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Movies / On DVD / I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

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I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2004)

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Reviews Counted:85

Fresh:36

Rotten:49

Average Rating:5.5/10

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, a rape scene, violent images and brief drug use

Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Jun 16, 2004 Limited

Box Office: $212,359

Synopsis: Cars full of fast-talking British hoods and rain-soaked city streets in the dead of night--that's the stuff of which Mike Hodges's (CROUPIER) impossibly cool neo-noir gangster thriller is made.... Cars full of fast-talking British hoods and rain-soaked city streets in the dead of night--that's the stuff of which Mike Hodges's (CROUPIER) impossibly cool neo-noir gangster thriller is made. Clive Owen plays Graham, a former top mobster who has since retired to a nomadic life in the woods. His little brother Davey (John Rhys-Davies) meanwhile swaggers through posh parties back in the city, dealing drugs and engaging in freewheeling sex and petty thefts until he's violently sodomized by a white-haired car dealer (Malcolm McDowell). His subsequent suicide brings Graham back into the seedy underworld he left behind on a mission of revenge. Before he can find his brother's rapist though, he has to tangle with the new head bad boy in town (Frank Stott), who thinks Graham's come to take his old spot back. Much like Simon Fisher Turner's dissonant, avante-jazz score, the film dodges a straight-ahead story and instead breaks out in moody variations in the key of noir. Fatalistic dialogue, extreme masculine anxiety, a cast teeming with eccentrics, desolate streets, gray beaches, darkened elevators, and foreboding alleyways all blend into an atonal crime-jazz poem. The inestimable Charlotte Rampling plays Graham's concerned, and much older, ex-girlfriend. Fans of the more classic gangster entries may rest assured Graham eventually does rain violence down upon the deserving. [More]

Starring: Clive Owen, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Malcolm McDowell, Charlotte Rampling

Starring: Clive Owen, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Malcolm McDowell, Charlotte Rampling, Frank Stott

Director: Mike Hodges

Director: Mike Hodges
Screenwriter: Trevor Preston
Producer: Michael Corrente, Michael Kaplan
Composer: Simon Fisher Turner
Studio: Paramount Classics

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Release:

Nov 16, 2004

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Reviews for I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
10/29/03
Channel 4 Film

The intermittently violent film, set in the London underworld, reeks of incoherence and disappointment.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
07/02/04
E! Online
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
07/10/04
Boston Phoenix

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat

Revenge is a dish served again and again in the movies, and connoisseurs will note the special British flavor that Mike Hodges brings to the table.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
06/17/04
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Does the film work? All I know is that it stays in my mind for its ambitiously autumnal essence, but it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
06/30/04
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...while...a solid entry in its genre, it suffers in comparison to both Croupier and Get Carter.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
07/01/04
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

Undone by murky motivations, rhythmless dialogue that often sounds like treatise dissertations, a particularly unpleasant (and unconvincing) homophobic subtext and a stonewall lead performance from the usually charismatic Owen.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
07/02/04
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Perhaps a little too slow and not much of a payoff, but this latest from the infrequent Mike Hodges will do until he's ready for another.

Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX) | comment Comment
07/22/04
Boo Allen
Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead deftly traces the sad, steady pulse just under the skin of things . . . the lingering images etching out their own fitting epitaph.

Full Review Source: Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada) | comment Comment
02/10/05
Brian Gibson
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Mood and portent can conceal any number of flaws in movies about the thug life.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
07/09/04
Carla Meyer
Carla Meyer
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Stylish filmmaking and philosophical musings can only disguise a lack of movement for so long. The trouble with I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is that it's already dead...

Full Review Source: AboutFilm.com | comment Comment
07/06/04
Carlo Cavagna
Carlo Cavagna
AboutFilm.com

... Hodges is the kind of director who can breathe new life into old material with an offhand, deceptively minimalist approach.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal | comment Comment
08/13/04
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Even Clive Owen can't bring the level of this movie up from an average revenge flick.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
07/30/04
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

more ghost story than revenge tale

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
06/26/04
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti
Filmcritic.com

Owen has some very un-Bond-like accessories here -- a hillbilly beard, a sleeping bag, a chainsaw -- but his commanding performance keeps I'll Sleep solid.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
07/23/04
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Only after they take off in their car does Will step forward, then stand over the victim, looming and gloomy.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
07/02/04
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Hodges and Preston have a commendable attitude, but with the thin story and shallow characters, even the right idea doesn't seem as interesting as it should be.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
08/20/04
Dan Lybarger
Dan Lybarger
Kansas City Star

Ace noir title, OK noir movie.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
09/03/04
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

...the story unfolds too slowly to hold much interest...

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
10/29/03
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
 
 
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