Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The 51st State / Formula 51
2001
*
Director: Ronny Yu
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Meat Loaf, Rhys Ifans

A recreational chemist with a groundbreaking new product double-crosses a drug kingpin and flees to Liverpool where he buddies up with a local thug. The Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting influences are obvious, but this mindnumbing mess gets everything wrong (the dialogue is offensive but unwitty, the soundtrack is omnipresent but lacks a single memorable tune, the screen is inhabited by unpleasant caricatures instead of characters). The shaggy dog ending makes you want to beat yourself blue for not giving up on the film earlier.