Synopsis
An American master chemist plans to score big on a once in a lifetime drug deal. All does not go as planned and he is soon entangled in a web of deceit.
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Cast
- Samuel L. JacksonElmo McElroy
- Robert CarlyleFelix DeSouza
- Emily MortimerDakota Parker
- Meat LoafThe Lizard
- Rhys IfansIki
- Sean PertweeDetective Virgil Kane
- Ricky TomlinsonLeopold Durant
- Michael StarkeArthur
- Anna KeaveneyShirley DeSouza
- Paul BarberFrederick
Recommendations
- 75
Boston Globe
Bloody and bloody funny, and Jackson and Carlyle make the best salt-and-pepper team since Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte knocked heads in ''48 HRS., '' but ultimately the movie can't find a way out of its own dead end. - 63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
A formula flick. And the formula is not 51 times more entertaining than usual. Maybe 1.5, at best. - 50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Outrageously confident and wearing a kilt through the mayhem, Jackson proves once again that he has few equals in bringing off a broad, over-the-top lead. - 40
TV Guide Magazine
Cocky, vulgar and very noisy picture. - 30
Village Voice
Emily Mortimer and Robert Carlyle generate heat as criminal lovers, but most of the cast just engages in embarrassing scenery-gnawing. - 25
San Francisco Chronicle
It isn't simple bad taste that Formula 51 deals in, but a total vacuum of feeling. - 25
Chicago Sun-Times
A fourth-rate "Pulp Fiction" with accents you can't understand. - 25
New York Daily News
Only Emily Mortimer maintains a measure of dignity, playing the slinky assassin named Dakota. Whether her restraint was by her design or the filmmakers', she'll come to appreciate that she all but disappears amid the caterwauling and purging of a story that should have died in Liverpool.
