Sexy Beast

Brits in Spain? Surely not. Only kidding! In this case, we’re talking about some right old dodgers (or career criminals to be more precise) who have ‘retired’ on the Costa del Sol but the past is about to haunt them…

Director Jonathan Glazer delivered his directorial debut with SEXY BEAST, a no-nonsense ensemble piece stripped to the bare necessities without the need for elaborate action scenes and all that jazz. Main geezer is Gary ‘Gal’ Dove (a top notch performance by Ray Winston), who is married to his beloved DeeDee (Amanda Redman) though as we find out later on, she’s not just his ‘arm candy’ but has her own sordid past as an adult actress. With them lives Gal’s best buddy in crime, Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and his missus, Jackie (Julianne White). The rather isolated villa is huge, white and looks pretty sterile, and the swimming pool is just as huge. Not much happens, except the friends occasionally venture into the nearby town to visit the tabernas and restaurants (without making a nuisance of themselves) or getting closer to skin cancer while sunbathing by the pool. The only ‘outsider’ to the household is a young local lad called Enrique (Alvaro Monje) who helps out with odd jobs, and who’s clearly liked by Gal and the rest of the household.

This idyllic lifestyle (some may call it dead-boring) is shattered by the unexpected arrival of Don Logan (Ben Kingsley in truly terrifying mode) - a sociopath of the first order and a loose cannon if ever there was one. Oh, Don also happens to be a ‘recruiter’ London’s nasty, nasty underworld and in fact it’s crime boss Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) who has dispatched Don to sunny Spain…tasked with bringing Gal back to Old Blighty to ‘help’ with a bank robbery organised by Teddy - an old acquaintance of Gal’s, naturally! Teddy’s target is a vault which banker Harry (James Fox) had shown him.

Gal is anything but pleased about Don’s arrival nor is he keen on returning to London for a ‘job’. As far as he’s concerned, Britain is depressing and grey and miserable (as miserable as the majority of its population) and why should he help Teddy when he can laze about in the Spanish sun all day? The answer lies in Don’s unpredictable behaviour, which gets more and more aggressive by the minute. Things soon come to a blow when it emerges that Don once had an affair with Aitch’s wife Jackie and is still infatuated with her, resulting in Don storming out of the villa and making his way to the airport. However, an unfortunate incident on board the plane sees Don kicked out, thanks to his arrogant and rude behaviour. Now he’s making his way back to Gal's villa, where things are about to take a turn for the worse…

This is edgy stuff, with an inspired casting and even more inspired editing by John Scott and Sam Sneade. While it’s no surprise that Winston was cast in the role of ex-gangster Gal (and makes a darn good job of it), it’s Kingsley’s psychopathic Don which is a real revelation!

SEXY BEAST has just been released both on Limited Edition Dual 4K UHD/Blu-ray and in Standard Edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray format. Special Features include audio commentaries and interviews, while the Limited Edition furthermore comes with a 160-page hardback book, six collector’s art cards and is presented in a rigid slipcase.