Fantastically kooky British heist film.

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2010)

While my favourite film in this genre is still Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels this is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable British heist film. Without giving anything away the film is about the heist of a huge diamond and the convoluted and comic path it takes as it changes hands between various members of the British underworld. Jason Statham is as usual pitch perfect as is, surprisingly, Brad Pit whom I don't usually really love. The rest of the cast is made up of a collection of very well cast character actors, all of whom shine. Especially noteworthy is a wonderfully sinister and kooky mob boss played by Alan Ford. The exception to this is Benicio Del Toro who plays a suave, slick, gangster / hand off man. His fake Jewish / eastern European / who the hell knows what accent is so thick and off the wall that one can't help but laugh at his character (and not in a good way). Brad Pit's accent may be just as thick but he manages to pull it off in a wonderfully goofy way while Del Toro just comes away looking stupid. Thankfully he plays a relatively small role. Speaking of accent, accent plays such a central role in this film, both as comedic relief and general backdrop that one almost feels that it becomes a character in and of itself. Like many such films in this genre it's well worth a 2nd watch just to unravel it's complex plot and character interactions.