“Oh, yeah. Bloody hell. I’m sweating in here. Roasting. Boiling. Baking. Sweltering. It’s like a sauna. Furnace. You can fry an egg on my stomach. Ohh, who wouldn’t lap this up? It’s ridiculous. Tremendous. Fantastic. Fan-dabby-dozy-tastic.”
Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) is one of the most terrifying villains in British cinema history. By turns hilarious and horrific, Kingsley’s potty-mouthed psychopath spews out epithets, slang and c-words with alarming regularity.
The actor’s turn is a million miles away from Gandhi, and still the film’s main selling point.
This Cockney caper eschews the Guy Ritchie “apples and pears” patter for something more authentic.
Don lands in Spain to talk retired expat safecracker “Gal” Dove (Ray Winstone) into returning to London for one last score.
A boulder shattering Gal’s poolside idyll at his sunny Spanish villa in the Costa del Crime – where he enjoys a blissful retirement with his adoring wife Deedee (Amanda Redman) and close friends, Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and Jackie (Julianne White) – serves as an opening portent, and it’s all downhill from there.
Gal adamantly refuses Don’s proposal, leading to a brutal, explosive battle of wills that subverts the traditional “one last job” gangster trope through psychological depth and surreal elements.
Director Jonathan Glazer’s outstanding debut sees Kingsley and Winstone slugging it out, ably assisted by Ian McShane (as ruthless crime boss Teddy Bass), who turns his usual charisma into something far darker and more brooding — he’s more killjoy here than Lovejoy.
After a vicious, explosive confrontation where Logan’s unhinged behaviour puts everyone on edge, Gal and his friends kill him in self-defence and bury his body beneath the concrete floor of the newly repaired swimming pool.
Gal is then forced to travel to grey, gloomy London anyway to pull off the dangerous underwater bank vault heist while trying to hide Logan’s fate from Teddy.
A prequel television series was released in 2024, starring James McArdle as a younger Gal Dove.
“You were right, Don. Technically speaking, you were right. But you’re dead. So shut up.”
Gary “Gal” Dove
Ray Winstone Don Logan
Ben Kingsley Teddy Bass
Ian McShane Deedee Dove
Amanda Redman Harry
James Fox Aitch
Cavan Kendall Jackie
Julianne White Enrique
Álvaro Monje Andy
Robert Atiko Air Hostess
Nieves del Amo Oruet Pilot
Enrique Alemán Fabrega Spanish Official
Gérard Barray Felipe
Dionisio Mesa Felipe’s Friend
José Maria Cano Ramos Jean
Desirée Erasmus Ginger Air Steward
José Hernández Jimmy
Andy Lucas Bruno
Eddie O’Connell Mike
Terry Plummer Man on Plane
Manuel Sánchez Berlanga Pete
Frank Scinto Stan
Darkie Smith Raymond
Rocky Taylor Nicky
Chris Webb
Director
Jonathan Glazer
Video
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This Cockney caper eschews the Guy Ritchie “apples and pears” patter for something more authentic.
After a vicious, explosive confrontation where Logan’s unhinged behaviour puts everyone on edge, Gal and his friends kill him in self-defence and bury his body beneath the concrete floor of the newly repaired swimming pool.
