Movie Review: The Gentlemen (R – 147 minutes)

I remember watching Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998 and thinking that it was different than most other things I had seen. Guy Ritchie established the cockney-gangster genre dealing with their hijinks in some seedy areas.  The movie was hilarious and violent with some really fascinating characters.  Not to mention that it introduced the world to Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones the actor (some were already familiar with Vinnie Jones the footballer).  The movie covered four friends as they dealt with trying to repay a £ 500,000 gambling debt.  

Ritchie followed with Snatch in 2000 and RocknRolla in 2008. These movies all deal with a twisty story running through a lot of various groups of off the wall characters.  The Gentlemen is definitely a shift back to that type of movie.  The story is told by way of tabloid reporter Fletcher explain what he thinks is happening to gangster Raymond.  Raymond works for American marijuana mogul Mickey Pearson who is running an empire in the UK.  He has decided he’s ready to retire and is looking to sell his entire business.  He’s chosen to sell it to another American, Matthew Berger.  

Before the deal goes through, Mickey has to deal with rival gangster Dry Eye who is sort of working for a heroin kingpin named Lord George. There’s also a minor-level royal named Pressfield involved and his heroin-addicted daughter, Laura.  In addition to that, there’s a group of high-energy boxers/youtubers and their Coach who get tangled up with the situation and that’s not mentioning Fletcher’s boss Big Dave and Mickey’s wife Rosalind, who seems to be running a chop shop of sorts.  Oh – and a Russian oligarch and his hitmen.

That sounds complicated and that’s really just the folks involved without touching on the actual plot itself. There’s a lot happening, which is what Ritchie specializes in – a lot of characters who all get involved in what should be a simple and straightforward situation. It’s really fun and feels a bit like a throwback to his earlier work.  Like his other movies, there are at least a couple of scenes that I found uncomfortable. In Lock Stock, a guy takes a machete to the shoulder, and spends some time like that.  In RocknRolla, there’s a bit with pigs I don’t care for.  Here, there’s another pig sequence that upsets me as well as an unnecessary and insulting near-rape. Also a ton of casual racism - so much casual racism. It's really unnecessary, doesn't serve any point, and seemed far more obvious to me here than in any of Ritchie's previous movies.  Those bits were uncomfortable. I think they could have been eliminated and without affecting the story.  In any case, if you like some of Ritchie’s other work, you’ll like this. The entire cast is great and you can tell they are having fun in these insane roles.

Hugh Grant is at his scummy best when playing the tabloid creep Fletcher.  Charlie Hunnam is excellent as Raymond – and honestly, this maybe where he should hang out. I did see Ritchie’s King Arthur movie, and Hunnam is better here. 

McConaughey slinks through the movie and feels a little like he is playing himself.  He fits the marijuana kingpin role with ease - I saw someone mention how much more interesting it would have been if Nicholas Cage was playing that role - that would have been amazing! Originally Kate Beckinsdale was cast as Rosalind but scheduling conflicts had Michelle Dockery replace her.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t really affect the movie, there’s not a ton of great female roles in this and as much as Rosalind gets touted as tough, she still ends up having to be saved by her husband - again, enough with rape and near-rape as character development and plot points - it's lazy.

Henry Golding is equal parts smooth and slimy as Dry Eye and Tom Wu returns to Ritchie work as Lord George.  

Colin Farrell was fun as Coach and really made me wish he had started working with Ritchie earlier. 

I did find my self missing Jasons Statham and Flemyng as well as Vinnie Jones. It would have been nice to see them return.  Overall, the movie is fast-paced and definitely a return to classic Ritchie flicks.

7 out of 10

A standout for me was Bugzy Malone as Ernie, one of the boxers.  Yes, that's him doing the song as well. The boxing crew were easily some of the most entertaining characters with some of the funniest scenes.  Also - be sure to note that Legends of Tomorrow’s Franz Drameh is back there as one of his crew!  Bugzy is a grime artist from Manchester. 

You should probably get familiar with grime as Stormzy is about to hit big in the States.  Grime might be simply described as British rap, but it is more than that.  It first popped up in London in the early 2000s, coming out of UK garage music with influences from jungle, dancehall, and hiphop.  It’s fast, syncopated with heavy backbeats, and typically aggressive and often more electronic than American rap. There are those who are saying that it has begun to soften as it begins to crossover to more mainstream audiences.  Bugzy Malone is just one of many grime artists – I already mentioned Stormzy, but there’s also Leathal Bizzle, Skepta, Dizzee Rascal, AJ Tracey, D Double E, and Wiley.  As a bonus, here’s one of my favorite Wiley songs (which I wouldn't really call grime), featuring a verse by a big time D.J. who acted in Ritchie’s RocknRolla and should be Bond but isn’t.