After a couple of forays into non-gangster genres to try and prove his worth as a director, Ritchie has returned to his bread and butter, the British gangster film. I was a big fan of Lock Stock, and even more so for Snatch, which I considered his greatest work but it seems Ritchie has become too far removed from his mean and lean years. Ironically he's like an old rocker trying to rewrite his early hit, only to put out an inferior work that is just a pale imitation of former glory.
First of all, this movie is a mess. A big mess. It makes you realize that what was great about Lock Stock and Snatch was not the intricate interweaving plot, but the characters. Characters make a movie, if you don't have that, you ain't got shinola. Sometimes you can gloss over this with snappy dialogue and good action, but sadly, this movie has neither. In fact, very little of what any of these people do makes any sense in this movie. People get shot but don't bleed, Russian gangsters shoot aimlessly into ceilings, or stop chasing somebody for no apparent reason. Some people found the whole chase scene with gangster amusing. I found it absurd, and not in a good way. I had a lot of promise, a really big dude, and a guy with a ridiculously cut body, but it's almost as if Ritchie just gave up on it and decided to move with the plot.
Oh yes, the plot. There's not much of one, something about a painting that you never see (clearly a ripoff - sorry "homage" to Tarantino) and some money and a really forced ending that comes out of nowhere. I think the script feels half baked, and probably could have used 3 or 4 more rewrites, removed some characters and tightened it all up. The funniest part is that Ritchie has the stones to assume he will be making 2 more of these movies before even finding out how well this one does. Well, judging from the box office results, apparently not very well. Sorry Guy, who took the jam out of your dough nut?
First of all, this movie is a mess. A big mess. It makes you realize that what was great about Lock Stock and Snatch was not the intricate interweaving plot, but the characters. Characters make a movie, if you don't have that, you ain't got shinola. Sometimes you can gloss over this with snappy dialogue and good action, but sadly, this movie has neither. In fact, very little of what any of these people do makes any sense in this movie. People get shot but don't bleed, Russian gangsters shoot aimlessly into ceilings, or stop chasing somebody for no apparent reason. Some people found the whole chase scene with gangster amusing. I found it absurd, and not in a good way. I had a lot of promise, a really big dude, and a guy with a ridiculously cut body, but it's almost as if Ritchie just gave up on it and decided to move with the plot.
Oh yes, the plot. There's not much of one, something about a painting that you never see (clearly a ripoff - sorry "homage" to Tarantino) and some money and a really forced ending that comes out of nowhere. I think the script feels half baked, and probably could have used 3 or 4 more rewrites, removed some characters and tightened it all up. The funniest part is that Ritchie has the stones to assume he will be making 2 more of these movies before even finding out how well this one does. Well, judging from the box office results, apparently not very well. Sorry Guy, who took the jam out of your dough nut?