Directed by Matthew Vaughn

I had steered clear of the British Ganster film and given films like ?Snatch? and ?Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? a wide berth. After having the joy, or should I say agony of sitting through ?Layer Cake? it is fair to say that other films of that genre may never see the light of day in my household. ?Layer Cake? is probably the worst film I have seen all year. I hated all of the characters, the plot was generally hard to follow and I barely made it through the whole film and wanted to ?pull the plug? on it at least twice. It was only after I read the back of the DVD cover that the film made any sense at all. It was only when the credits began to roll that I even realised that Daniel Craig?s character didn?t even have a name.

Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, plays XXXX (lets call him Mr X), an ecstasy and cocaine dealer, who has earned enough money from his illegal dealings that he wants to go straight. What a nice guy!! That is until his Mr Big, crime boss Jimmy Price (Cranham) asks him to find the drug-riddled daughter of an associate, Eddie Temple (Gambon), and his right hand man Gene (Meany) asks him to help him in the purchase and distribution of 1 million ecstasy tablets.

What Mr X doesn?t realise is that The Duke, the seller of the drugs actually stole them from a mad Serbian, Drago, in Amsterdam, and he is now hot on the tail of Mr X and is trying to get his drugs back and punish those responsible. Through all this wheeling and dealing though Mr X still has time to hook up with Tammy (Miller) a girl he meets as a nightclub who is dating the Duke?s nephew. What a tangled web we weave!

There are more sub-plots than you can poke a stick at and lots of flashbacks that really made little sense to me. I must admit that the film failed to maintain my fullest attention. I was also quite unclear what a layer cake was as well. It was only mentioned at the end of the film by Eddie Temple but he failed to elaborate on its meaning.

Like all gangster films, there are plenty of twists in the tale and you will be left wondering who is really working for who and what is the agenda of the various players in the drug dealing game. The final questions that will remain to be answered are, can Mr X make the break from the whole scene? OR Will he find the lure of easy money too had to give up? OR Will the mad Serbian see him meet an untimely end? To be honest, I didn?t really care what happened to him, as I found his character quite repulsive. In fact, all the characters were repulsive in one way or another. They were either drug dealers, drug addicts, hit men, murderers or total sleazes. They would certainly not be welcome around my dinner table.

Sienna Miller was completely wasted in this film. She appeared in the film for a total of fifteen minutes roughly. That was, however, enough time for us to see her in sexy lingerie. That would be well worth the purchase price for many DVD addicts. Daniel Craig, as the lead, would not make me what to rush out and buy any other of his movies. All new James Bond films will be avoided. Give me Pierce Brosnan any day! He?s cuter too!

Matthew Vaughn, is the director of this film, and this is his big debut after producing other gangster films (Snatch and Lock, Stock etc) under the watchful eye of Mr Madonna, Guy Ritchie. He does a good enough job I guess, it?s just the material he had to work with that I objected too.

Overall, this is a genre I will be avoiding in the future. I am not surprised that ?Layer Cake? did so poorly at the Australian Box-Office. The Brits make great ?rom coms? but they haven?t won me over with their gangster flicks. The ?F? word was too prevalent. The gratuitous violence was abundant, the plot too confusing and any thing that depicts the drug scene will not be on my ?must see? list in the future. If this was the only dessert on the menu, I would quit after the main course.

THE EXTRAS

There are plenty of extras on offer on this DVD which annoys me when I have to endure them and I hated the movie so much. The Special features are listed below:
? Audio commentary by director Matthew Vaughn and writer J.J. Connolly. I didn?t bother with this one
? Deleted and Extended Endings There were 2 never-before-seen alternate endings which only lasted for 2 minutes in total as well as 14 deleted scenes. I made the mistake of playing them all together with the Director?s commentary over the top and so couldn?t hear a word of what was going on. They lasted a little over 20 minutes. If you want to hear the scenes you will have to watch them individually minus the director?s commentary.
? Two featurettes
1) Q&A interview with director Matthew Vaughn and Daniel Craig This lasted for nearly 30 minutes and it is basically a host and audience members asking questions of the director and the film?s star about the film. I?m sure many riveting questions were asked and answered but I couldn?t bother to listen to them.
2) Behind-the-scenes featurette (6 minutes) A short featurette that is fairly stock standard. The director and the main stars discuss the film and the actors talk about how good the director is. They do explain in the opening seconds of the featurette what a layer cake is so that was useful.

There are plenty of scenes from the movie in both featurettes so don?t watch them before the film.
? Poster Explorations A waste of time really. You just scroll through about 24 different posters promoting the film.

CONCLUSION

Daniel Craig plays Mr X, an ecstasy and cocaine dealer, who has earned enough money from his illegal dealings that he wants to go straight. That is until his Mr Big, crime boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) asks him to find the drug-riddled daughter of an associate, Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon), and his right hand man Gene (Colm Meany) asks him to help him in the purchase and distribution of 1 million stolen ecstasy tablets. Will Mr X be able to finalise the drug deal, win the girl (Sienna Miller) and avoid the mad Serbian hitman who is on his tail to get his drugs back. Either way, I didn?t care as this was one of the worst films I have had to endure in a long time. The plot was confusing and most of the characters were impossible to like.