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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Miramax
Salesrank: 42378
Released: March 21, 2000 |
| Our Price: $5.26 |
| Used Price: $4.41 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Hot leading man Rupert Everett (AN IDEAL HUSBAND, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING) stars in a sexy thriller that's all about jealousy, passion, revenge ... and a woman compelled to live her life on the edge! Tired of criminal activity, a wild and beautiful thief named B. (Asia Argento -- QUEEN MARGOT) begins to seek a way out of her dangerous profession. While trying to kick her addiction to crime, she finds love and a stable relationship with a naive schoolteacher (Jared Harris -- I SHOT ANDY WARHOL) ... until the dark secrets from B.'s past begin to creep into her new life! As ex-partners Paul (Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers -- MICHAEL COLLINS) get back in the picture, B.'s harrowing balancing act threatens to come crashing down!
Description of B. Monkey:
Director Michael Radford made a surprising about-face from his international hit Il Postino to this grungy British romantic crime thriller. Asia Argento (Dario's daughter and costar of Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel) is the title character, a street criminal whose specialty is breaking and entering: "I can get into anywhere." Jared Harris (Richard's son and Andy Warhol in I Shot Andy Warhol) is a bookish, shy schoolteacher with a yen for jazz who becomes smitten with Argento's sexy wildcat. Argento brings a vitality to the supercharged street thief trying to break with her past, but stick-in-the-mud Harris is restrained to a fault and Radford never quite finds the right chemistry to make their union any more than curious. Rupert Everett costars as a smart-mouthed, sleepy-eyed ne'er-do-well whose drug habit puts him deep in debt, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is Argento's volatile partner, a jittery young punk on a hair trigger. Radford has more fun with the villains than his ostensible hero; the film bubbles when they're on screen and the movie's single heist scene is a short, sharp, energized shot in the arm to a slowing story. Only Harris sticks out as an impossibly resolute saint who's dedicated his life to a passionate sinner. The conclusion reverberates with echoes of Straw Dogs, as remade by a kinder, gentler filmmaker. --Sean Axmaker
B. Monkey Reviews:
much promise, little execution 
2009-05-09 - A movie that begins with an intricate promise but pewters out right after the beginning and becomes a love/lust story that's neither very passionate nor very romantic.
Not quite film noir BUT... 
2009-02-02 - Still an interesting and entertaining bit of filmmaking. B. Monkey (played with a ferocious sensitivity by Asia Argento) is trying to leave the game and live the life of a solid, respectable citizen. 2 large problems stand in her way: Paul and Bruno (Rupert Everett and Jonathan Rhys Meyers), her old standbys and partners from her life as a smash and grab thief.
There's such an involved dynamic between B./Paul/and Bruno. Paul and Bruno are lovers, but they both seem to have this insatiable appetite for all things B. (not sexual, but emotional/psychological). B. unfortunately leaves the gang behind for boring, safe, and totally-in-love-with-her, Alan. They are the essence of yin and yang; he's the water, she's the fire.
The soundtrack is rocking with old Reinhardt jazz tracks, a little Peggy Lee, and some Barry White to boot. Asia Argento is completely believable as a willful, vulnerable and self-confident thief turned right, while Jared Harris is great as her calming boyfriend. I really think Rupert Everett and Jonathan Rhys Meyers almost steal the show with their antics (especially Rupert). These were early films for the both of their careers, and it showcases their talent for camp, high drama and theater all at the same time.
Liked it enough to buy it. 4 stars!
Monkey around! 
2008-06-09 - Alan Furnace is a young man with the perfectly proper, quiet life of a London school teacher. But beneath all of that decency lies a burning desire for excitement and he just found it. She's a woman unlike any other: Unruly Irish eyes, Latin lips... her name is Beatrice, but on the streets they call her B. Monkey. She's about to take him on an outrageous, dangerous and sexy ride through the wild side of London. Written by Babalu
Beatrice is a smash-and-grab jewel thief, an Italian in London, robbing with her partner Bruno. She and Bruno live with Paul, who's Bruno's lover and a world-weary cokehead in debt to a local thug. Each of the three loves the others. Beatrice quits the game, Paul and Bruno split, and a primary-school teacher named Alan enters Beatrice's life. He romances her with dinners and a trip to Paris to dance at a jazz club. Paul faces pressure to pay, Bruno wants another score, and Beatrice may not be able to trade the rush of robbery for the quiet life of a teacher's wife. Her entanglements with Paul and Bruno may not be easily cut. And what of Alan: will he fight for love? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}
Asiamania Argento
2007-08-20 - i see asia argento first time in this moviie , and she stolen my mind with her median attractive performance and natural "italian" beauty . The scene is standard, the other cast either .... but Asia is really hillary tremendeous made her Asiamania......undersound Jazz performance gave the big influences, made a "class & exotic" movie....so keep on movie my Asia
VERY GOOD....AND VERY BELIEVABLE 
2007-04-06 - I HAVE BOUGHT SEVERAL DOZEN FOREIGN FILMS SINCE DISCOVERING AMAZON. THE MAJORITY THAT I'VE GOTTEN A HOLD OF STINK FRANKLY. BUT THIS ONE DOES NOT. I LIKE IT SO MUCH I BOUGHT MORE TITLES THAT HAVE THIS ACTRESS ASIA ARGENTO IN THEM. THIS STORY IS VERY BELIEVEABLE, VERY " IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU." IF YOURE THINKING ABOUT IT...DO IT. THE PRICE HAS COME DOWN CONSIDERABLY SINCE I BOUGHT IT IN DEC 06. THE VERY LEAST I CAN SAY IS,
" IF YOU TRY THIS MOVIE AND DONT LIKE IT...YOU PROBABLY WONT LIKE ANY FOREIGN FILM. " TO ME, ITS KINDA COOL LIKE PULP FICTION WAS WHEN IT WAS RELEASED...AND STILL IS. AND EXTRA SPECIAL IS THE FACT THAT ITS IN ENGLISH- SO YOU DONT HAFTA TRY TO KEEP UP WITH THE DIALOUGUE AT THE BOTTOM!
