Barnes & Noble

To those arriving at Layer Cake looking to see why its star, Daniel Craig, was chosen to succeed Pierce Brosnan as the new James Bond -- well, chances are you’ll be convinced that 007 will be A-OK. Layer Cake, a gritty crime film in the style of director Martin Scorsese, is the debut feature by Matthew Vaughn, the producer of Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Craig plays the middleman in an efficiently run drug ring based in London. A careful, unpretentious operator who plans on retiring in the near future, he’s ordered to find out what went wrong in a million-dollar Ecstasy deal and, in addition, locate the daughter of ruthless drug lord Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon). Our "hero," never named and identified only as XXXX in the end credits, really has his hands full -- especially when another girl, Tammy (Sienna Miller), shows up to complicate things further. The story unfolds in mostly seedy surroundings and features the lowlifes that typically populate such films. What makes Layer Cake different is its depiction of Craig's character -- an intelligent, ambitious, resourceful young man whose carefully laid game plan goes totally awry when unforeseen complications put him in danger. XXXX doesn’t really belong in the underworld; he could easily be in a big multinational corporation, effortlessly swindling millions from stockholders. But casting his lot with mobsters and street toughs has unintended consequences, and director Vaughn makes us privy to an almost absurd sequence of events that sends the protagonist's well-ordered life spiraling out of control. Craig's character is, at heart, pretty smarmy. But he’s also extremely bright, and the fun in Layer Cake comes from watching him try to extricate himself from a desperate if not hopeless situation. This is an exceptionally engrossing movie; count on bring riveted to your chair once it gets underway. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A mechanic in the British drug trade finds himself caught in the middle of some dangerous circumstances in this crime thriller. XXXX (Daniel Craig) is a nameless go-between in the British mob who buys drugs from underground wholesalers and them sells them to street dealers, keeping the system flowing and making a tidy profit in the process. XXXX is looking forward to getting out of the game, and has displayed both smarts and caution in how he's handled his business, but before his overseer Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) will let him go, he has a couple of favors that need to be done. First, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon) is a mob boss whose daughter has gotten hooked on hard drugs and run away from home; Jimmy needs XXXX to find them girl and bring her to him before Eddie's men can get hold of her. Second, Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) is a Ecstasy wholesaler who has had a large shipment stolen by Duke (Jamie Foreman); Jimmy wants XXXX to get the Ecstasy back to Dragan, but Duke isn't eager to sell and Dragan is becoming impatient. Between these two matters, XXXX isn't so sure he'll get out of the business alive, especially after he finds himself falling for Duke's nephew's girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller). Layer Cake marked the directorial debut for Matthew Vaughn, best known as a producer for Guy Ritchie's lad-centric crime movies. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 043396122178
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Français
• Time: 1:46:00
• Sales Rank: 2,152

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Layer Cake / Snatch

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