First-time screenwriter Stelios Pavlou enjoyed a major success with this script that he wrote while working in an English liquor store by sending it to actor Samuel L. Jackson, who signed on for one of the lead roles. Jackson is Elmo McElroy, a kilt-wearing, golf club-wielding Los Angeles native who has invented an illegal drug formula that he hopes will provide him with a last major score of 20 million dollars before he retires from a life of crime. He travels to Liverpool, England, where he
hopes to find a buyer for his creation among the denizens of the city's rave scene, but his plans go awry when those who are in on the deal start turning up dead. Elmo's only protector is a chain-smoking, Yank-hating local hood named Felix De Souza (Robert Carlyle), who reluctantly partners with the violence-prone American to finish the deal and cash in, sparking a gang war between Elmo's vengeful one-time employer, The Lizard (Meat Loaf); Felix's boss, Durant (Ricky Tomlinson); crooked cop Virgil Kane (Sean Pertwee); a beautiful assassin, who also happens to be Felix's ex-girlfriend (Emily Mortimer); and an offbeat, yoga-practicing nightclub owner and mobster named Iki (Rhys Ifans). For its U.S. release, the title of The 51st State was changed to Formula 51. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
After creating the most addictive drug known to man, Samuel Jackson and Robert Carlyle go on the run looking for a buyer in what turns out to be a joyride of a movie that takes its inspiration from similar films that have come before it.
Elmo touts his drug as being 51 times stronger than coke. If you're looking for a tale of Brits behaving badly, watch Snatch again. It's 51 times better than this.
With an unusual protagonist (a kilt-wearing Jackson) and subject matter, the improbable "Formula 51" is somewhat entertaining, but it could have been much stronger.
A kilt wearing American pharmacologist comes to Liverpool to sell the formula for a new kind of street drug, but his former employer sends a hitwoman after him to ensure he fails. The 51st state is very frustrating to watch as I couldn't help feeling that there was a decent film in there somewhere trying to get out.
The problem with it is its unbelievable lack of subtlety; it's over directed to the point where it feels like a clip show for CSI: Miami on crack, the constant, overly intrusive MTV soundtrack is abysmal and the constant stream of wacky comedy criminals made it feel like "Carry On Gangsters". Samuel L. Jackson is always watchable when he's allowed to strut his stuff and Robert Carlyle gets more tolerable as the film goes on, but its scattershot approach means that it misses the mark at least as often as it hits. In the end, one decent action sequence and a couple of mildly amusing gags is not enough to fill 90 minutes although Sam does make it watchable. Just. But I would never, ever sit through it again.
May 18, 2007
xGary Xx
Super Reviewer
After reading the script I can safely say this is another example of a producer having absolutely no clue what he's doing and the hire of a poor casting director. A wasted opportunity!
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