Feature
Review | Formula 51
Written by: Brian
Orndorf
On the audio commentary for the 1999 film “Deep Blue Sea,” star
Samuel L. Jackson pretty much admits that he took the role when he was
promised plenty of time to shoot golf, and access to some of the best
courses in Mexico. This was before his check-cashing turn in “XXX’
came along, and it broke my heart a little to hear that. So now comes
“Formula 51,” with Jackson playing a man who carries around a golf
club, tags some balls when he’s got time to kill, and dispatches bad
guys with his 3 wood. How am I supposed to take him seriously as an
actor anymore?
Elmo McElroy (Samuel L. Jackson) is a world class chemist, who,
after one drug bust in 1971, has spent his life concocting narcotics
for a rabid drug dealer known as the Lizard (Meat Loaf). When Elmo
comes across a formula that is 51 times stronger than any drug on the
market, he double-crosses Lizard, and heads to Liverpool, England, to
finalize a deal with drug kingpins there. His escort is a diminutive
henchman named Felix (Robert Carlyle, “Trainspotting”), who
unwittingly becomes Elmo’s partner when the deal turns sour.
Promised a percentage of the fortune, Felix tries to restage the deal
with another buyer (Rhys Ifans, “Notting Hill”). Trouble comes
when Felix and Elmo learn that every cop, skinhead, and a mysterious
hit woman (Emily Mortimer, “Lovely And Amazing”) is hot on their
trail for the money and the formula.
No matter how you slice it, “Formula 51” is a very odd action
comedy. While English by birth and financing (the film was released
everywhere else around the globe a year ago as “The 51st
State“), the film tries just about everything to become a Hollywood
shoot-em-up picture. The director is Ronny Yu, who made a name for
himself as the director of the cult hit “The Bride With White
Hair,” and is most recently the man known round the dials as the
reinventor of the “Child’s Play” franchise with his delightfully
lunatic “Bride Of Chucky” sequel. Yu is an extreme stylistic
director, and “Formula 51” is a film that never stops. Yu infuses
the film with an unbreakable energy that carries it through most of
the rough patches. Like “Chucky,” it’s not a great directing
job, but more importantly, it’s a breathless one.
“Formula 51’s” speed comes in handy with some of the more
unpleasant situations encountered in the story, which include an
annoying overuse of the F-word, a scene where Jackson’s character
slips a group of skinheads a pill that make their bowels
uncontrollable, and any moment featuring the unbearable Meat Loaf. The
movie reaches such a fever pitch, that there’s actually a shot where
a monkey continuously back flips! Around the halfway mark, I began to
go from a frown to a slight smile at the nonsense presented in front
of me. Like the recent “The Transporter” and “Knockaround
Guys,” “Formula 51” is a bad film, but its sheer madness is
borderline enchanting.
But what to make of a film where Samuel Jackson is the quietest guy
in the room? I never thought I’d see the day, but the normally
overpowering actor is stuck here reacting to all the mayhem around
him. Thankfully, Jackson has surrounded himself with some top British
talent in Carlyle, Mortimer (who’s oodles of fun as the hired
killer), and Ifans. Those three take the film and steal it away from
Jackson, who was probably more interested in breaking his slice
anyway. Carlyle and Mortimer even smash a very difficult clichй
of the action film, and make their romantic subplot the most affecting
thing in the entire movie. Maybe someday we’ll see a film just about
those characters, as they makes “Formula 51” rise above itself for
mere seconds, but it’s worth it.
Grade: 6 out of 10
COMMENTS
Date/Time of Posting: Oct 18 2002 / 05:14:37
IP Address: 24.154.91.83
name = Steve
Email = movieman129@hotmail.com
comments = This week 'Formula' gets a 6/10 and 'Ring' got a 4/10? It's
rather strange considering it looked pretty horrible from the
trailers, whereas 'Ring' looks throughly intreguing.
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