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The Limey Details

1999 Certificate 18
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 2399 members

With THE LIMEY, director Steven Soderbergh has crafted a stylish revenge thriller that also contains a refreshing sense of humor. Wilson (Terence Stamp), a tough English ex-con, travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death, which he is convinced was not accidental. After meeting Ed (Luis Guzman), a friend of his .. Read more

Starring Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Luis Guzman, Lesley Ann Warren
Director Steven Soderbergh
Genres Drama

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The Limey

With THE LIMEY, director Steven Soderbergh has crafted a stylish revenge thriller that also contains a refreshing sense of humor. Wilson (Terence Stamp), a tough English ex-con, travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death, which he is convinced was not accidental. After meeting Ed (Luis Guzman), a friend of his daughter's who sent him a letter informing him of her passing, he finds out about her affair with Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), a drug-dealing, money-laundering record producer, and begins to hunt him down. Partnered with Ed as well as Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren), his daughter's former voice coach, Wilson encounters a near-fatal beating, is thrown from a building window, survives a dangerous car chase, and battles an army of L.A.'s toughest criminals. Soderbergh's follow-up to the critically beloved OUT OF SIGHT finds him in similar neo-noir waters, but this time he utilizes atypical editing and narrative technique for the film's entirety. In a striking move, he ingeniously incorporates footage of Stamp as a young man in Ken Loach's 1967 film POOR COW for truly realistic flashbacks. As the fuming Wilson--a hell-bent, white-haired avenging angel--Stamp proves, once again, to be a truly magnetic screen presence.

Starring Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Luis Guzman, Lesley Ann Warren, Barry Newman, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Amelia Heinle, Melissa George, William Lucking
Director Steven Soderbergh
Studio FILM 4
Run time DVD: 1 hr 25 mins
Certificate Certificate 18
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Hearing-impaired English
Released DVD: 12 May 2008
Production year: 1999
Format DVD

  • Critics' reviews (6) of The Limey

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    The past lives of Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda underline and illuminate this Steven Soderbergh thriller. Stamp plays Wilson, an English ex-con out for revenge, and Fonda is Valentine, a millionaire record producer whom Wilson thinks caused the death of his daughter. Stamp is shown as a much younger man in a flashback taken from Ken Loach's Poor Cow (1967), while Fonda is now of an age where he has to hire minders to do his dirty work for him. With its Chandleresque dialogue and machine gun resonance, this requiem for the hard man is in the top flight of gangster movies.

    • Radio Times
    • Posted 29 Jan 2006
  • 1 stars out of 4

    A revenge thriller told in an elliptical manner that does not quite conceal the familiarity and predictability of its story.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
    • Posted 02 Mar 2006

  • Most helpful member's review of The Limey

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  • 10 out of 11 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    The idea was good...

    but the execution is painful to watch: all that talent and money going to waste.

    Terrible acting by Terence Stamp: his accent may convince a Californian but to a Londoner it sounds like a lovey trying to play the hard man. You'll want to laugh but will be too uninterested to bother.

    The bad acting is matched by the self-conscious and pretentious approach taken by the director which just further hinders the viewer from engaging with the story and the main character.

    Avoid.

      • A customer from London, England
      • Posted 13 Aug 2004 01:02

  • Most recent members' review of The Limey

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  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star [Highly rated reviewer]

    BLIMEY!

    Not at all one of Steven Soderbergh 's best. No where near.

    Some amazing photography, great locations but there the 'story ends'...

    Stamp is - or has been - a great actor. In this he is awful. He really LOOKS the part, however he is totally unconvincing, stuck in a mainly one-dimensional character that he is vainly attempting to make 2D.

    The flash backs and cross cutting are at first intreguing and amusing, but get annoying very quickly. I, in no way feel that movies should be linear in their plotting, but this was distracting and hindered the storytelling.

    Avoid.

      • crackedActa from Newton Abbot, Devon
      • Posted 15 Jan 2008 16:56

  • News and features

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    The Underneath

    Gorgeous George

    • 05 Mar 2007

    Back in 1997, George Clooney was still a TV heartthrob first, a movie star second. He had just made a $100 million blockbuster - Batman & Robin - but he knew it sucked. He headlined a couple of competent A-list pictures, One Fine Day and The Peacemaker, but neither of them was better than average. 'I was being held to a higher yardstick, and I realised I better hold myself to a higher standard,' he said, looking back. ound this time, the director Steven Soderbergh was in a deep funk. His debut Read more

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by: jason whyte from Renfrew

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    • The Limey

    • The Limey
      With THE LIMEY, director Steven Soderbergh has crafted a stylish revenge thriller that also contains a refreshing sense of humor. Wilson (Terence Stamp), a tough English ex-con, travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death, which he is convinced was not accidental. After meeting Ed (Luis ...