Product Description

Columbia Pictures Layer Cake (Blu-Ray)
Planning to retire and begin a new life, Mr. X (Daniel Craig, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider"), a successful West End drug dealer, has been asked for one last favor: to negotiate thesale of one million hits of Ecstasy. Unfortunately for Mr. X, the pills were stolen from a Serbian drug lord who'll cut off his head if he sells them. And with a London crime czar (Michael Gambon, "Open Range" & "The Insider") promising to retire him permanently if he doesn't, Mr. X may be rightfully concerned about his future. Nothing worth losing his head over.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19351 in DVD
• Brand: Columbia Pictures
• Released on: 2007-03-13
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, Korean
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
As its title suggests, Layer Cake is a crime thriller that cuts into several levels of its treacherous criminal underworld. The title is actually one character's definition of the drug-trade hierarchy, but it's also an apt metaphor for the separate layers of deception, death, and betrayal experienced by the film's unnamed protagonist, a cocaine traffic middle-man played with smooth appeal by Daniel Craig (rumored at the time of this film's release to be on the short list for consideration as the next James Bond). Listed in the credits only as "XXXX," the character is trapped into doing a favor for his volatile boss, only to have tables turned by his boss's boss (Michael Gambon) in a twisting plot involving a stolen shipment of Ecstasy, a missing girl, duplicitous dealers, murderous Serbian gangsters, and a variety of lowlifes with their own deadly agendas. As adapted by J.J. Connolly (from his own novel) and directed by Matthew Vaughan (who earned his genre chops as producer of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch), Layer Cake improves upon those earlier British gangland hits with assured pacing, intelligent plotting, and an admirable emphasis on plot-moving dialogue over routine action. Sure, it's violent (that's to be expected) and not always involving, but it's smarter than most thrillers, and Vaughan's directorial debut has a confident style that's flashy without being flamboyant. This could be the start of an impressive career. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
A muddled but exciting crime thriller, starring the British actor Daniel Craig, that relies on that old plot perennial: the last big job before retirement. Directed stylishly by Matthew Vaughn, the movie has the flavor of a good pulp novel. The complex story, filled with twists and turns, concerns the unloading of a cache of stolen drugs and the search for the runaway daughter of a crime boss. Craig, following in the footsteps of actors like Paul Bettany (in "Gangster No. 1") and Clive Owen (in "Croupier"), delivers a smoldering performance that is effortless and subtle. With Michael Gambon in a showstopping role as a not-to-be-argued-with crime lord. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Just a Bunch of Guys Having Some Fun
With a plot that would take longer than the movie to explain, this is a gangster movie with everyone double or triple crossing everyone else. Just great fun but don't expect to see Sienna Miller in this movie for more than thirty seconds at a time. This is the kind of character that Steve McQueen used to play, cooler than cool and steady as the Rock of Gibralta.

Just watch the film and enjoy, but don't blink, you'll miss something important. (Americans may find it difficult to understand some of the language and the accents on some of the characters are very thick.)

Made Me Love Life Again
Amazingly complex plot woven with threads of delicious action and well written dialogue.

Good beyond all rational expectations.

MATTHEW VAUGHN, OPUS 1
***1/2 2004. Based on J.J. Connolly's Layer Cake, this film was directed by the British director Matthew Vaughn. London. Daniel Craig is told by his boss to purchase the loot offered by the Duke and his gang. But this loot was robbed in the Netherlands from a local Serbian drug lord who's not happy at all. With David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition) and John Mackenzie's The Long Good Friday - Criterion Collection, you'll have with LAYER CAKE a near complete overview of the London underground described in cinema. Recommended.