Guy Ritchie only does one thing but he does it very well: slick, violent, sweary, black comedy capers about the unlikely intersection between toffs and the criminal underworld, invariably starring ex-footballer Vinnie Jones as a loveable tweed-wearing thug. If you were hoping for something different from The Gentlemen, prepare to be disappointed.
If, on the other hand, you can never quite get enough of shotguns, stately homes, frantically crowbarred-in but still-quite-amusing one liners, rival gangsters, vast quantities of claret (in both vinous and sanguinary forms), torture, dolly birds, travellers, slightly annoying solecisms, fights, gambling and fat lines of cocaine, then this will be your cup of tea, guvnor, and no mistake, innit, what ho, old chap.
The experiment would be more interesting if it weren’t so obviously rigged
Vinnie Jones stars – no, I jest, it’s not that bad: he just plays the rough-diamond factotum who runs the estate and will no doubt be getting his boss out of all manner of scrapes like Jeeves with knuckledusters. The main character is Eddie Horniman (Theo James), who, despite being the second son, has just inherited the Dukedom, the big house and the 15,000-acre estate – much to the annoyance of the feckless coke and gambling-addicted first son Freddy (Daniel Ings).
Do ducal heirs ever get cut out of the succession in this way? I don’t think so. But the implausible premise sets us up nicely for a silly but enjoyable plot in which capable, smooth but tough ex-army officer Eddie has to undo all the damage repeatedly created by his incredibly irritating spendthrift elder brother.
The estate, of course, is on its uppers. Or it would be, except for the fact that – with the previous Duke’s permission – it has been used as a base for an underground marijuana processing factory supervised by Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) while her London crime boss dad Bobby (Ray Winstone) languishes in prison.
Fans of torture, dolly birds and fat lines of cocaine will love The Gentlemen
14
0
28.03.2024
Guy Ritchie only does one thing but he does it very well: slick, violent, sweary, black comedy capers about the unlikely intersection between toffs and the criminal underworld, invariably starring ex-footballer Vinnie Jones as a loveable tweed-wearing thug. If you were hoping for something different from The Gentlemen, prepare to be disappointed.
If, on the other hand, you can never quite get enough of shotguns, stately homes, frantically crowbarred-in but still-quite-amusing one........
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