The Limey Movie Review

The Limey (1999)

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Written by: Lem Dobbs
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzman, Nicky Katt
Rated: R
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Plot
After he is released from prison, an extremely volatile and dangerous English ex-con travels to Los Angeles to find the man he considers responsible for his estranged daughter's death.

Verdict
This is a mixed bag. It's yet another entry into the revenge genre, but Terrence Stamp and a quirky cast of characters help distinguish it. The editing is inventive but skews to confusing. It feels like a throwback, a movie from the seventies remade in a modern time.
It depends.

Review
Terrence Stamp is excellent in this, playing a character somewhere between the elderly vigilante Michael Caine in Harry Brown (2009) and the unstoppable Liam Neeson in Taken (2008). Stamp elevates this movie.

This skips the runway and jumps right into the action with Wilson (Stamp) hunting down the man responsible for his daughter's death. In one of his first scenes we don't know his capabilities, but we soon find out. It's a nice twist as it seems Wilson's journey might be over at the first stop.

The Limey - A throwback revenge film.

The editing is inventive, looping voice over and flash backs together. It feels like a stream of consciousness. We see Wilson's thoughts as they flit through his mind. It can be disorienting at first as it's atypical.
Footage from Stamp's earlier movie Poor Cow (1967) serves as flashback fodder as he remembers his daughter. It's a neat trick that I'm surprised we don't see occur more often in film. At first I thought it might be makeup, but makeup can't be that good.

We get cockney rhyming slang that reminded me of Ocean's Eleven (2001), another Soderbergh directed film. Of course the slang has to be explained. Wilson refers to someone as china. China refers to china plate which rhymes with mate. This reminded me of Don Cheatle's line in Ocean's Eleven when he refers to a bit of rubble and explains that rubble refers to the Flintstone's Barney Rubble which rhymes with trouble. Could anyone figure out the slang without the explanation? I doubt it, but it's also fun. I still quote the Barney Rubble line.

Stamp is chasing Fonda, a drug smuggler involved with his daughter. Of course this movie ends in a big shoot out. This has an indie feel that makes it unique enough to be enjoyable.