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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limey, The
EMAILPRINTArtisan Entertainment

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Lem Dobbs
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 8, 1999
DVD: March 21, 2000
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for violence & language
Starring Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Peter Fonda, and William Lucking
Acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh's latest film follows the exploits of Wilson (Stamp), a tough English ex-con who travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death. (Artisan Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bubble Erin Brockovich Eros Full Frontal Ocean's Eleven Ocean's Twelve Out of Sight Schizopolis sex, lies, and videotape Solaris The Girlfriend Experience The Good German Traffic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A small cubist masterpiece about crime and punishment set in that most split-level of environments, Los Angeles.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Makes a term like neo-noir seem like a fatuous catch phrase.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
A first-rate crime thriller and further proof that Soderbergh is one of our great contemporary film stylists.
Read Full Review >Film.com Tom Keogh
One of the best films seen in many years about the mysterious workings of time and memory.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
One of those movies in which pacing, dialogue and the right actors enliven a familiar story.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
The pleasure of The Limey lies in watching what actors who have aged like fine wine can do in that world.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Stamp, whose ability to make Wilson simultaneously coarse and charismatic is irresistibly entertaining.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Intoxicatingly well-crafted entertainment about hunting down your enemy.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Andy Klein
More involving and intriguing than any by-the-numbers studio thriller. In large part, it holds our interest because of its stylistic boldness, not despite it.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
An art noir that courts pretension but just manages to keep from succumbing to it.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A mesmerizing mood piece.
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A solid genre film that offers the satisfactions of the familiar while deriving its resonance through its specific and telling references to the '60s.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Style is the main attraction in The Limey -- it's as close to experimental filmmaking as mainstream movies get -- but the film works well when taken simply as a pure revenge drama, too.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The violent story is standard "film noir" fare, but Soderbergh treats it with oomph and imagination.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
A wonderfully complex character at the center of a gratifyingly satisfying yarn.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
In its quiet and murderous way, it is like the delayed final act of an old movie about drugs, guns and revenge.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
Among Soderbergh's widely varied films ("sex, lies and videotape," "Kafka," "The Underneath," "Schizopolis," "Out of Sight"), this one actually has the best chance of becoming anyone's sentimental favorite.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
Tender souls who don't like a lot of noise and violence should probably stay away from this very in-your-face film.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
(Stamp and Fonda's) polar-opposition in acting styles and temperament, their cultural differences and their pop-cultural synergy come together with almost delicious cacophony.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This intelligent, oddly aloof thriller is a worthy follow-up to director Steven Soderberg's "Out of Sight."
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
It's such an accomplished, beguiling film in its details that you almost don't notice that the story is scattershot, arbitrary, and thin -- almost.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon
Soderbergh, like Tarantino, has a knack for making every shady character onscreen fascinating.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
One has no problem praising the bravura acting of the entire ensemble.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Soderbergh slices, dices and Cuisinarts the script into flashbacks, scene shifts, stop motion and other distracting foolery.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Clayton L. gave it a4:
Terrible. Another gangster movie with unconvincing actors.
Joel W. gave it a10:
On the surface [and in the trailer] The Limey appears to be a cold blooded hard-knock revenge movie. It is something very different. This emotive slow burning thriller is full of wonderful understated acting, appropriately disconcerting music, great dialogue and fantastic editing. This last element adds a lot of richness to the story and made me ask 'Is this all a flash-back or flash-forward?'. There's room to think in this film. We watch Wilson remember and regret. The use of footage from an old Stamp movie which really shouldn't work, does. The film promises more blood-and-guts than it delivers and it is this restraint, along with the dry humor and narrative balance which make this one of my favorite films.
Rich R. gave it a10:
One of the best movies I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot more than you have! Great acting, insane editing, fantastic dialog, great story of revenge, wonderful West Coast/LA footage, who couldn't like this? Anyone who thinks it's slow and boring isn't watching, or perhaps noticing, the subtle stuff, the stuff that pulls this movie over the line of reality/fantasy and back., again and again.
Evening Sun gave it a 1:
Pointless, distracting and astonishingly bad, The Limey is easily one of the least involving thrillers I have ever seen. Although I've never been a real fan of Soderbergh's work, even the extremely self-indulgent Solaris seems earthbound and involving compared to this. This thriller is almost as tepid (wait, make that frigid) as Stamp's lead performance.
Michael F. gave it a 9:
One of my favorites! Although this film is a bit slow it pays off so much! All of the acting is great! Soderbergh is a genious! Lem Dobbs (writer) is one of the greatest writers working today ("The Score," "Dark City")! This is worth a look if you have the control to sit through this film. It's only 89 minutes long.
