| Overall Grade: |
C- |
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| Story: |
C |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
C- |
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Layer Cake Disappointing Overall
by WB (movies profile)
Apr 20, 2007
4
of
7 people found this review helpful
Layer Cake's fatal flaw is actually revealed in the title: There are too many layers. It tries to be so cunningly convoluted with its twists and betrayals that they don't hang together logically, and, in the end, smack of artifice that's designed to appear complex and slick.
For example [spoiler alert], why would the crime boss who hires the main character be an informant for the police? Since he's the boss, who is he supposed to inform on? Usually it's an underling that's an informant that allows the police to catch the crime boss, not the other way round (but the writers thought it would make a nice twist to have him be a rat, so there you go--doesn't make sense, but is a nice twist).
And the biggest plot problem comes after the main character kills the aforementioned boss. Once he's dead, there's no reason for our hero to risk death at the hands of the Serbian "Dragon" anymore. He could have just told the Dragon where the X was, and gone on with his life, as he professed he wanted to do from the beginning (remember how he kept denying any relationship with the Duke?). But he doesn't. Why? So the movie can continue, of course. It doesn't continue making sense, mind you, but it can continue. And how could a million X pills just disappear from a police raid without an ounce of investigation from the authorities? Because this is Layer Cake land! Bah. I'm getting worked up just rehashing it in my mind.
I give it a C-. If you want a satisfying organized crime drama, save some money and go rent the peerless Good Fellas again instead. |
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