"Criminal. Class." This is The Gentlemen. This action crime film written and directed by Guy Ritchie. Mickey Pearson is an American expatriate who became rich by building a marijuana empire in London. When word gets out that he's looking to cash out of the business, it soon triggers an array of plots and schemes from those who want his fortune.
In early May 2018, at the Cannes Film Festival, it was announced that Ritchie would be writing and directing a film that would be in the same spirit as Ritchie’s earlier films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000). Filming was expected to begin in October. By November, Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant were cast. Kate Beckinsale was originally cast but dropped two days after shooting commenced. Dockery ultimately replaced her. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place at West London Film Studios, London, England.
The film stars McConaughey, Hunnam, Golding, Dockery, Strong, Marsan, Farrell and Grant. Despite good intentions, the performances came off as both crude and annoying. Of the ensemble, only McConaughey truly shows his class, delivering an amusing yet emotive performance amongst a group of actors who, at best, are pandering to laddish culture. While ostensibly rooted in the London underworld, McConaughey's drug dealer was probably the most interesting element of the plot and the film's clearest predecessors were all American: Dick Tracycomics, Damon Runyon stories, and zany Marx Brothers comedies.
The Gentlemen is a grimy, crude, and derivative twist on the Tarantino hip gangster formula. Though perhaps a case of style over substance, Ritchie's return to form crime caper is full of snappy dialogue, dark comedy, and interesting characters. What am I to say of Ritchie's new film, which follows the formulas of his earlier films so slavishly it could be like a new arrangement of the same song? Ritchie seems to be stepping backward when he should be moving ahead. Ritchie may be skilled at generating controlled chaos, but his surprise-a-minute strategy ultimately holds no surprises. There's just not a lot of fun to be had here. The plot is too convoluted, too filled with double-reversals and twists for us to turn our brains off, relax and watch Ritchie's kinetic visual style. What we have here is a gaudy mess. At times it feels like it's being made up as it goes along. The best one can say is that it's a smart cartoon, and a fairly exhausting viewing experience. The humour is as rude and crude as the characters, but the picture certainly isn't lacking in energy. There are far too many tokenistic soundtrack and cinematographic throws of the dice. If only it could have resisted revelry in its own style and violence, it might have been one 1999's best films, due to its performances and clever plot twists. The film is not boring, but it doesn't build and it doesn't arrive anywhere.
Simon says The Gentlemen receives:
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