Also checked out the most recent Guy Ritchie movie The Gentlemen. This film bring Ritchie back to his tough guy crime roots after spending time making Disney and King Arthur movies (to various levels of success and failure). His early works include (also at various levels of success and failure) Snatch, Rocknroll, and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels as reference to what he’s doing here.
The Gentleman stars a bunch of people in a film about a marijuana-growing empire in Great Britain. Matthew McConaughey plays the drug kingpin who uses various desperate British lords to hide his empire. He wants to retire so he’s trying to sell his business… but various people are trying to drive the price down or in some other ways profit. Hugh Grant plays a tabloid journalist trying to shake down Charlie Hunnam. Henry Golding plays the son of a crime lord who wants in on the deal. Colin Farrell is a casually disinterested boxing coach who gets involved. Michelle Dockery, who I’m not familiar with from Downton Abbey, plays a cockney-spewing high class dame and she’s brilliant.
I don’t think this movie starts well… I was very uninterested and wasn’t paying enough attention. I say that because the movie gradually starts to get pretty cool. The cockney accents start flying, there’s random violence and chases, and this tough guy crime drama became a lot of fun. It ain’t deep and it’s not the best movie, but there’s an underlying sly charm to it.
I’d like to say the plot is convoluted and confusing… and I really think it is… but I also have to acknowledge I was partly checked out in the early scenes so that’s my fault. So I’ll just say try to keep up… but even if you don’t, I think you can just go with the movie anyways. I suspect it’ll be a better movie on second viewing when the twisty plots and double-crosses are easier to track.
So, yeah, kind of a pleasing sit, as it turns out. A twisty bit of fun with a lot of actors who themselves just appear to be on set to have a good time. I kind of recommend this one if you want some of that old Guy Ritchie crime flicks. And if you like these actors.
Score: 82