Synopsis: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
Critic Reviews
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
It has the requisite flash and profane dialogue that movie audiences seem to like these days, but very little else.
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Jeff Stark, Salon.com
Director Yu seems far more interested in gross-out humor than in showing us well-thought stunts or a car chase that we haven't seen 10,000 times.
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None of this makes a lick of sense, and the appalling unfunny story goes from bad to worse.
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Ted Fry, Seattle Times
After all the gunplay, explosions, foul-mouthed witticisms, and bloody carnage that fuel this amusingly forgettable trifle, Formula 51 is fundamentally about Samuel L. Jackson in a kilt.
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Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
It isn't simple bad taste that Formula 51 deals in, but a total vacuum of feeling.
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Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
It's no sin to try too hard. But in Formula 51, the effort shows. And in breezy, bloody, offhand action comedies, that's a cardinal sin.
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