The 51st State

18

3/5

AN EXTREMELY odd mix of British and American stars feature in this transatlantic drug underworld movie with screen legend Samuel L Jackson going head-to-head with Robert Carlyle under the direction of Ronnie Yu (Bride of Chucky, China White and Warriors of Virtue).

Jackson plays Elmo McElroy, an American, kilt-wearing, pharmacist whose world was turned upside down when he was caught smoking dope on the day he graduated.

Chemicals are still his thing, but on the wrong side of the law, and with a new wonder drug set to give the clubbing world the ultimate high, he's out to sell the formula.

Carlyle on the other hand is a loud-mouthed, American-hating scouser, Felix De Souza, who over the course of the film decides the Yanks aren't so bad.

Basically, McElroy double-crosses The Lizard, played by Meatloaf, and heads to the UK to make a deal with scally drug boss Durant, played by Ricky Tomlinson a man whose short part seems pained by piles.

But the deal is put off by gun-totting assassin Dakota, an old flame of De Souza's who owes The Lizard.

A carnivalesque shoot out akin to scenes from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels leaves most of the underworld dead and McElroy and De Souza find themselves forced together.

A fast-and-furious car chase past some of the Liverpool's notable landmarks which makes a change from the San Francisco skyline.

The obvious boy-and-girl-reunited thing happens, Dakota left for the States years earlier but De Souza couldn't bear to leave the Mersey behind.

But one of the real characters in the film is Iki, played by Notting Hill star Rhys Ifans, a yoga-loving rival gangster, club owner and gun runner who is keen to give everyone the ultimate high.

With plenty of twists and turns and a dose of British humour, the $28m action comedy should be a hit here, but in America, who knows?

December 5, 2001 02:30