My friend had his wisdom tooth removed and I helped him KO appropriately by renting this amazingly complicated Brtish gangster flick. I saw it a about a month ago, but was reminded to write this review, after reading that the main actor, Craig, was being considered to be the next James Bond. First word of advice is to turn the subtitles on, unless you're a British Isles native, the accents involved will very quickly make you lose track of the story. Second word of advice, do not watch this if you have a short attention span, little patience, or are looking for a comedy. I have yet to watch a more complicated movie, think of it as: Snatch multiplied by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to the power of Snatch plus three Snatches.
Daniel Craig is very good in his smarty-pants gangster role, good enough for me to sincerely wish him well, and therefore, not to obtain or pursue seriously this James Bond role. The rest of the gang also performs well, and I really can't criticize much on their side... The main problem with this movie is the level of complication, brought by thousands of side-characters and subplots, etc. It all is believable, though I can't really confirm, considering my lack of mob connections, but Vaughn could probably have directed a much superior movie, had he cut a lot of the crazy twists. Connolly's script is full of great gotcha dialogue, but again, he probably should have either cut more from his novel or told the movie dudes, that considering the density of stuff happening, his novel was un-filmable... again despite this, if you hang on to your helmet, you'll probably end up entertained.
I would not call this a very good DVD purchase, though this would have the merit to allow you to re-watch the whole thing enough times to understand what is happening. A Rental for a rainy afternoon is a good idea... not for when you have a bunch of friends laughing with beers, cause nobody's going to understand much.
Daniel Craig (XXXX) - 8/10 - Great, please don't become the next James Bond, leave it to someone really desperate.
George Harris (Morty) - 8/10 - Great.
Colm Meaney (Gene) - 8/10 - Great.
Matthew Vaughn - 6/10 - Seems to overestimate the intelligence of his audience - then again, I tend to overestimate my intelligence.
Daniel Craig is very good in his smarty-pants gangster role, good enough for me to sincerely wish him well, and therefore, not to obtain or pursue seriously this James Bond role. The rest of the gang also performs well, and I really can't criticize much on their side... The main problem with this movie is the level of complication, brought by thousands of side-characters and subplots, etc. It all is believable, though I can't really confirm, considering my lack of mob connections, but Vaughn could probably have directed a much superior movie, had he cut a lot of the crazy twists. Connolly's script is full of great gotcha dialogue, but again, he probably should have either cut more from his novel or told the movie dudes, that considering the density of stuff happening, his novel was un-filmable... again despite this, if you hang on to your helmet, you'll probably end up entertained.
I would not call this a very good DVD purchase, though this would have the merit to allow you to re-watch the whole thing enough times to understand what is happening. A Rental for a rainy afternoon is a good idea... not for when you have a bunch of friends laughing with beers, cause nobody's going to understand much.
Daniel Craig (XXXX) - 8/10 - Great, please don't become the next James Bond, leave it to someone really desperate.
George Harris (Morty) - 8/10 - Great.
Colm Meaney (Gene) - 8/10 - Great.
Matthew Vaughn - 6/10 - Seems to overestimate the intelligence of his audience - then again, I tend to overestimate my intelligence.