Formula 51

Director Ronny Yu (Bride of Chucky) unleashes a sort of Hong Kong action-comedy version of a Guy Ritchie (Snatch) or Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) film. The profanity is rudely nonstop, and the gunplay and chases are shot and edited so individual scenes have the feel of ricocheting bullets. The latter kinetic effect is exhilarating but generally wasted in a derivative story of drug deals, betrayal, seedy romance and violence that wants to double at times as comic relief. Master chemist Elmo McElroy (Samuel Jackson in a kilt) develops a drug that is 51 times more potent than other street drugs of choice. He double-crosses a drug lord called The Lizard (Meat Loaf) and attempts to sell his drug formula to Liverpudlian criminals with Lizard in pursuit. Robert Carlyle co-stars as a mob henchman who discovers his former girlfriend (Emily Mortimer as an ace assassin) is shadowing Elmo. The film was made two years ago and debuted last winter in Britain as The 51st State.