Film Review: The 51st State (2001)

During the first years of Tony Blair’s government concept of “cool Britannia” has made Britain something of a promised land and perfect setting not only for romantic comedies, but also for low budget Tarantinoesque crime comedies. One example of the latter can be found in The 51st State a.k.a. Formula 51, 2001 British film directed by Ronny Yu.

The film has a prologue set in 1971 America where Elmo McElroy (played by Samuel L. Jackson) has recently gained degree in pharmacology but arrest for marijuana possession precludes his regular work in the field. His talents were, however, recognised by people on the other side of the law and thirty years later Elmo designs drugs for vicious Los Angeles drug lord The Lizard (played by Meat Loaf). His most recent creation is POS 51, synthetic drug which is 51 times more powerful than any other drug and 51 times cheaper to produce. Instead of giving the formula to Lizard, Elmo escapes to Britain where he hopes to sell it to Liverpudlian crime lord Leopold “Leo” Durant (played by Ricky Tomlinson). Durant sends Felix DeSouza (played by Robert Carlyle), one of his associates, to greet Elmo and help with the deal. Things get complicated when Elmo gets targetted by Dawn “Dakota” Parker (played by Emily Mortimer), assassin hired by Lizard who also happens to be Felix’s former girlfriend.

The 51 State is the only screenplay in the career of Stel Pavlou, written in 1994 and partially inspired by the friends he made while studying at University of Liverpool. The script tries very hard to give a local flavour what would otherwise be more generic blend of Pulp Fiction and Trainspotting, two influential films of previous decade. Homage to those two films is, among other things, paid by having prominent actors from those two respective films – Samuel L. Jackson (Jules in Pulp Fiction) and Robert Carlyle (Begbie in Trainspotting) as main members of cast. Those two appear to have great fun in their roles and establish good “buddy buddy” dynamic. The rest of the cast, that features some prominent British actors, is also good, with possible exception of Emily Mortimer whose character is actually quite forgettable. Some critics and more sensitive viewers might complain about extreme violence, foul language and toilet humour, but majority would set that aside due to good use of electronic dance music, Liverpool locations and some references to English football that are quite rare even in British cinema. Hong Kong director Ronny Yu delivers extremely fast pace, resulting in 93 minutes of running time, which is quite unusual for today’s standards, but also allows less perceptive audience to ignore some of the film’s flaws and lack of depth. The 51st State didn’t have much success at box office, but most of those who see it will conclude that such fate was undeserved.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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