Samuel Leroy Jackson is a charming fellow, a provocative, talented actor and a rugged individualist. He also looks simply fabulous in a Scottish kilt.
That still does not excuse Formula 51.
This is his old/new action McMovie, a McMediocre co-production from Britain and Canada. With its dubious Scottish subtheme, it was shot two years ago in Liverpool with an international cast led by Hong Kong director Ronny Yu for Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis.
Oh, yes, our hero wears the kilt throughout, except in the pot-smoking scene that opens and the nude scene that closes (when Jackson shows off his bare butt and love handles).
The movie is the source of some confusion. It was filmed under the title The 51st State and then was held up while it was sold worldwide. Then the American distributor fussed about the content -- including Jackson's cock-of-the-walk kilt caper -- before the movie was finally released now, under its revised title but with the kilt intact. Yet some reference books and internet sources think these are two distinct movies. That would be two too many.
Under any title, Formula 51 is a muddled, badly conceived and poorly executed excuse for an ultra-violent action picture. Especially one that also harbours pretensions of being a cultish comedy and an oddball gangster romance.
Jackson plays an outlaw U.S. chemist named Elmo McElroy (this has slave-owner significance in the so-called plot) who murders a cabal of gangsters and flies to England to sell his latest invention, a miracle recreational drug.
In Liverpool, things go awry, of course, and Jackson's slick deal turns into a war involving psychotic skinheads, crooked cops, an unlikely femme fatale assassin (Emily Mortimer), a lunatic football-loving punk (Robert Carlyle), an eccentric nightclub king (Rhys Ifans) and sundry other lowlifes including Elmo's old nemesis, The Lizard (Meat Loaf).
Basically, everyone except Jackson (because he's too cool) and Mortimer (because she's too dull) chews up the scenery. Instead of acting, they mostly scream, posture, flail and splatter all over the screen when they die. Meat Loaf in particular is so off-kilter it wipes out how well his acting career had been developing in quality films such as Fight Club.
As for the story line, it turns out that it's an anti-drug statement -- in the sense that it makes the lust for drugs look stupid and vile. The movie is, however, pro-murder as a way to solve your problems. Now that's a good social statement.
None of this should actually be a surprise.
Yu, best known in Hong Kong for the 1993 feudal era action-romantic The Bride With White Hair, has gone goofy in Hollywood. Before Formula 51, he did Bride Of Chucky. Next up in 2003 is Freddy Vs. Jason. So just what did anyone expect?
(This film is rated AA)
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