More thoughtful than it might seem.

Rating: 6/10 (31 October 2000)

Those content to see Guy Ritchie as an opportunistic poseur might be surprised at the range of references in his new movie - the British Hitchcocks (the plot is a mere excuse for a series of very funny music-hall turns, where practised comedians come on stage and do their thing); Godard (the gangster mechanics are constantly disrupted by digressions and alienation techniques); Melville (like 'Bob le Flambeur', this is an engaging portrait of the underworld as a (multi-cultural) community); Damon Runyon (characters are called things like Boris the Blade); Tex Avery (characters knocked down by speeding cars get up and into the action again); Altman (the varied plot strands).
Obviously Ritchie hasn't the discipline (yet) to touch these masters, but he's cannier than we thought, and you can't argue (literally. Yikes!) with a frequently uproarious film. Vinnie Jones' development as an actor is a pleasure to watch, Brad Pitt is hysterical, and the Pavlovian responses to the word 'gambling' of Franky Four Fingers had me in stitches.