Isaacs Picture Conclusions

LAYER CAKE (2004) FOUR TOP HATS

CAKE1“From the producers of “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” come Layer Cake, a very similarly themed crime movie that UPs the blood and body counts and, IMO, improves on the two Guy Ritchie jobs. I LOVED “LSaTSB” when it came out but I looked at it recently and it is dated even for 1998… the film coloring was trendy then but, after all of these years, we’ve come across better looking versions. I also LOVED Snatch when it came out and, watching it recently, aside from Brad Pitt, it didn’t do much for me. The comedy is just kind of….. old. Novel at the time but now it’s just… “I’ve already done it once”.  Kind of like going to a music concert (to me). “Wanna go see ***** this weekend?” Me: “Nah, I’ve been to one.”

Or like Zeus in Die Hard: With a Vengeance:

Kid: Zeus, there’s a white guy outside.
Zeus: I’ve seen one before.

But I think Layer Cake is still hip, even if it’s been ten years. Do people still use the word “hip”? Cool? Fab? Tits? I wouldn’t say Layer Cake is the tits but it’s pretty decent. BTW – Tom Hardy looks weird in this one.CAKE2Before he got super popular and made shit like DREAM HOUSE (he was AWESOME in THE JACKET), Daniel Craig leads the way as the perfect drug dealer. Foxy Sienna Miller is in here too. YUM YUM YUM. Craig wants to retire but his boss sends him on one last mission – to find the missing daughter of a rival, uppity English mob fellow. Along the way he runs into a bunch of Eastern European thugs and tons of boxes full of ecstasy.  Is he going to be able to retire? Are they going to toss him off the top of that building?? Will Sienna Miller show her buns????? Maybe all three!!!! BTW: Tom Hardy looks weird in this one.CAKE3I’m not paying 100% to this movie I have on in the background but I think they just played a song where the chorus was “I can smell your dick.” That seems kind of iffy for a mainstream movie so, if I’m wrong, I apologize but I’ve also just thought of the title for our next SHITFEST song. HMMMMM…..

“It’s that drunken, Irish prick
GOD DAMN, Boyd, I can SMELL your dick”

Or something….

CAKE4This also has a bunch of pretty quotable pieces of dialogue.

“Someone’s gonna get a fucking slap!”

“Fucking females is for Poofs.”

“In those days, being black was worse than being Irish.”

CAKE5 Oh well – this movie is pretty good – definitely worth a watch if you’ve never seen it. There are a lot worse ways to spend an hour and a half. See THIS post.

Also – WordPress was acting up a little bit yesterday afternoon (my time)… did you miss the big SHITFEST announcement yesterday?? If so – click HERE!!

70 comments

  1. Zoë

    Dear Spock Chop,

    This looks really good. It is on my watch list (since you went on and on and on on Twitter about it). Just taking a while to get to things cause of my studies and all that, but I will get there.

    I didn’t miss it. WHOOP FOR SHITFEST!!!!!!!!

    Love,

    JB

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  7. garylee828

    Isaacs,

    I watched this a while ago and thought it was pretty good. I don’t remember Tom Hardy being in it. I may have to revisit this one, someday. If you like Craig in this, you should give his first Bond role “Casino Royale” a try. Mads Mikkelsen plays the villain – and Eva Green plays the Bond girl.

    I know you’re not big on the James Bond franchise and I can see why as you and I both hate a lot of the mainstream stuff. I have never watched a Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones or Harry Potter film, and I never plan to (maybe an Indy Jones film, one day). I don’t like all the mainstream hype, just as you don’t.

    But you know that once in a while a mainstream film comes along and gets it right. Like “Captain America 2”. Well, “Casino Royale” is a bit of a darker Bond film – and it is not only my favorite Bond film of all time – but it is in my top 10 favorite films of all-time. The script is immaculate! Not a hair out of place. I think the script should be studied in screenwriting classes. It offers EVERYTHING! It’s the perfect blend of Crime, Action, Drama and Romance. It’s a flashback in the franchise and the story takes place as soon as Bond becomes a 00 agent and shows his first mission; he’s hotheaded, breaks protocol, and is always in hot water with his superior, played by the great Judi Dench. It shows how he becomes cold and distant as a person as he grows more comfortable in his agent role.

    Daniel Craig is the best Bond I’ve seen – and Mads is the best villain I’ve seen in the franchise. What’s so great about them is that neither character is over-the-top. Mads’ villain is more methodical and calculated than physically threatening. He acts with his eyes instead of a bunch of silly yelling like a lot of lame action villains. The tension between Bond and Mads is immense as they play a high-stake multi-million dollar poker game, where Mads is in debt. to some terrorists and the only way to repay them and live is to win this poker game – and Bond’s goal is to stop him from winning so that Mads doesn’t pay back the terrorists and fund them to carry out more acts of violence, etc.

    There are some really nice and surprising twists that occur that you most likely won’t see coming. The movie is pretty unpredictable and without spoiling anything, Mads does something to Bond that has never been done in the history of the franchise.

    I know you don’t think you’ll like it – but if you decided to give it a go, I will watch a recommendation of yours that I didn’t want to watch to be fair. Maybe “Galaxy Quest” or something else. That could be fun to do sometimes. I pick a movie for you to watch and you pick one for me and we have to watch. Hey, if you can survive that 70’s movie about the girls being taken captive in the barn…i think you can handle “Casino Royale”. lol.

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    • theipc

      OK – I’ll give it a go sometime – I sure didn’t like Skyfall though – I didn’t even finish it.

      As for Hardy – I mention here and on twitter that he looks weird young – and he does – it’s no wonder you missed him 🙂

      Right now I am watching something called In the House of Flies before some afternoon meetings. It’s not that good.

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      • garylee828

        Dude, I HATED Skyfall! It was such a disgrace to the franchise after “Casino Royale”. It was over-the-top and cheesy. I can’t believe how many WordPress bloggers gave it such high ratings. “Casino Royale” is not cheesy at all. It’s skillfully deliberate.

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      • theipc

        I KNOW – EVERYONE was going around giving it Ten Stars and shit. When I watched it (because The Mrs wanted to) i thought it was SOOOOOOOOOO lame. About half way in I was all “I’m going to bed”.

        Zoe just sent me a note backing you up on Casino – i’ll put it in my queue 🙂

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      • garylee828

        That’s what I was poking fun of that day on Film Hipster when he gave Skyfall such a high score. Dude, if you left Skyfall in the middle, you missed the ending which got even worse! It was total shitfest material!! lol.

        But the ending on “Casino Royale” is immaculate!!! I’m looking forward to your thoughts. 🙂

        And in case you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer:

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      • garylee828

        I did like to play with star wars action figures when I was a kid. But I thought the movie looked fake. lol.

        IN other news, WHAT ABOUT THE ENDING TO THAT GAME LAST NIGHT!!!??? Down 7 with 45 seconds to go, OKC goes on an 8-0 run to win!

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      • theipc

        I’m really NOT a guy who calls foul when refs blow a call – especially in football where there’s holding on EVERY play but last night’s game was a TOTAL make up for how the refs blew it in LA. That fourth quarter in LA was a JOKE. If they touched Girffin’s shirt they called foul and he went to the line. If you run over Reggie Jackson – no call. SO BAD and OBVIOUS.

        And you know I like Griffin – he’s from my city!

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      • garylee828

        The officiating is always fishy in the NBA, which is a turn-off. The only reason I can watch is b/c for some reason, one I don’t even know, I have always loved the sport of basketball – both playing and watching. I actually missed the 4th quarter of the LA-OKC game, but I totally believe you. I don’t think you’d make claims unless you had a legitimate reason. But I have to tell you, Westbrook took an asinine 3 pointer last night and was lucky the refs gave him the benefit and called the foul that allowed him to make 3 free throws. That was a terrible shot he forced up; he should have given the rock to KD. But it worked out, but that’s only one game and if he keeps playing like that it’s going to cost them the championship b/c too many bad decisions will cost you against San Antonio or Miami.

        But in the 2012 Finals, OKC was screwed by the refs. Every time OKC got momentum the refs would call a string of tick-tack fouls against OKC. LeBron would charge Harden and they’d call a foul against Harden. THAT is why Harden’s stats were so off in that series b/c he played on eggshells knowing they were calling a foul on him no matter what.

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      • theipc

        I use to gripe about officiating until Bob Stoops came around and was like “The game shouldn’t come down to how poorly the officials do. The team should execute better and not have to worry about that.”

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      • garylee828

        That’s true to an extent; but when 2 teams are very even, the contest can come down to a single play, and if the refs make a bogus call, then it can affect and manipulate the outcome…

        In game 3 of the 2012 Finals, OKC came out of halftime blowing up and went up by 10 and then within a minute KD was called for his 3rd and 4th foul. The 4th foul in particular was bogus. KD barely brushed Wade on a shot and KD was called for his 4th foul, that sent him to the bench – and as soon as KD went to the bench Miami exploded on them and went on a big run. By the time KD came back Miami had a sizable lead and KD was playing passive b/c no matter what defense he played he was constantly called for fouls.

        Just as you said what happened in game 4 of the current OKC-LA series…

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  10. garylee828

    BTW, I still plan to watch “The Machine” soon. I just got tied-up watching the draft over the weekend and all these playoff games.

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      • garylee828

        Ok, I know Screenkicker. Well, I may not be crazy about it, but when people get highly passionate about a movie I pay attention. I especially pay attention to you on here when you tell me you think I may like a film b/c you have a good idea what I like. I liked “May” a lot which came highly recommended by you and Tyson. Weird, off-beat film – just the way I like them. 🙂

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  11. table9mutant

    Never saw this but always kind of wanted to. And Sienna Miller is hot. But I doubt there was a song with those lyrics… ; ) Who knows! I’ll look at the soundtrack later. : )

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    • theipc

      HI 🙂

      It was actually a different movie playing in the background while I was doing some writing 🙂

      Hope you’re doing OK!

      e

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  12. CMrok93

    Good review. It was a pretty cool gangster flick. A lot like Guy Ritchie’s flicks, but by the same token, had its own gritty look and feel that didn’t feel tonally-off when the comedy came around.

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  15. Pingback: JB & The Chop Do: Star Trek – Nemesis (2002) | The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger

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