Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful
Review: A marvelous, tight little film, eighty-eight minutes long, that's stylish from the very opening shots of a paunchy retired gangster (Ray Winstone) frying by his swimming pool under a blistering Meditteranean sun, his tan a painful, crustacean red. We immediately fall into bliss with him, and dread the moment when his idyll is shattered by the arrival of Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), another gangster come to pressure him into one last job. These men are the life of the film, and their remarkable, bristly scenes together carry it to the finish line. The lengthy first act, as Kingsley prowls Winstone's Spanish villa like a mountain lion, his menace skyrocketing at an alarming speed, is brilliantly taut. For a crime film crossed with a wickedly black comedy, Sexy Beast is a dazzling exercise in substance and style. Glazer approaches the material with a flashy, artistic cockiness that finds and hits all of the right notes. Kingsley's visceral portrayal is the best thing in the whole show; he is at once vicious, charming, impulsive, feline.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece in Dark Humor
Review: This movie is a must see! Kingsley's snarling performance alone deserves an academy. The movie takes place with Gal relaxing beside his pool in his Spanish Villa. A boulder comes tumbling down and nearly kills him. Then what comes at him next... much worse that the boulder...his ex-boss (played by Ben Kingsley)who wants him to take on another "job". This movie is funny, scarey and one that you won't forget!
Rating: 
Summary: Second best movie I saw last year.
Review: Full disclosure: the best movie I saw last year was Mulholland Drive. That's where I'm coming from. Sexy Beast is a fantastic movie, and I'm shocked by how many of the folks in the Amazon reviews used "shallow," "predictable," and "standard" in their negative reviews. These people are NOT GETTING IT. The movie is a carefully structured, impressionistic character study, focusing on the vulnerabilities and strengths we gain when we love another person. I was blown away when I saw it. I've watched it ten times since I got the DVD, several times with the very funny, very smart commentary by Sir Ben Kinglsey and the movie's producer. Buy it. Buy it now.
Rating:
Summary: A Refreshing Character-Driven Heist Film
Review: The film is a psychological character study disguised as a heist film. The dream sequences with the rabbit and Don Logan himself embody the subconscious fear and shame that people have. Don Logan is a walking metaphor for this subconscious fear - he is a man without inhibitions, strangely Tourettic: an Id personified. He forces people to confront their pasts and inferiority complex in a horrifyingly painful and gleeful manner. There's nothing else like it in my memory of other films. It's a crime that Kingsley didn't win the Oscar for the role of Don Logan. I don't recall ever seeing such a forthrightly menacing performance from anyone in movies. There's fine acting by everyone involved. The writing is superb - the dialogue is tough and crisp and poetically underwritten. The director Glazer understands well that tension is at its most unbearably taut point when the silence reaches its deepest, most awkward point. The nervous energy of suspense of some scenes in this film is awful and intense. The story of a main character Gal, a heistman who is hapless and in love, is touching. Through it all, it's his story of love that tempers the violence of the film. It's a great move on the writer's part to choose this character's story as the main through-line. The DVD feature with Kingsley and the producer's commentary is enlightening. It's a gorgeous disc all around.
Rating: 
Summary: Not sure why it won awards
Review: This is a stylish movie with a lot of nice pieces that don't fit together. Most of the movie is set in Spain, and the lush camerawork perfectly sets the main character's mood. However, like a boulder which comes from nowhere, Ben Kingsley's character descends on the little family unit of two retired criminals and their wives. Ben Kingsley's performance is similar to Denzel Washington's in Training Day -- they chew up every scene. The acting was good throughout. There's also some neat scenes where the main character imagines the devil. What's the problem with the movie? There's no character development, nobody really changes their minds or attitudes, the heist is boring, and the final destination of Ben Kingsley's character is no surprise (but the movie seems to think it is).
Rating:
Summary: Stylish and Steely
Review: Though he's only a supporting character, Ben Kingsley's Don Logan is truly the center of this smooooth gangster flick. You feel the threat of danger and SOMETHING about to happen whenever he's on screen and that anticipation is what makes "Sexy Beast" so imminently watchable. While Logan is indeed a fowl mouthed, juggernaut to be reckoned with, one also senses a hint of insecurity and uncertainty in his actions (ie; if he doesn't bulldog and curse everyone he feels threatened by, they'll somehow overpower him, so he levels them first with his bile-spewing temper) best shown in the bathroom mirror scene when he chides himself for revealing too much to Gal (Ray Winstone) in the bar, it's a powerhouse performance. Overall, "Sexy Beast" is a very good film to watch over and over as it has many layers beneath it's glossy, serene surface and requires great patience and attention from the viewer.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the hype...
Review: I purchased this movie because I believed, based on the reviews I read in the press, that this was a fantastic film. Don't get me wrong, Ben Kingsley does a superb acting job, and he is a terrifying gangser. Also, the other main actors in the film perform admirably. However, the story seems somewhat shallow, and the turns of events in the film are easily predictable. While the film is enjoyable, I do not believe it is as high caliber of a film as commonly portrayed.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done but Not Even One Character To Like
Review: My big problem with this film is that I detest every character in it. When this happens to me in watching a film, I end up not caring what happens to the characters in it or even how it ends. I would say that was my problem except that another UK gangster film, "The Long Good Friday," could have had the same effect on me and, instead, I found it to be one of the most brilliant films I've ever seen. This film contains style to spare and its techniques and effects are terrific. I'm specifically remembering any of the surreal sequences, including a surreal underwater love scene superimposed over the sky and another of a devil or demon in pursuit of the lead character in his nightmares. The movie would get an A if style were all. Ben Kingsley does a great acting job as a career criminal, portraying a thoroughly detestable excuse for a human being. His best scene is the one in the airport where he manages to turn his misbehavior aboard plane into a claim of his being sexually battered by airline personnel! The jist of the plot is that the Kingsley character must talk the lead character, played by Ray Winstone, into doing a heist of a bank vault. Kingsley's character lets loose with a torrent of abuse directed at Winstone and the people around him in order to achieve this end. One especially sensitive area that he uses is that Winstone's character is married to a former porn film star. I'd heard great things about this film but it did not live up to my expectations. Hubby liked it even less than I did and probably would give it only 1 or 2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Ghandi Goes Gangster!
Review: This delicious little British gangster flick is centered by the arrival of the Ben Kingsley character, Don Logan, who proceeds to put the fear of God in everyone. One mean little sob, Logan terrorizes his reluctant hosts and Kingsley is absolutely riveting and believable as this vicious rat-terrier of a man who will NOT take "No" for an answer. Ray Winstone is "Gal" Dove, a retired gangster living on the coast of Spain, accompanied by his wife and another retired hood & his wife. Gal has become relaxed, tan and comfortable in his retirement villa, and the announcement that Logan has called and is on his way to Spain puts a pall of dread on everyone. Justified dread as it turns out, because Logan has come to pull Gal out of retirement to do a job with his old crew in London. Gal wants none of it, but Logan is not going to be denied. Logan is the embodiment of the criminal's code that once "in" you can never get out. He is ruthless & determined and Kingsley's performance is a tour-de-force. There is a heist, there is the ever present threat of violence and the violence itself, and other characters and complications I won't spoil by divulging. Suffice it to say this is a neat piece of work, and well worth seeing. Ben Kingsley is one of my favorite actors. Superb in everything from his Oscar for the role I cite in the title, to Stern in Schindler's List, to the tormented chess teacher in Searching for Bobby Fisher, to the unforgettable Don Logan in this film. The man has range! One note: the British accents were so thick in this film and the dialogue so fast, I had to use the English subtitles at times (no joke). But, it was worth it. 4-1/2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it for the performances
Review: This is a run of the mill english crime drama. So why did I rate it five stars? Well this is one of those movies which you do not watch for the plot - you watch it for the performances of the entire cast. The stand out performance is Ben Kingsley as the nightmare of a gangster who comes to visit and refuses to leave. But the movie would not work without Ray Winstone who turns Gal the retired Gangster into a sympathetic character, a man who has found his own paradise and will do anything to defend it. And watch Ian McShanes scene stealing performance as gangster boss Teddy "Mr Black Magic" Bass.
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