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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

64
Appaloosa
69
Ashes of Time Redux
68
August Evening
54
Battle in Seattle
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx
Black Balloon, The
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50
Breakfast with Scot
63
Changeling
47
Choke
84
Christmas Tale, A
41
Cthulhu
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
xx
Dostana
62
Duchess, The
46
Dukes, The
63
Eden
xx
Extreme Movie
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
26
Filth and Wisdom
28
Fireproof
71
Frost/Nixon
82
Frozen River
43
Gardens of the Night
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
54
Good Dick
30
Guitar, The
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
31
Hounddog
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
47
How About You
68
Hunger
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
40
Igor
78
I've Loved You So Long
63
JCVD
27
Lake City
82
Let the Right One In
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
89
Man on Wire
84
Momma's Man
51
Morning Light
34
My Name Is Bruce
xx
Nobel Son
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
75
Pool, The
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82
Rachel Getting Married
56
Religulous
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
53
RocknRolla
57
Sixty Six
85
Slumdog Millionaire
57
Special
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67
Synecdoche, New York
82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
71
Frost/Nixon
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
68
Hunger
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Black Balloon, The
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
xx
Nobel Son
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Layer Cake
Sony Pictures Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong brutal violence, sexuality, nudity, pervasive language and drug use
Starring
Daniel Craig,
Colm Meaney,
Sienna Miller,
Michael Gambon,
Jamie Foreman,
Kenneth Cranham,
and
George Harris
A riveting thriller set in the drug underworld of the UK. (Sony Pictures Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Crime
|
Foreign
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
J.J. Connolly
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Matthew Vaughn
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 23, 2005
Theatrical: May 13, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
105 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Fast, convulsive, and densely exciting new British gangster thriller.

88
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
Don't let the fast-and-loose vibe fool you: Right up to its operatic finale, this is one tight one last job.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Craig is fascinating here as a criminal who is very smart, and finds that is not an advantage because while you might be able to figure out what another smart person is about to do, dumbos like the men he works for are likely to do anything.

88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Things get a little tricky by the end, but it's the sort of trickery that's immensely satisfying.

88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Doesn't reveal all its layers until you've taken the last bite.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It's a stylish and classic gangster saga about the clashing of rival empires.

80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
The director Vaughn has a flair not merely for action and ambiance but also for character.

80
Time
Richard Schickel
Layer Cake is a treat--especially if your taste in desserts is devil's food.

80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
A colorful cast whose combined energy lifts the story off the ground.

80
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
The newest in British gangland entertainment and the tastiest in years.

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
Smartly put together, with interesting characters and caustic wit.

80
Variety
Leslie Felperin
There's a proper lived-in believability about Layer Cake's depiction of how the worlds of the rich, the criminal and the criminally rich intersect.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Layer Cake is suffused with a stately sense of menace and a sort of doomed existential suave.

75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Cheeky, brass-knuckles British crime film.

75
Miami Herald
Peter Debruge
It's like "Lock, Stock" as filtered through the mind of David Mamet, with Craig as the suave middleman holding it all together.

75
USA Today
Mike Clark
There's a lot here to feed crime-fiction enthusiasts.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
A crime drama in a special class.

75
New York Post
Kyle Smith
This is a smart, vivid, thrillingly real gangster picture that nevertheless resembles many others.

75
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
It’s hilarious, and genuinely cool.

75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Laced with flashbacks and stylistic tics, but it never loses its forward momentum, and to the last shot, it avoids predictability.

70
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Crust
A sleek, effective entertainment that is a refreshing respite from the slick emptiness of recent American crime dramas.

70
Film Threat
Chris Barsanti
The writing is crisp and deeply layered, and the filmmakers gave themselves a rich array of actors to work with.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
The always-dependable and chameleon-like Craig has the chops and substance for that kind of film, but Vaughn prefers to keep matters brisk and superficial.

70
Dallas Observer
Bill Gallo
By the end, you may be exhausted by the effort of trying to unravel the thing, but you may also be taken by the power of its spell. This is a movie that compels you to watch.

60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The result is so intoxicating, it hardly matters that you've heard it all before.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Craig's got the stuff but the ending of this cake is soggy for its protagonist and audience.

58
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Lively, cheeky, dense and, ultimately, too flip, clever and torturously twisted to be fully engrossing.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
One of those crime flicks besotted with its own plot.

50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
A lot of the problem is that the picture's protagonist is both naive and foul.

50
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
What's abundantly clear is how far this kind of moviemaking has come from any knowledge of real criminal life; it's a geek's ineffectual daydream of mayhem.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
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