Another stylish gangster comedy from Guy Richie

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2020)

This film from 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' creator Guy Richie is centred on more gangsters, hard men and chancers. The intertwining story lines feature Turkish and Tommy, a couple of unlicensed boxing promotors who get in a spot of bother when their fighter gets beaten by 'One Punch Mickey', an Irish Gypsy, just before a fixed fight... the boys must get Mickey to fight for them if they are to avoid being fed to the pigs by mobster 'Brick Top'. Meanwhile Franky Four Fingers has stolen an eighty six carat diamond in Antwerp only to go missing in London... many people are after the diamond. Inevitably the two plots will eventually collide.
There may be a fair amount of violence and few of the characters are really that nice but this film is a lot of fun. There are laughs in most scenes whether it is the sight of incompetent thieves trying to rob a bookies which has no money, a dog that squeaks because it has swallowed a squeaky toy or gangsters armed with replica pistols the gags all hit the mark. The cast is large but the characters are all very distinctive so one is unlikely to get confused about who is who. I don't think there were any weak links amongst the cast which includes the likes of Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro, Vinnie Jones and Dennis Farina amongst others. Not surprisingly Brad Pitt is probably the most memorable with his fine performance as Mickey; a character whose accent is deliberately almost impossible to understand at times. Overall I'd say that it doesn't matter that the film is more style than substance... that doesn't matter when it is as much fun as this. If you liked 'Lock, Stock' you will want to see this.