Any Guy Ritchie film I've seen, he always delivers, especially when he's writer and director. This one follows in the tradition of "Rocknrolla", "Snatch", and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", the story layered with multiple sets of gangsters trying to outdo each other for the grand prize at the end of the flick. I got a kick out of the opening scene in which the bartender pouring Michael Pearson's (Matthew McConaughey) pint pulls down on the bar tap handle reading 'Ritchie Sewing Company', a self promoting piece of business I found pretty clever.
This one doesn't seem to be as hard to follow as the earlier mentioned films. All of them prompted a second viewing to catch all the nuance of the characters, but this one, even with the chronology going back and forth, was pretty straightforward. That's probably due to the format, essentially a narration of events by journalist Fletcher (Hugh Grant) relating his investigative work to Pearson's right hand man, bodyguard and driver Raymond (Charlie Hunnam). Colin Farrell's character is simply known as 'Coach', and he's drawn into the story by virtue of his gangsta underlings botching a take down of one of Pearson's weed farms. What could have been an ancillary character winds up being central to the outcome of the story.
And just about when you think it's over, another twist occurs with the introduction of a Russian oligarch and his mission of revenge for the death of his son. All the while you have to wonder how the picture's principal character, that would be Pearson, manages to come out of the story intact, considering all the bad guys who want to do him in. It's a fun watch if you go for this kind of stuff, made all the merrier by the script's creative use of the English language. You know, maybe I will watch this all over again.
This one doesn't seem to be as hard to follow as the earlier mentioned films. All of them prompted a second viewing to catch all the nuance of the characters, but this one, even with the chronology going back and forth, was pretty straightforward. That's probably due to the format, essentially a narration of events by journalist Fletcher (Hugh Grant) relating his investigative work to Pearson's right hand man, bodyguard and driver Raymond (Charlie Hunnam). Colin Farrell's character is simply known as 'Coach', and he's drawn into the story by virtue of his gangsta underlings botching a take down of one of Pearson's weed farms. What could have been an ancillary character winds up being central to the outcome of the story.
And just about when you think it's over, another twist occurs with the introduction of a Russian oligarch and his mission of revenge for the death of his son. All the while you have to wonder how the picture's principal character, that would be Pearson, manages to come out of the story intact, considering all the bad guys who want to do him in. It's a fun watch if you go for this kind of stuff, made all the merrier by the script's creative use of the English language. You know, maybe I will watch this all over again.