The 51st State (DVD)

This is an enjoyable little film based in Liverpool which has most of the actrs from Liverpool appearing in it with a fair few familiar faces from Brookside in it. Samual L Jackson plays an American chemist involved in the drugs trade who has double crossed his American backers and fled to Liverpool with the formula for a new super drug in his possession which he intends to sell to the highest bidder for a cool £20m. Why he actually chooses Liverpool is not clear. At the airport he is met by Robert Carlyle who works for the local crime boss however on the plane is Carlyle former girlfriend, a hired assassin with a contract out on the head of Jackson ...

'The 51st State' is the 2001 film from the director Ronny Yu. I'd been meaning to watch this film for a while, and having caught it on E4 am definitely glad that I finally managed to give it a go. Having previously directed the 'Bride of Chucky' film and more recently having directed 'Freddy vs. Jason', much of Ronny Yu's directorial experience is in Hong Kong cinema and to date it is only these three English language films that he has directed. I've yet to see any of his films in the Cantonese language, but perhaps I should do. I'm a huge fan of his work in the English language and 'The 51st State' is no exception to this rule. Starring Samuel L. Jackson as ...

Guy Ritchie has got an awful lot to answer for - with the phenomenal success and acclaim of his twin smashes, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Ritchie completely redefined the gangster movie genre and brought a new approach to the whole business of film making, with odd angles, bizarre characters and a rich new tapestry of language - Anglo Saxon, I think it.s known as. Both films were epics and immensely enjoyable, but unfortunately and somewhat predictably they spawned a slew of copyists, who inevitably didn't have the same inspired touch which Ritchie enjoyed and exploited. And that, unfortunately, is where 51st State comes in... ...