User Reviews

Bearing a wealth of guns, drugs, quirky characters and fiery chase scenes,The 51st State (or Formula 51, as it was known in the US) desperately wants to be a cool, slick, suave black comedy in the same vein as Pulp Fiction or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. With none of the panache, authenticity, or cornerstone performances that made those predecessors into modern classics, though, instead it comes off as a weak, uncertain impersonation. The plot plays it loose and loopy, with characters losing sight of their own motivations between set changes, and becomes especially double-cross happy as the credits near. Samuel L. Jackson plays the only part of note, as nothing more than his standard blue-lipped hardass, while Emily Mortimer is thoroughly unconvincing as a cold-blooded killer and Meat Loaf occupies the bizarre role of a drug-dealing Macguffin who constantly speaks in the third-person. Forgettable, shallow and bland.

Man makes "legal high", crime boss wants formula, man goes to England to sell formula, things go wrong. Loud, crass yet entertaining comedy-action film set in and around Liverpool & features a very strong cast. Did come across as a bit of a poor man's "Lock Stock" & does wander into clichà territory now and then but does have a number of funny lines & moments. Stand-outs are definitely Rhys Ifans, Sean Pertwee & Meat Loaf all hamming it up although not sure about Robert Carlyle & Emily Mortimer's Scouse accents.