Layer Cake (2005)

I love this movie so much

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

First project for Matthew Vaughn ("Stardust", "Kick-Ass", "Kingman") as director, he had previously played only roles as producer, and this is the first proof of his great talent as such. "Layer Cake" has all the features that have made Vaughn a very influential personality in the world of entertainment cinema, especially in recent years; also here the director is often dynamic, very fluid, fast, almost frenetic, extremely original and imaginative, especially in the appropriate but never predictable use of certain tools to create sequences with a strong visual and emotional impact thanks to beautiful camera movements and long shots. A script certainly interesting and engaging, as well as well designed but that in its being quick to keep up with the (masterful) editing and directing, lose a few pieces. Given also the considerable amount of details and information that are added with the advancing of time and that make the story more and more complex, more "calm" moments would have been pleasing to be able to rework the whole and be able to better understand the plot that in some points get confused. This is why the film although technically is incredible and the interpretations are quite satisfying, in the end it gave me the feeling of being a half-exploited opportunity that, yes, in general is more than sufficient, but that if better managed from the narrative point of view could really have left a more significant sign in the "modern" cinema, it could have turned into a small pearl destined to become a cult.

First of all, I have to say I knew nothing of this movie, except Daniel Craig was in it and was directed by Matthew Vaughn (one of the main reasons I watched this movie). I was totally surprised with this movie. It was awesome!It tells the story of an unnamed person, XXXX (Daniel Craig), a drug- dealer who wants to retire from his job, but he receives two final assignments from his boss that will make his and his partners life very difficult.The story is well introduced to us, as well as the main character, and from the first minutes I got hooked into the story and I couldn't stop watching it. One of the main reasons to watch this movie is Daniel Craig. He is awesome in his role of the cocaine dealer, and I'm sure that from this role, he got the one of the following Bond movies, but his character in here is nothing similar like Bond. Also the other actors were great in their roles, even if it were small. From Michael Gambon, George Harris, Colm Meaney or Tom Hardy to actors like Ben Wishaw or Sienna Miller they all played a good part in their roles and added a lot to the story. I specially liked Michael Gambon in the role of Eddie Temple and George Harris in the role of Morty.One of the best things of this movie is all the editing, camera work and cinematography. Matthew Vaughn did an awesome job in here capturing all the places they visit in London and also capturing the feeling of the dark places of the city. All of this is mixed with some truly amazing scenes, like the one with Morty hitting one character in a bar, which is show from the perspective of the victim, another one where XXXX infiltrates in the house of one of the characters during the night, the great opening of the movie or the amazing (and surprising) ending of the movie. All of this accompanied at parts with awesome pop-rock songs and at other parts with the amazing score by Ilan Eshkeri & Lisa GerrardI truly recommend this movie who anyone to want to watch a entertaining movie with a good writing, great performances and some plot twists that will keep you staring at this movie through all of it.

Layer Cake is a British crime-drama about a successful cocaine dealer who must do two difficult tasks for his boss before he can retire. Layer Cake showed a lot of harsh realities about being in the crime world and how Daniel Craig's character tries so hard to complete his tasks so he can retire knowing that trying to drop out of the crime world is a really hard thing to do. Layer Cake was an excellent movie and one of the Daniel Craig's best movies before he was Bond. Great directorial debut of Matthew Vaughn, his style has grown in 4 films since his recent film was X-Men First Class. I wonder how I managed to miss this one when it came out. It may just have been an oversight as the market was filled with cockney gangster films back then and I wasn't that impressed with them.

Daniel Craig does well in the role of a middleman between the higher-echelon drug dealers and the users. He's asked by his superior to do one last job. And at that point I got lost. I wish these blokes would learn to speak proper English so that a educated end tacitful man such as myself could unnerstand them. I mean, really. "Child" comes out "chow." And "Pal" becomes "pow." It's pretty violent, although the violence isn't dwelt on with the kind of relish we find in American horror movies. Okay, a lopped off head here and there but they're tastefully half hidden under the blue ice and soft drinks in the cooler.Craig is constantly referred to as "a smart fellow." That, at any rate, is what the superb Michael Gambon calls him. Geeze, Gambon could easily be on Mount Rushmore with much alteration in size -- a monument of a face made up of an infinite number of wrinkles and folds of flesh.Others have compared Craig to Steve McQueen in "Bullet" but I don't know why. Craig gets the stuffing beaten out of him, and he hates guns, and he bleats with fear when they hang him over the edge of a rooftop. But, though he may not be cool, there is a faint physical resemblance to McQueen.There are some nice directorial touches too, as well as some crummy ones, as in the scene in which the camera takes the POV of a victim being beaten half to death by a huge black guy.Definitely worth a watch if you can follow the twisted plot and the dialog that serves as trailway markers.