It is hard to believe that Harris will better his performance as Sandeman, Liverpool's most feared crime lord.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2019

Richard Harris is at his weariest, battle-scarred best...

| Jul 6, 2008

Leading man Harris and director Boyd are still capable of invigorating British cinema with style and flair.

| Jul 6, 2008

A fun retelling of the Lear story, taking great liberties with the play's text that makes for a certain amount of suspense even for those intimately familiar with the original.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 21, 2007

Neither an effective gangland thriller nor an achieved elegy for a lord undone.

| Jun 24, 2006

Would get no love were it not for Harris' powerful performance.

| Original Score: C | Feb 12, 2006

We spend so much time trying desperately to get everything straight in our minds that the raw punch of the material passes us by.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Suffice it to say that Shakespeare's sudden and violent ending doesn't translate well into a British crime drama.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 24, 2005

Harris's performance is one for the ages, but the others are also up to his mark.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 7, 2004

Watching Harris ham it up while physically and emotionally disintegrating over the course of the movie has a certain poignancy in light of his recent death, but Boyd's film offers little else of consequence.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 6, 2002

Without Shakespeare's eloquent language, the update is dreary and sluggish.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 6, 2002

The film lost me, and the sad twists of unrealistic mumbo jumbo crescendoing into pure mayhem ruined what could have been a thespian delight.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 6, 2002

The cast reigns supreme, especially Harris, whose regal presence as the aging emperor of gangland grounds the story even as it suffers from narrative overload.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 6, 2002

Whereas last year's exemplary Sexy Beast seemed to revitalize the British gangster movie, this equally brutal outing merely sustains it.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 5, 2002

Gaunt, silver-haired and leonine, [Harris] brings a tragic dimension and savage full-bodied wit and cunning to the aging Sandeman.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 5, 2002

A baffling subplot involving smuggling drugs inside Danish cows falls flat, and if you're going to alter the Bard's ending, you'd better have a good alternative.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2002

Harris commands the screen, using his frailty to suggest the ravages of a life of corruption and ruthlessness.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2002

This ponderous, heavy-handed version of King Lear almost makes me think it's best left to the Americans.

| Nov 19, 2002

The plot is very clever, but Boyd weighs it down with too many characters and events, all intertwined and far too complicated to keep track of.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 6, 2002