Flawed. Too many plot holes and boring at times. XXXX thought he was very smart and gets toasted often and a big bang in end. Many situations and the way the whole film moves, doesnt feel real even for a movie. Maybe the director and script writer were also high on a dose.

Layer Cake is the directorial debut from British director Matthew Vaughn. The film stars Daniel Craig as XXXX, a man with no name. XXXX is, as he eloquently states "I'm no gangster, i'm just a businessman whose commodity happens to be cocaine". The main plot of the film sees XXXX tasked with two objectives his supplier Jimmy Price(Kenneth Cranham), before he can retire from the business.Firstly he's tasked with finding the daughter of a powerful businessman, Eddie Temple(Michael Gambon), whose a friend of Jimmy's. Secondly he has to negotiate with an unhinged dealer named Duke (Jamie Foreman). Duke and his gang have stolen 1,000,000 ecstasy tablets, from a gang of Serbian war criminals. The gang unleash an assassin only known as Dragon to track down and retrieve the stolen merchandise and exact retribution on anyone involved.Layer Cake is an extremely well crafted gangster thriller. The film has a-lot of plot threads intersecting throughout, which is both a benefit and a hindrance. It can take a couple of viewings to piece together everything that happens. However when it is put together the film makes sense and there aren't any glaring plot inconsistencies, which makes for a rewarding experience.Daniel Craig gives a fantastic performance as XXXX, in a role many credit for him receiving the role of James Bond. The film also has a brilliant supporting cast, filled with plenty of recognisable veteran British actors peppered through-out. Michael Gambon, Colm Meany, Tamer Hassan and George Harris all turn in solid performances. Featured alongside them are the newer faces of Tom Hardy and Sienna Miller.After a spate of rubbish British gangster films in the early 00's, Layer Cake hits the mark. The films screenplay is treated with maturity unlike a-lot of other films in the genre. The characters are also developed beyond having a cool nick-name like Bullet-Tooth Tony. The film is also well paced, rarely getting bogged down in too much plot exposition. Except for one flashback scene, which stands out like a sore thumb, with too much exposition being thrown at the viewer.Matthew Vaughn's debut feels more subdued stylistically then his more recent films. His direction is more minimalist and not as flashy as other directors in the genre. The film focuses on characters first and foremost. Instead he uses his style to add depth to a scene, on in- particular being a scene in a diner that is spectacularly violent, but shot from the victims pov.The only downside i have with this film is that, even as a Brit some of the dialogue is hard to understand. Especially actors with thick Northern accents. Whilst the film congeals together in the end, there are A-LOT of characters in the film. I found it near impossible to know who was who and what there motivations were. The film definitely plays far better upon a re-watch, but that shouldn't be the case.Layer Cake is the best British gangster film since The Long Good Friday. it's a film that stands amongst the giants of the genre. The film is a tense thriller, with multiple twists and turns. It's a film that has substance to got with the style.

First of all, I have to say I knew nothing of this movie, except Daniel Craig was in it and was directed by Matthew Vaughn (one of the main reasons I watched this movie). I was totally surprised with this movie. It was awesome!It tells the story of an unnamed person, XXXX (Daniel Craig), a drug- dealer who wants to retire from his job, but he receives two final assignments from his boss that will make his and his partners life very difficult.The story is well introduced to us, as well as the main character, and from the first minutes I got hooked into the story and I couldn't stop watching it. One of the main reasons to watch this movie is Daniel Craig. He is awesome in his role of the cocaine dealer, and I'm sure that from this role, he got the one of the following Bond movies, but his character in here is nothing similar like Bond. Also the other actors were great in their roles, even if it were small. From Michael Gambon, George Harris, Colm Meaney or Tom Hardy to actors like Ben Wishaw or Sienna Miller they all played a good part in their roles and added a lot to the story. I specially liked Michael Gambon in the role of Eddie Temple and George Harris in the role of Morty.One of the best things of this movie is all the editing, camera work and cinematography. Matthew Vaughn did an awesome job in here capturing all the places they visit in London and also capturing the feeling of the dark places of the city. All of this is mixed with some truly amazing scenes, like the one with Morty hitting one character in a bar, which is show from the perspective of the victim, another one where XXXX infiltrates in the house of one of the characters during the night, the great opening of the movie or the amazing (and surprising) ending of the movie. All of this accompanied at parts with awesome pop-rock songs and at other parts with the amazing score by Ilan Eshkeri & Lisa GerrardI truly recommend this movie who anyone to want to watch a entertaining movie with a good writing, great performances and some plot twists that will keep you staring at this movie through all of it.

.. you've got two of the most captivating people on the planet.. and you only make use of one of the two... not sufficient. When she is on-screen she is way dynamic.. but look back this entire film and add up the scant few minutes she's there, it's lacking. The script gives little to capture. This is an actor driven production.. and although there are several very good cameo roles, they're not enough to carry the full production. No question, it was not deemed to be a male/ female story-line.. but with such two special actors, the viewing audience feels as if it's been cheated. With just a bit of deliberate forethought it could have been so much more.