Music

Watch Formula 51 tonight at 9pm ET on AUX Box Office

by Allan Tong

A Hong Kong director makes a British gangster flick set in Liverpool and stars American, Scottish and English actors.  Ronny Yu’s overlooked 2001 movie centers on kilt-wearing Elmo McElroy (Samuel L. Jackson) is an American chemist who travels across the pond to sell his new, blue concoction which he boasts will get users so high they’ll feel like they’re trvelling to ‘the 51st state.’ The ultimate high.  Unfortunately, Elmo gets stuck in Merseyside with an escort (Robert Carlyle ) and his ex-girlfriend (Emily Mortimer), who lead him through a maze of deceit and double-dealing and double-crosses.

Great, another British gangster film, you say.  Not quite.  Formula 51 has enough laughs and slick pacing to rival anything by Guy Ritchie, or Tarantino for that matter.  Add to this a super soundtrack that mixes techno, club, rap, or hip-hop music and you have two hours of solid fun.  (And did I mention that Meatloaf cameos as a dude called The Lizard?)