Formula 51

December 10, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 92 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Formula 51 is loud, mindless, illogical, but full of style, action and one liners. So suffice to say we liked it. This is another of those movies that is the very reason for this site’s existence. We predict most “critics” will hate it. However, we checked our brains at the door and had a great time.

Formula 51

Samuel L. Jackson plays Elmo McElroy. That’s right. A large black man named “Elmo” who also wears a kilt. And yes, Jackson does use the “MF” word multiple times in the movie, but we’re not sure if it has anything to do with the kilt.

Elmo received a pharmaceutical degree, graduating with honors over 30 years ago. However, he gets busted on graduation day for marijuana possession and loses his license. When we catch up with Elmo in the current day, he’s a master chemist for a drug lord producing state of the art recreational drugs. His latest creation is P.O.S. 51, which is supposed to be 51 times as powerful as cocaine, heroine and any other drug you can name. And more importantly it can be made using substances that are readily available over the counter worldwide.

McElroy wants to sell his formula and every drug lord in the world wants it. If they cant have it, they want to be sure the competition cant have it either. This puts Elmo in the middle of a tug of war. Jackson plays it cool as a cucumber the entire time as you’d expect while the cast of characters around him are mostly incompetent buffoons. This makes for an interesting cross between action and comedy. Being set mostly in England, the movie also has a very British style to it.

Formula 51 is far from a masterpiece. This is not Pulp Fiction. Some of the situations are just stupid, some of the jokes do not work. And the few scenes where the movie attempts to get serious are just plain awkward. Despite all of these flaws, we really enjoyed the movie. The action and comedy that did work were enough for us to have a good time at the theater for 90 minutes, and that’s all we ask of a movie.

Posted by MFG Staff | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Emily Mortimer, Meat Loaf, R, Rhys Ifans, Robert Carlyle, Samuel L Jackson, Theatrical