Layer Cake [Blu-ray]

Director: Matthew Vaughn Matthew Vaughn

Overview

"A mechanic in the British drug trade finds himself caught in the middle of some dangerous circumstances in this crime thriller. XXXX (Daniel Craig) is a nameless go-between in the British mob who buys drugs from underground wholesalers and them sells them to street dealers, keeping the system flowing and making a tidy profit in the process. XXXX is looking forward to getting out of the game, and has displayed both smarts and caution in how he's handled his business, but before his overseer Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) will let him go, he has a couple of favors that need to be done. First, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon) is a mob boss whose daughter has gotten hooked on hard drugs and run away from home; Jimmy needs XXXX to find them girl and bring her to him before Eddie's men can get hold of her. Second, Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) is a Ecstasy wholesaler who has had a large shipment stolen by Duke (Jamie Foreman); Jimmy wants XXXX to get the Ecstasy back to Dragan, but Duke isn't eager to sell and Dragan is becoming impatient. Between these two matters, XXXX isn't so sure he'll get out of the business alive, especially after he finds himself falling for Duke's nephew's girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller). Layer Cake marked the directorial debut for Matthew Vaughn, best known as a producer for Guy Ritchie's lad-centric crime movies. The Blu-Ray DVD release includes a bucket of extras, including deleted scenes, multiple alternate endings, a behind-the-scenes featurette, plus a Q&A with the director and actor Daniel Craig, along with a director and writer's commentary."

Product Details

Release Date:	03/13/2007
UPC:	0043396171169
Original Release:	2004
Rating:	R
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:45:00

Special Features

Deleted scenes; Two alternate endings; Director and writer commentary; Q&a with director and Daniel Craig; Behind-the-scenes featurette

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Daniel Craig	XXXX
Colm Meaney	Gene
Kenneth Cranham	Jimmy Price
George Harris	Morty
Jamie Foreman	Duke
Sienna Miller	Tammy
Michael Gambon	Eddie Temple
Tom Hardy	Clarkie
Sally Hawkins	Slasher
Burn Gorman	Gazza
Tamer Hassan	Terry
Jason Flemyng	Larry
Dragan Micanovic	Dragan
Ilan Eshkeri	Composer,Actor
Lisa Gerrard	Composer,Actor
Francis Magee	Paul the Boatman
Natalie Lunghi	Charlie
Marvyn Benoit	Kinky
Rab Affleck	Mickey
Dexter Fletcher	Cody
Stephanie Collie	Actor
Steve Shepherd	Tiptoes
Adam Bohling	Actor
Paul Orchard	Lucky
J.J. Connolly	Actor
Michelle Camp	Actor
Matthew Ryan	Junkie 2
Chris Burdon	Actor
Ivan Kaye	Freddie Hurst
Ben Brasier	Jerry (Kilburn)
Matthew Collinge	Actor
Brinley Green	Actor
Neil Finnighan	Troop
Budgie Prewitt	Golf Host
Marcel Iures	Actor
Don McCorkindale	Albert Carter
Dimitri Andreas	Angelo
Louis Emerick	Trevor
Garry Tubbs	Brian
Ben Whishaw	Sidney
Stephen Walters	Shanks
Darren Healy	Junkie 1
Ian Astbury	Composer

Technical Credits

J.J. Connolly

Matthew Vaughn	Director,Producer
J.J. Connolly	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Adam Bohling	Producer
Stephen Marks	Executive Producer
Michelle Camp	Special Effects
Chris Burdon	Sound Effects
Matthew Collinge	Sound Effects
Bradley Farmer	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

The recipe for Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake is simple: start with a few generous spoonfuls of Guy Ritchie, add a pinch of Martin Scorsese, and sprinkle in a few plot points from Carlito's Way. The result is a pretty yummy confection, even if it doesn't revolutionize the dessert world. Having produced each of Ritchie's films, Vaughn has taken with him the intricate plotting, the unintelligible accents, and the surplus of characters, most of whom have cookie-cutter mobster nicknames. He's left behind Ritchie's fondness for absurdist comedy, as Layer Cake proceeds in a mostly straightforward manner, at least in terms of its set pieces. The narrative is another matter -- J.J. Connolly's script gives birth to a new subplot about every five pages, and it becomes nearly impossible to sort out who is with whom, and whether it's a double- or triple-cross they're perpetrating. This disorganization leaves certain characters out in the cold, such as Sienna Miller's promising femme fatale, who has no function. As with a Ritchie film, it may be wisest to treat Layer Cake largely as eye candy. Vaughn's camera glides through the action like a guided tour of Britain's drug underworld, narrated by the nameless protagonist (Daniel Craig) and seen through a crisp, nearly colorized filter. It's mostly free from the frenetic trickery of Ritchie's films, save for one virtuoso sequence in which Vaughn films a vicious beating from the perspective of the victim, the camera somersaulting with each blow, and Duran Duran's "Ordinary World" sputtering in and out of clarity on the soundtrack. Vaughn can marry insubstantial pop songs with hip iconography like the most successful of his predecessors. What Vaughn can't claim is a totally distinctive vision -- the kind that might prompt young filmmakers to imitate him, rather than them.