Wodehouse farce, but with more blood

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 1999)

People have complained about this for being sub-Tarantino but it's not at all like, say, Reservoir Dogs; it just looks that way because of the blood and the swearing. At heart this is a P G Wodehouse-type farce with antique guns instead of cow-creamers and dodgy back-room clubs instead of Picadilly gentlemens' clubs. Lots of running around and shouting keeps the pace lively and the jokes - and all-important set-ups - are genuinely funny. This film comes as such a relief after the anodyne sentimentality of Sliding Doors and the pseudo-intellectual witticisms of Shakespeare in Love (they were funny in their own way, but their own way can be a bit annoying). It's so great to see the old music-hall farce routines united with the modern gritty shoot-em-up so harmoniously, and that the result is still funny is really something to admire.