Formula
51: A Samuel L. Jackson Joint Formula
51: A Samuel L. Jackson JointI have never seen a movie where characters used the "F-word" more than in Formula 51 and that's saying a lot! That fact alone will keep some of you from seeing this movie, and that's cool. The word is used more times than Scarface. More than South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. More than in any Andrew Dice Clay or Eddie Murphy concert film (when Eddie used to be funny). I know what some of you may be thinking. "What did you expect, Durgin? Formula 51 is a Samuel L. Jackson flick!" Yes, it's true, no one utters the term "mother-f*%#er" better and with more feeling than SLJ. You may be surprised that of all the actors with speaking roles in this new action-comedy caper, Jackson utters the expletive the LEAST!
But don't worry. Sam still curses quite a bit. Heck, I felt like cursing after seeing this movie. Fortunately, I don't feel like cursing in this review. Why? Because Formula 51 is a good, f*%#ing movie! It f*%#ing rules, and f*%# anyone who doesn't... Ooops, sorry. Sister Georgina from Our Lady of the Cursed Misery would be so ashamed of me right now. Bad Teddy. Bad Teddy. No, seriously. Truth be told, it took me about 15 or 20 minutes to really get into this picture. But eventually, I just started going with this movie's outlandish, ridiculously profane style. This is one of those bad movies that dares you to love it. And it KNOWS that it is a bad movie, a silly movie, a ... WRONG movie.
Here is the basic plot. Jackson plays Elmo McElroy, whose dreams of being a licensed pharmacist were crushed when he was busted for smoking an illegal substance in 1971 (in an absurd flashback sequence to start the film). Thirty years later, he is a notorious "drug designer" who double-crosses a crime boss known as the Lizard (Meat Loaf) and sets off for Liverpool, England, to sell his so-called Formula 51 concoction to a cabal of British drug dealers. Formula 51 is a mixture of legal, over-the-counter substances that when blended together is "51 times more powerful than the best f*%#ing cocaine." Tabbed POS 51, it will take users to the "51st state."
The Lizard, though, doesn't like being double-crossed. He hires a beautiful female assassin named Dakota (Emily Mortimer) to hunt Elmo down and tickle him dead. Through a series of violent and outrageously over-the-top action sequences and chase scenes, Elmo teams up with Dakota's hoodlum ex-boyfriend DeSouza (Robert Carlyle) to hook up with a British criminal (Rhys Ifans) rich enough to pay Elmo the $20-million sum he believes Formula 51 is worth.
It's impossible to relate this film's style in a review. Think True Romance crossed with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and you have a good idea of how Formula 51 plays out. It becomes a running gag that nearly all of the characters in Formula 51 swear in the worst way. Come Friday, I'm pretty sure most mainstream critics are going to lump this film in with much of the recent action garbage that has hit theaters, dreck like The Tuxedo and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. But that would be doing the film a disservice. This movie has flow, it has personality, and it has entertainment value.
First-time screenwriter Stel Pavlou gives his story an air of unpredictability that I found totally refreshing. The film never takes itself seriously. Not for one single moment. Witness a scene where a crooked police detective (Sean Pertwee) is interrogating a dying crime boss (Ricky Tomlinson). The scene flirts with becoming a dark torture bit similar to the infamous ear sequence in Reservoir Dogs, but instead ends with one of the biggest laughs in the picture. Elmo and DeSouza are also tailed by a group of neo-Nazi skinheads throughout much of the film. Each time the bigots get close, though, the littlest one ends up getting punched, kicked, or whacked in the face making them all look like total boobs. And it's never explained why Jackson wears a kilt for nearly the entire picture. He just does, and the sight gag is mined for much humor.
I also enjoyed many of the performances in the film, especially Jackson who does not play down to the low-brow nature of the story. He's just having a ball in this picture. At one point, after several failed attempts to sell his formula, the cops bust in on him and SLJ rages, "Can't a brother sell some God-*%&^# drugs?!" At the same time, I wasn't able to take my eyes off of Mortimer anytime she was on screen. She's the bad girl/action heroine that Lucy Liu and Jennifer Love Hewitt wish they were.
Formula 51 has been released in various stages throughout Europe over the last year or so as The 51st State. Changing the title for its North American release is perhaps the worst decision that has been made concerning this film. It makes it sound like a race-car picture. Simply put, I enjoyed Formula 51. The movie will not be everyone's drug of choice, and that is to be expected. But it gave me a good buzz that stayed with me all the way on the drive home.
Formula 51 is rated R for about 2,000 instances of profanity; cartoonish, yet bloody violence; and sexuality. As for the violence, some in the Washington, D.C., area may be disturbed that the first time we see Dakota, she is killing a man from a sniper's post.
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