help breathe new life into the stale thriller and make this instead an intelligent, thought-provoking drama. The only complaint I would have with this film is that it feels a little too short. Watch it and enjoy!

Soderbergh's revenge thriller about a really tough and dangerous Englishman goes to Los Angeles

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 17 February 2023]

A thrilling and suspenseful movie about a thief ex-convict called Wilosn (Terence Stamp) who sets out to find the man he considers responsible for his daughter's death. However , he quickly finds that he is completely out of place with no understanding of the culture he finds . Wilson is a Cockney career criminal who gets out a Brit prison and immediately flies to L. A. and in his investigations is helped by another ex-con (Luis Guzman) . Together they learn that his daughter (Melissa George) had been having an affair with a record producer (Peter Fonda) , who is presently in love with another young woman (Amelia Henlie) . Investigations lead him to surprise the locals not only with his rhyming slang , but with his hard-man resilience , witty and ingenuity . Moreover , an aging actress (Lesley Ann Warren) helps him , as well. Vengeance knows no boundaries !. Tell Him I'm coming !.

There's so much going for this movie with vastly separate lives of two veteran outlaw men : ageing Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda , colliding in an interweaving story of killings , revenge , violence and redemption , being well written by screenwriter Lem Dobbs . Stirring , fun and as effortlessly assured , in its own relativity short budget way , as ¨out of Sight¨, this consistly attractive, imaginatively comic film milks the fish-out-water formula for all it is worthwhile , and anything else . Adding colorful images and enjoyable soundtrack by Cliff Martinez that are perfectly in keeping with the light , relaxed mood . The performances are all terrific , while director Soderbergh seemingly effortless mastery of his medium goes from strength to strength , while stories cross and collide . Sixties icons Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda show that age has not whitered their performance chops in this vengeance thriller in which an extremely volatile ex-convict investigates the death of his daughter learning she was involved with self-important record producer . Soderbergh's flashblack sequences make use of footage Ken Loach's 1967 movie ¨Poor Cow¨ which featured Stamp as a young thief named Wilson along with Carol White . Main cast is frankly well and it's given sterling support cast . Terence Stamp gives a nice acting as an ex-con , fresh out of prison , goes to L. A. to try to learn who murdered his daughter . While Peter Fonda is fine as a mobster who has an obvious fondness for young girls . They're well accompanied by good secondaries with plenty of familiar faces , such as : Lesley Ann Warren , Luis Guzmán , Barry Newman , Joe Dallesandro , Nicky Katt , Amelia Heinle , Melissa George , William Lucking , among others.

The picture was well photographed by cameraman Edward Lachman and competently directed by Steven Soderbergh , the result is a strong entry for thriller buffs . Soderbergh's customary playfulness with the narrative deftly underlines his ordinary trademarks. Soderbergh made such films as Kafka (1991), King of the Hill (1993), The Underneath (1995) and Gray's Anatomy (1996), which many believed to be disappointments. In 1998, Soderbergh made Out of sight (1998) , his most critically and commercially successful film since Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). Then, in 2000, Soderbergh directed two major motion pictures that are now his most successful films to date : Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000). These films were both nominated for Best Picture Oscars at the 2001 Academy Awards and gave him the first twin director Oscar nomination in almost 60 years and the first ever win. He won the Oscar for Best Director for Traffic (2000) at the 2001 Oscars . Rating : 6.5/10 . Notable , better than average , well worth watching.

A truly rewarding movie for the patient viewer.

[perper · 9/10 · 24 November 2000]

Low-key thriller/drama about an ex-con seeking revenge on the man that caused his daughters death. That's the surface of this very interesting and fascinating movie from director Soederbergh. There's more than meets the eye, and the patient viewer will be highly rewarded.

This is, in my point of view, a film about all our efforts to review our own lives - i.e. trying to make memories of our past fit in with the reality of today. To try to understand all sides of an event between two people; how actions we take, and decisions we make, makes a difference in the long run in our lives.

Wonderfully directed and edited, this movie is really alive, and shines with various tricks and treats of pure movie magic. The score is perfect, and the acting is great (Stamp in the lead is amazing). The way the film makers intertwine dialogue and voice over is fascinating, and reminds me of the films by French movie makers in the sixties (the French "New Wave").

Obviously not in everyone's taste since this movie is quite demanding in attention and pace, this is still one of the best films ever from director Soederbergh. Rating: 9/10.

We don't all speak like that.

[valleyjohn · 7/10 · 8 December 2020]

When I see Londoners portrayed in Hollywood I almost want to apologise . Being a Londoner myself I cringe when characters speak to Americans in the local London dialect . It's wouldn't happen and we don't all speak like that anyway!

Terrance Stamp plays one of those extremely volatile and dangerous Cockneys who goes to Los Angeles to find the man he considers responsible for for his daughter's death .

Despite the over exaggerating accent I really liked this . Stamp's character is certainly unhinged and you definitely feel he has nothing to lose . He's out for revenge and nothing is going to stop him

I love the way we see flashbacks to when he was a young man . The flashbacks are taken from Ken Loach's first ever film - Poor Cow and because it's actually stamp as a man in his twenties, it's about as genuine as you are ever going to get .

This is one of Steven Soderbergh's lesser known films and while it's not perfect , it certainly doesn't look out of place with his back catalogue.

Stylish and Entertaining

[davidklun · 9/10 · 29 March 2014]

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 Film spolt by the acting of Terence Stamp

[CharltonBoy · 6/10 · 1 March 2002]

Watching this film i feel like apologising to our American friends across the water for one of the worst acting performances i have seen by a British actor for a very long time. Let me explain that i am from London and i dont think i have ever met a person who speaks in the accent that Terence stamp chose to in The Limey. His attempt at being a wide boy Cockney is so bad that it spoilt what is not a bad film. The story is simple and easy to follow and the film flows throughout......until Stamp opens his mouth. The other actors such as Luiz Guzman and Peter Fonda do there best to pick up the pieces of Stamps awful performance but it never recovers. Watch this for the worst cockney steryotype since Dick van dyke! 6 out of 10.

Russian Montage gets an upgrade

[Agent10 · 10/10 · 29 April 2002]

I always thought the Russian Montage Theory was too outdated for modern cinema, but Steven Soderbergh had other ideas. The Limey had one of the more interesting editing styles I have ever seen, which is why it probably threw so many people in a loop. Its too bad we will never see another film like this from Soderbergh, considering he's probably going to keep making films like Oceans 11. Terence Stamp was especially good in this film, and Luis Guzman provided one of the best screen roles by a Mexican-American. What I especially enjoyed about this movie wasn't just the unique editing style, it was how it affected the emotional standpoint within the movie. You felt distanced, unsure how to look at this film due to the range of images passing before your eye. One of the more unappreciated films of 1999, especially when one looks at the amazing body of work which came out that year.

B-Limey.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 11 March 2013]

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.

Not particularly bad, but don't get your hopes up

[pfgpowell-1 · 5/10 · 25 December 2012]

A phrase I have used before in these 'ere reviews is 'there's less to this than meets the eye, and risking devaluing it through overuse I'll use it again about The Limey as it sums the film up extremely well. Stephen Soderbergh is a darling director of cineastes and for all I know he was attempting something far more subtle than what we are ostensibly presented with. If so, it was far, far too subtle for this viewer. I read elsewhere that The Limey is a Soderbergh meditation on retirement, but I don't got for that at all. The Limey is, to be blunt, a straightforward account of how Terence Stamp's limey ex-con travels to Los Angeles to seek revenge for the murder of his daughter.

Why he had decided it was murder - it was, of course, because this is Hollywood life not real life - is never made clear at all. All in all The Limey is a somewhat banal and unconvincing thriller about a man taking his revenge, but Soderbergh attempts to raise it to a higher plain with the use of artsy-fartsy editing. It doesn't come off. The Limey is by no means bad, but neither is it much of an interesting film either. Go and see it by all means as it is entertaining enough, but there are enough films with the same theme as this which are, quite simply, better, artsy-fartsy editing or no artsy-fartsy editing. I might well have missed the point, but if I have, I suspect the point didn't really amount to a row of beans, and, anyway, I really don't care.

Proustian Out and Back

[tedg · 17 February 2001]

Spoilers herein.

Soderbergh deserves respect, as much for his failures (`Brokovich,' `Traffic') as his successes (this, `Sight,' `Videotape'). When he experiments, it is with simultaneous layers of different kinds involving the eye, the mind, time, remembrance.

Here he works on small, intimate layers, small visions of the future (and possible futures), persistent large memories from the past. All is handed with a shifting perspective -- the camera is nowhere because it is everywhere -- you are not eavesdropping, the limelight is on you. Unless you insist on driving, this editing is mind-expanding -- literally -- because he places you all around simultaneously.

This is such a controlled little film, one wonders why Soderbergh is so irregular. I believe it is because he crafts his vision to the peculiar conditions of the narrative. He knows to replicate the last victory would be impossible (listen up Coppola!) so why try? Move on. He deserves as much respect, I believe, for the failures as well as solid gems like this.

A cocktail of good actors plus stylish direction and editing does not equal a great movie

[JuguAbraham · 7/10 · 15 August 2001]

I like Soderbergh's style-it takes you back to European filmmaking of the 60s and 70s. If I were in Soderbergh's shoes I too would like to reminisce about Point Blank, Get Carter, the Killers and the Ken Loach movies. But is it enough to put together great actors, use intelligent editing, some above average songs of the 60s, to make a top-notch movie today?

There are flaws all over. The character of Lesley Ann Warren is never developed but used to develop the title character. The much talked about cockney accent and the `you wrote me (sic)' dialogue does not sound natural with Stamp. When he spoke his lines it was as though he was making an effort to do so. Stamp is great when he does not talk much-recall `Far from the Madding Crowd'. He has great screen presence. But he is not a Richard Burton who can mesmerize you with spoken words.

And the violence-was it necessary? Point Blank, the Killers and Get Carter had better violent effect even though their directors did not show as much violence, especially in the first half. I feel Soderbergh and violence do not fit-he is best doing what he does best documenting characters on celluloid, e.g.., the superb DEA head and Wilson dialogue scene and the scenes in the economy class window seat in the airplane with mere voice-overs.

Soderbergh remains an important director for an intelligent viewer today among contemporary US directors. However, `The Limey' does not prove that he has developed much beyond what he had already achieved in `sex, lies and videotape'. In fact this film shows his inadequacies.

Well-directed and acted; a solid crime drama

[Mr-Fusion · 7/10 · 1 September 2013]

Terrence Stamp is truly a marvel to watch as the hard bastard main character of "The Limey". He stalks across the screen, barreling head-on into thugs, driven by a thirst for answers. His daughter didn't just fall asleep at the wheel. And someone had better start talking.

The low-key tone of Soderbergh's stylish and hard-nosed crime thriller doesn't deter it from resonating with its powerful use of imagery, flashbacks and non-linear narrative. The cast is great from top to bottom; Peter Fonda, Lesley Ann Warren, Barry Newman and (most surprisingly) Luis Guzman.

And there's a lingering sadness that remains long after the movie's over. We can credit Stamp for that, through his melancholy and impressive acting job.

7/10

The Limey

[henry8-3 · 6/10 · 23 May 2020]

Stamp plays a cockney tough guy who comes to the US to find and kill the man who killed his daughter.

A very simple premise, uncluttered by twists and turns and featuring pleasant, unflashy characters. At the centre of all this is the charismatic Stamp - albeit his cockney is very Dick Van Dyke, with lots of 'apples and pears' which is irritating - who you can't take your eyes off. An interesting and enjoyable oddity from Soderbergh.

Love in unexpected places

[bliss66 · 10/10 · 12 April 2003]

Somewhere between Out of Sight and the hype of the Erin Brockovich/Traffic double-punch, Soderbergh made this diamond of a film. Terence Stamp is the gem at the centre of it, his beautiful face, always a cinematic treasure, a virtual masterclass in film acting. How this performance went ignored is beyond me but maybe that punishment is fitting for the career criminal he plays.

He is Wilson who after finishing a nine-year sentence "at her Majesty's leisure" goes to L.A. to discover how his daugher, Jenny, met her end while he was in the big house and to avenge her death. Peter Fonda plays her former lover, a wicked, soulless record producer who was big in the sixties and both actors trade on the ghosts of their cinematic pasts to striking effect; particularly Stamp, as footage from his 1967 film, Poor Cow (directed by Ken Loach), is repurposed and edited into the film's ever-shifting timescape. (It is a credit to Soderbergh that he would dare to use another filmmaker's footage and make it so central to his own, even using Loach's footage for his closing shots. In Soderbergh's hands it shows that he is first and foremost a storyteller instead of a shallow egotist and it plays like a grand, cinematic homage to his star.)

Soderbergh shuffles time and Wilson's life like a deck of cards yet always keeps the story moving forward--the editing by Sarah Flak is a marvel. It's a lovely, startling effect; rather than weigh the narrative down with a number of plodding, onerous details, this style keeps the thing as light as a souffle yet full of implications as we imagine the ways and necessities of Wilson telling and retelling, hashing over his life, representing and misrepresenting his actions or inaction. These are the lies he tells himself, the truth he can live with. It's completely engaging and frees the viewer to imagine the surrounding details and circumstances however they like. He certainly couldn't have done it with anyone but Stamp, who is solid throughout; his stillness and his beautiful blue, crystalline eyes like placid pools of water that mask a depth of feeling and a lifetime of regret. That we empathise with an ignoble savage like Wilson at all is purely down to Stamp's controlled, unsentimental performance. Stamp's Wilson doesn't make apologies. Terence Stamp is iconic precisely because of the films he chose to make, particularly after Schlesinger's Far From The Madding Crowd when he could've done anything but went to work with Loach, Pasolini and Fellini instead. Like his co-star Fonda, who also spent many years in the wilderness, Stamp's performance in The Limey stands as a long-promised return to form, which he'd been hinting at for years.

There's great support from Luis Guzman, Lesley Ann Warren (as an L.A. acting coach, who suggests in her few short scenes with Stamp a potentially epic romance), Barry Newman as Fonda's henchman and the startlingly fresh Amelia Henle who shows that, yes, there is an art to playing "the girlfriend." (Joe Dallesandro is in there somewhere as well in some capacity but is completely unrecognisable.) If the slight bit in the middle lacks the polish of the beginning and the end (it appears a large subplot about two hitmen must've been jettisoned in the editing room), the dialogue still crackles throughout, with Stamp--as a one-man amalgam of London's east end--throwing off Cockney rhyming slang ("China" "plates" thus "mates") and reminding us of what made London swing in the '60's. Very stylish, Soderbergh's control of the emotional depth of the story is impressive, as is the acting--as always in his films. Deserves a much wider audience.

Slightly hectic - especially when considering the name of the director

[BeneCumb · 7/10 · 20 December 2012]

Well, the composition/editing is peculiar: narrative structure of the movie is presented in disjointed flashbacks by the main character Wilson during his plane trip home to England, and there are frequent dialog and background sound from previous or future scenes juxtaposed with a current scene. Luckily, all this is not too confusing and provides the movie with extra value and distinction. Terence Stamp as Wilson and Luis Guzmán as Eduardo Roel are catchy, but the total cast is not evenly strong (as in Ocean-series or Out of Sight, for example). And the beginning of the movie is more promising, then it becomes an rather ordinary crime movie with an ordinary and predictable ending.

However, it is still better than many similar movies and its duration is 1 hour 20 minutes only. Find the time and see!

Look, if you don't get this movie, just stick to the Hollywood fluff

[dbushik · 8/10 · 16 September 2004]

I'm sorry, but I'm really not going a comment on this film so much as comment on some of the other comments I've seen here. People complaining that they couldn't follow the narration or don't understand why the main character doesn't enact his revenge, I really don't know much what to say other than for you it's probably best to just stick with the Hollywood fluff pics where the male star lead always makes it in the end with the female star lead and there's plenty of explosions and bright flashy images to keep you distracted from the fact there's no plot, no decent dialog, no character growth, and no appreciation of film making as art. If your point of reference is recalling the fantastic ground breaking story telling tools of True Lies, well, you're hopeless.

This was an incredible piece dealing not with revenge or action or any of the surface issues used to tell the story, but actually about a man realizing how his decisions in life impacted his daughter. It's about personal growth. In the end, he, himself, is ultimately the one he's seeking revenge against. There is a good speech he gives about mid way through the movie while talking to the DEA agent that clearly explains why he doesn't kill the Fonda character. You have to know what matters and when. When he comes to the end and realizes where and when he stands, ready to kill, it's very clear it's no longer the issue he needs to deal with, so he moves on.

And one more thing about the way this story is told with the flash forwarding technique, sometimes you just have to sit back and watch a film. Not spend most of the movie being confused and dissatisfied over what you can't pin down and put into linear sense before you've seen the whole thing, but just sit back and let the director and writer do their thing and take it in. When they're done with their work, it will be clear (unless you spend 90 minutes furrowing your brow and resisting of course...).

I mean, Pulp Fiction is an incredible movie, but did you spend the whole thing confused and upset over what Pumkin and Honey Bunny were doing in the opening scene or how it would fit into the film to the point of not understanding the rest of it? No, you just take the scene in and move on to the next one, and when you reach the end, it makes sense.

Not bad but certainly overrated.

[deloudelouvain · 6/10 · 19 April 2020]

To me The Limey is just a bit overrated. I'm not saying it's a bad movie but in this genre I watched much better movies that got a much lower rating. I do like revenge movies, nothing beats the feeling of taking justice into your own hands, but in this case it's just a bit bland and overacted. I do like watching Terence Stamp and Luis Guzmán, they're both actors that always deliver, but I saw them in much better movies, the same with Peter Fonda. The movie is a bit slow, predictable and some fight scenes weren't that good. It's certainly not the best work of Steven Soderbergh. Do I regret watching The Limey? No, certainly not but I wouldn't watch it a second time, for that it's just not good enough.

Last addition to the 'Get Carter' canon, but done in such an intelligent and sophisticated way, that i loved every second of it!

[paolo_bf · 10/10 · 3 July 2008]

Sodemberg in good form, while Mr. Stamp hams it up as your Stepney old china gangster giving a performance which is both deceptively simple and sophisticated with a hint of method thrown in for good measure. Peter Fonda, as the suave record producer Terry Valentine, is the perfect impersonation of a hippie growing old disgracefully and on Big Sur backdrop, reminds me of one of the Beach Boys (Brian Wilson possibly...who probably was a good mate of his in the good old days anyway) "the 60s were just like a dream with its own language and locations which didn't really exist, and then you woke up... not just the 60s really, just 66 and a little bit of 67.." showing off to his new starlet girlfriend... There is a rather moving moment toward the end of the film which brings to the fore the essential human frailty, how underneath the mask of our 'adult' certainties there is often a confused little child... And finally, if you like thrillers like myself, this movie is that rare thing, an intelligent sophisticated one, which keeps you on the edge of your seat for a couple of hours, without feeling, like unfortunately happens with a lot of similar productions, that when the credits start to roll, you have been through 120 minutes of disposable entertainment... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Doesn't live up to it's critical acclaim. Disappointing.

[=G= · 6/10 · 9 January 2001]

There's a theory in film which suggests that if you can't tell a story front to back without flashbacks and fast-forwards, jump cuts, special effects, etc. and make it interesting, perhaps you haven't got much of a story to tell. And so it is with "The Limey", a shallow story which Sonderbergh manages to dress up with camera and editing but really has very little to offer. Nonetheless, it's better than average as good guy/bad guy movies go and worth a watch if expectations are kept low and critical acclaim ignored.

One of the most boring films I've ever seen

[daggersineyes · 1/10 · 18 July 2013]

I'm getting to the point now where I'm distrusting the ratings on this site because so many movies with above 7 ratings turn out to be boring pretentious tripe.

Honestly, there was nothing in this movie that redeemed it. The acting was almost non-existent, the editing was clumsy and bizarre (possibly in some mis-guided attempt to appear "artsy") and the plot..... well there really wasn't one. There was certainly no action, no suspense, no thrills, no warmth, no likable characters, no intrigue, no message, no interesting dialogue, no gripping relationships or drama .... just a lot of repetition of boring scenes (for what purpose is beyond me), blank stares for long periods of time (possibly an attempt to build drama but all it did was build frustration with how awful the film was) and lots of pointless badly written wooden conversation between characters.

I got just over half way through and felt proud of myself for having suffered so long but at that point I started skipping bits of the film. I started carefully, only skipping small sections and soon realised I could easily jump several minutes at a time and miss nothing at all. Finally made a huge skip to the last 10 mins or so. YAY! I thought, a bit of action! Even tho I couldn't care less what happened to anyone. I was just hoping for relief to the tedious boredom. But my hope was short-lived and actually changed to anger because the ending made not one bit of sense in the context of the rest of the movie. It was lame and silly.

I fail to see how anyone can give this a score above 2. I might have to start watching movies rated below 5 and maybe I'll have better luck. So dear reviewers, slow, boring and badly written/acted/shot/edited/produced does NOT equal meaningful and artsy. It just equals a waste of everyone's time.

Conclusion: Don't' bother. Watch In Bruges instead. That's one of the few movies with a decent rating that actually deserves it.