Product Details

• Actors: Lucy Akhurst, Michael Attwell, Christopher Biggins, Ian Burfield, Brian Conley
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Portuguese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: April 3, 2001
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000056WQY
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #80,829 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Circus" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Circus is an appropriate title for this busy British three-ring caper film. John Hannah is the amiable ringmaster, a gambling junkie and "the smartest man I know" according to all his acquaintances. Which doesn't quite explain why everyone targets him as a patsy in their elaborate scams and schemes. There are plots aplenty here: frumpy accountant Peter Stormare hires Hannah to murder his wife and then videotapes the deed for collateral in a blackmail scheme. Upwardly mobile thug Brian Conley pressures Hannah to run his casino while plotting his demise. Sexy Famke Janssen puts on her slinky best femme fatale pose as Hannah's girlfriend with a questionable past, playing the players against one another. That past catches up with her when Fred Ward, an old partner in crime she abandoned holding the bag years back, arrives for payback. Almost too clever for its own good, Circus is an ingeniously engineered mercenary free-for-all thick with secret alliances, double-crosses, hidden identities, and a plot that twists into a new direction every five minutes. What it misses in all the self-conscious plotting is a human equation. Hannah's grinning, easygoing attitude and Janssen's sultry air of mystery help fill out the characters, but the only real satisfaction coming at the end of this crack caper is its sheer logistic perfection. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description
Leo and lily garfield dream of an escape from the drudgery of everyday crime. Together they mastermind an audacious scam that draws an assortment of outrageous and dangerous characters into their tangled web. Every encounter poses the question who is lying and whos telling the truth? Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 04/03/2001 Starring: John Hannah Peter Stormare Run time: 95 minutes Rating: R

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lock, Stock and 5 Conniving Criminals., April 20, 2001

By	Bradley Tobin (Penrith, Sydney NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

If the like a movie with Twists and Treachery, Deception and Double Crosses, then "Circus" should be Right up your Alley.

John Hannah and Famke Janssen star as a Husband and Wife in Debt up to their Criminal Eyeballs. Their plans to become Debt Free, Decent Citizens are Marred by a Bunch of Shady Characters, including Peter Stormare as a Computer Hacker / Blackmailer, Fred Ward as a Bank Robber / Hit man, Brian Conley as a Casino Owner / Mob Boss, Tiny Lister Jr as a Henchman and Eddie Izzard as a Loanshark.

The Performances are Great all round, not One Actor Hogs the Screen or Bogs its down, but no one really Stands out neither. If I had to pick one performance that I liked best, I'd have to choose between Izzard and Conley. They both play their Tough guy Thug roles to a Tea. (excuse the lame "tea" pun)

"Circus" has been promoted as another "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" Rip-off, but that is Misleading. It rarely shoots for Comedy, but when it Does, it hits the mark. It is Darker, more Mature, more Americanised and it has a more "Film Noir" feel.

Some may feel that the film gets Buried under a pile of Illogical Twists, and Dim-Witted Double crosses. Many Critics have said that, but I disagree. If you get into the story, and keep track of whose who, you'll most likely Enjoy yourself.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, October 18, 2001

By	Lisa "cakeordeath820" (Wheeling, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Circus (2000) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I was expecting to love Circus. I really like crime movies, and I'm in love with Eddie Izzard. But this movie was a bit of a mess. The plot was confusing, the script was so-so, and the acting could have been better. It's worth seeing once if you're an Eddie fan.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Izzard Blizzard, October 29, 2002

By	Looky Lou (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Fairly soggy with enjoyable aspects. Has the feel of an initial effort by a smart and creative director who hasn't yet gotten his storytelling chops honed. Feels like the director loves con films enough to savor the details saying to his viewer "but I don't have to tell you how that works..." without quite having the panache to pull off the genre. John Hannah - charming but poorly directed. Famke Janssen is implausibly beautiful and not charasmatic enough to be paired believably with Hannah. Brian Conley as mob boss cliche stinks up the screen and Eddy Izzard is wasted in a ill-concieved bit part but still burns up the celluloid.

To fix this movie: Break the screen into four panes ala the DVD cover. Put Eddy izzard in one and let him do his act. Put John Hannah in a second and show him smoking a cigarette. Put Famke Janssen in a third alternately laughing fetchingly at Izzard and batting her eyes at Hannah. In the fourth panel run The Sting...