So Ritchie took a few detours along the way, but here he is 21 years after Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, weaving together another character-driven, dialogue-dense and quick-moving crimerings. But where LS2SB was rooks, here we have some kings on the board, maneuvering as always.
Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) the Smart Punk from America has grown quite the Weed Empire in the U.K. over the years. But when you hit the top, where’s there to go from there? What’s the new game? Toying with these thoughts, Mickey considers selling off the biz, becoming aristorcracy or something. That starts the first domino tipping, and we watch the rest topple quickly here after that.
You have 4 major character here between McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Hugh Grant and Colin Farrell. All fantastic in their roles. All the secondaries are great too. Some fun The Usual Suspects kind of play at hand too, but up front about it as the skeezy cunt of a ‘reporter’ reveals his story/script as we see the Players always vying for the best piece of the criminal action.
Ritchie started pretty strong with his first film, this sticks a lot to the same formula while plays a bit more on the technical side of looking sharp and a bit of extra touches that seem like they are out of an Edgar Wright film. Very jam-packed and fast-paced, definitely one that requires some close attention for the entire duration. Good characters and dialogue. But damn. Make sure you watch this one earlier in the evening, because you’ll be buggered trying to follow with a few too many beers/whiskeys/cannonballs in ya.
