The Limey (1999)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Powerful

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Steven Soderberg is a maverick of a filmmaker and this is one instance of his going off the track to get what he deems is the right form of expression. In the limey Terence Hill goes to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death- fair and simple. Except the way by which Soderberg shows us the entire ordeal- which includes flashback of a young Stamp taken from actual outtakes of his older films- is what is endearing and makes this film rise above any other revenge action film. Terence Stamp is excellent and a case of choosing an artist rather than a movie star to play a character.

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.

I wrote my summary line after reading reviews from people who hated this movie. I guess if you can only appreciate slam-bang zombie apocalypses then you might be bored by "The Limey," but most grownups will probably enjoy it. (Don't get me wrong, I like zombie apocalypses too, just not all the time.)Others have already talked about the plot, which I found believable enough for a movie. The super-hot Terence Stamp plays Wilson perfectly, and I loved how the director used Stamp's performance in "Poor Cow" as a "frontstory" for his relationship with his daughter Jenny, played, only in photos, by Melissa George.The rest of the cast is also pretty good, including Adhara, Terry Valentine's nymphet girlfriend, a young Denise Richards lookalike named Amelia Heinle who seems as if she might be able to act were she not always either in a pool or a bathtub. Peter Fonda was eerily creepy as an amoral record producer whose main attraction is his money. (In one of the movie's best lines, Adhara says to him: "You're not specific enough to be a person. You're more like--a vibe." So true.)A special shout-out to Nicky Katt, who--no pun intended--killed it as a hapless hit-man. A small part, but one of the little joys of the movie.Another joy: Terry Valentine's two gorgeous houses, one in LA with a pool cantilevered over an open canyon, and one at Big Sur. if I'm reading the box office right, the budget for this movie was $9 million, but it only grossed about $4 million. Truly sad if so.

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.