MOVIE · 2001

Formula 51

ActionAdventureComedyCrimeDramaThriller93 min

Samuel L. Jackson is Elmo McElroy, an American master chemist who heads to Liverpool with a designer drug formula and plans for a lucrative sale. Instead, the job collapses into a maze of double-crosses, hired guns, and police attention, forcing Elmo to keep moving through the city’s underworld while the money and the formula draw competing players. Robert Carlyle and Emily Mortimer circle the deal from different sides as Elmo tries to stay ahead of the people who want a cut—or want him dead. Ronny Yu’s film mixes crime caper plotting with chase-heavy action and a distinctly turn-of-the-century British setting.