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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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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating)
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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

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

... 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

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

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

Matching the movie's restrained style, Owen is extraordinarily still, and all the more riveting because of it.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
07/30/04
Eric Harrison
Eric Harrison
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is a movie that will put ADD sufferers to sleep, while simultaneously rewarding those who have the patience to see it through.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
06/14/04
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is Owen's picture. He broods, he seethes, he plots. Sometimes he even speaks, but it's not necessary. One glance from Will is enough to send chills down anyone's spine.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
07/23/04
Jeff Strickler
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Precisely the kind of film that should be seen by insomniacs at some ungodly hour of the night. (The title itself supports this theory.)

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
07/09/04
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

...the sort of showcase for Owen that `earned' him the dead-end job of `King Arthur.'

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
07/09/04
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

...continually thwarts genre expectations with its somber, thoughtful treatment of the brutal subject matter.

Full Review Source: All Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/11/04
Josh Ralske
Josh Ralske
All Movie Guide

In the end, it is the complex aura surrounding Owen's character...that stay with the viewer long after the threads of the story have unraveled in one's mind.

Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | comment Comment
08/13/04
Judith Egerton
Judith Egerton
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

This one's more about mood than anything else. Specifically, it's that gritty, sleek, film noir feeling that Hodges seems drawn to, and which this film delivers in spades.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
07/30/04
Marc Mohan
Marc Mohan
Oregonian
 
 
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