I have been a fan of Guy Ritchie's movies for a while now. My favorites being Snatch, Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels, The Gentlemen. Sherlock Holmes to name a few.
I tend to think he writes some clever dialog, spontaneous action and humor and creatively delightful characters... even the villains.
I think he and QT are very similar in that regard.
I did enjoy this movie a lot, but it wasn't one of his better ones in my opinion.
Jason was jason in this. You can be an action hero, but give me a charater to work with. I loves me some JS, but say you take him in a movie like Wrath of Man and you get where I'm coming from when i say he didn't have a unique character in this movie.
Hugh Grant was as charming in this as he was in The Gentleman. Loved him and he and Josh Harnett had great chemistry. I enjoyed seeing Cary Elwes in a cool role. The action was good, not amazing, though. it was almost run-of-the-mill. But enough to entertain Yours Truly. I'll just say, it's not on John Wick level.
The story was missing the twists you don't normally see coming in a GR film. Very predictable, at least, for me it was. Lots of foreshadowing that could only lead in one outcome.
The humor was clever and I did laugh out loud at some scenes and chuckled in others.
This may be a bit of a spoiler, but nothing that gives away any of the plot. I will say that two things did irk me. But before I say that, I will say that I appreciate diversity and having characters take badass roles who are marginalized in cinema. I suppose Guy was going for a role reversal by having the female make the sexual lewd commnets, instead of the typical male character. I see where he was going, but I also felt it was out of place and done too often.
And as for the black characater, I didn't like him calling Jason S.'s character "boss". Only because he was the sole person to do it. Had the other character working in his team did the same, then it wouldn't have stood out. I did enjoy the respect given between the two men.
Another thing that made me side-eye was in some instances, you expect more urgency and it seemed the characters weren't taking the situation seriously. i kept thinkng, "Shouldn't you be taking care of business right now, Or running?"
But those are my gripes. Also, I see a franchise trying to blossom.
FINAL VERDICT: INNOCENT but you should look up to your older brothers Snatch and The Gentlemen and stop acting like your slacker cousin, Revolver. But, at least you didn't behave like your step brother, King Arthur. Bailiff, you can release this movie, I'll just slap its wrist this time.
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