I don't know why people on here think the script was a mess or hard to follow. The Layer Cake will not go down as an all-time classic, but it was pretty good - besides, "classics" are only good in your memory banks. Once you revisit them years later 9/10 they are no longer the classic you thought it was.
Lots of twists throughout the movie and the finale - I didn't see that coming when it arrived!
8.5/10
This movie stars every relevant young British actor from 2004 before they got swallowed by the big franchise machine. The acting is really great, I love some of the zany performances in this, but ultimately the film is just fine. You can feel that it’s a condensed version of a book, and it’d probably work a lot better as a limited series. There’s too much exposition and haphazard storytelling in this film adaptation (you probably need to watch it a few times in order to fully comprehend it), and none of the characters (of which there are too many) besides the one played by Daniel Craig are remotely interesting. The filmmaking makes up for a lot though. The editing of this movie is beautiful, it has a great sense of rhythm and pacing. The cinematography is also excellent and the score’s pretty alright too. Matthew Vaughn’s very restrictive with the use of close-ups here, which makes the film feel bigger in scope. You’ll probably remember certain bits and visuals from this movie, but the picture as a whole is only mildly impressive.
6/10
Did somebody forget how to write a proper script? Maybe the writers were on some the drugs from the movie, because this thing is all over the place and way too annoying to follow
Good directing saves an unnecessarily convoluted plotline (victim of bringing a novel to the screen).
For a movie that looked and started promising it quickly became a convoluted storyline with too many names and things going on at once to follow and eventually even care about.
The film that got Daniel Craig cast as James Bond.
Absolutely tremendous!
I haven't got much (edit: five paragraphs later...) to say about 'Layer Cake', but that's only because it's simply one of those movies that is undeniably outstanding, to the point it's plain and simple that it requires little explanation. I had heard this bandied about down the years as being arguably Daniel Craig's best, though that is all that I knew about it.
What a film! I knew it was one of my favourites because I got goosebumps as soon as the credits rolled as I processed it and that only happens for the movies I adore. Going back to Craig, that man is superb in this, definitely one of the best performances of his that I've seen - up there with 'Knives Out'. That's also saying something, given his other stellar stint as that spy geezer.
Michael Gambon is, though, the one I enjoyed most. I'm already a big fan of his, though here he is also a notch above; his voice is up is just so iconic. Away from Craig & Gambon, I lost track of all the known faces that appeared insert Rick Dalton meme here. Crazy to see Tom Hardy in this and that he's used the least of his whole crew! I also didn't even recognise Sally Hawkins, despite seeing her name in the opening credits!
Simply put: It's brilliantly entertaining! I loved every second, quite literally. It gave me exactly what I wanted from a British gangster flick, so many from this subgenre fail to correctly tow the line between the crime and comedic gangster elements so it can either be cringe or boring, or even both.
This, however, utterly nailed it for me. It also holds a pleasing score, you give me that, an entertaining plot and a fantastic cast then, I'm afraid, I am gonna love your movie. It does surpass (the great) 'Stardust' as my standout Matthew Vaughn flick.
Some sort of insight in how the social structure works for doing not legal activities.
One should pay good attention, I found it easy to get confused quickly. It does all work beautifully together in the end.
God, this movie is always such an effortlessly fun watch. Smart, charming, and surprising.
Michael Gambon's "layer cake" speech, while a poor attempt for Eddie to sound magnanimous after ripping everyone off, adds so much gravitas to the already satisfying conclusion.
If you've only seen the version where Tammy and XXXX drive off into the sunset at the end I highly recommend hunting down the alternate ending that really puts a fine point on XXXX's last few words.
Also, baby-faced Tom Hardy is almost still unrecognizable, even though I know it's him every time.
Daniel Craig being really great...in a film that's decent at best. Dragged down by a seriously over-complicated plot, and a somewhat weird pacing. There are glimpses of what is to come, but this is too much Guy Ritchie "wannabe", and not that much original Matthew Vaughn. Probably would have been a better experience if this script had been given over to Ritchie in the first place...
With a runtime of 1 hour and 45 minutes long, this is a Guinness World Record for the longest movie audition for Daniel Craig as James Bond.
I hope he gets the role.
movie sucked.. I have no other way to explain it.. waste of time
Still a good crime movie. Not as good as the early Ritchie's but very stylish on its own merits.
I'd have loved a director's cut at some point these last 15 years to beef out the ending a little more. Or have I missed it?
7.75/10
My god, I absolutely hate the films that end up killing up the main protagonist. Tell me whatever you want, but for me, movies are a fantasy, not a reality check. So, this movie is absolute garbage. Full stop.
Disappointed by Guy Ritchie's projects after Lock Stock and Snatch, I turned to the work of early collaborator Matthew Vaughn in search of a similar fix. After about thirty minutes with this, though, the truth of the matter became painfully clear: Vaughn needs Ritchie just as much as Ritchie needs Vaughn. It's an unpolished picture, all twist and no character - the polar opposite of Ritchie's latest caper flick, RocknRolla.
Layer Cake's heart is in the right place, with a setup so familiar it may as well have come straight from the same brainstorming sessions that produced the duo's earlier collaborations. But try as it might, this film just can't manage to grant its players the same kind of mettle that was so present in those preceding pictures. They're lifeless before running into a violent end, going through the motions but lacking the conviction to make their words feel authentic. And there are no less than three dozen of them, many of whom are on screen for less then ten minutes, playing major off-camera roles amidst all of the twisting and the turning. I had a hard enough time remembering everybody's names, let alone keeping track of their ever-shifting allegiances.
Convoluted, conflicted and confusing, this is a cake that needed a bit more time in the oven. Or more frosting... everybody loves frosting.
LAYER CAKE caught me by surprise, from trailers it was safe to assume I could settle for a low-focus style action comedy/drama just to chuck up a laptop and have it on in the background, I was very wrong.
Although its presentation is very reminiscent of a classical action film the film is very mature and sparse with its use of action and tends to focus a ridiculous amount of depth on the inner workings of the drug trade itself. Daniel Craig lends a solid performance to the film and it easy to see early in his career the bond blood in his veins. His natural leadership despite his young appearance makes for a character strung up by the doubt from his peers, and in some ways from the audience as it becomes quickly apparent how brilliant his reactivity is to plot scenarios. The way the story intertwines itself in absolution, whilst not compromising the realist perspective of life in crime is a joy to watch and never questionable, each plot device and decision has a level or "Layer" of its own justification.
This is a film that demands a re-watch just to re-consider each name unapologetically thrown into the mix as cartels and drug lords butt heads. It is a film that never attempts to compromise itself for its viewer and its use of action and violence is brutal but not gratuitous, and only accompanies a point of urgency. Editing has moments of flash and sub-par cutting that throw off narration and cutaway scenes which can be distracting for the time being but other than a few technical hiccups it is a well paced experience.
7.3/10
Better plot and story line
Another favorite..as well as USUAL SUSPECTS
I would give it a 8/10 but too many names and confusing plot after one hour.It became wayyy complicated and it could be better.
More gangster glamorising. Some of violence is completely mindless and sometimes I wondered what was going on or what the point was. It goes from one crime plot to the next with the types of characters you expect.
Maybe i wasn't in to the movie but i didn't understand anything out of the plot
Brutal and disturbing but also intriguing and with lots of plot-twists.
Shout by Pradipa PRBlockedParent2023-11-19T08:54:23Z
Layer Cake is a stylish British crime drama with a keen eye for cinematography. Daniel Craig's performance as a savvy amateur crook already gets mentioned frequently, but I'd like to highlight Matthew Vaughn's slick directing, crafting some of the slickest transitions and interesting camera work depicting deaths and pivotal moments in the film. You can almost glimpse the blueprint of his future projects like First Class and Kingsmen.
The script might not break new grounds; it offers the expected crime film twists and turns, but enough to keep you glued to your seat and enjoying the ride--as long as you get your eyes fixated on the screen and not on your phone like most Netflix goers nowadays. The film veers into a Fargo-esque vibe as events spiral out of control as the characters straddling through the chaos. As with Fargo, there is no real focus on making them "interesting" and just a depiction of how they navigate through the haywire they got themselves into. In the end, everything is artfully resolved.