It's evident that Guy Ritchie is trying to grow. Either bored or desperate to escape the world of "cheeky chappy" British criminals he made Swept Away. Nothing more needs to be said about that. But then he spent 18 months of his life writing this piece. And in many ways that is terribly depressing, much like the finished product. From the trailer this looked like it could be his masterpiece. A dialogue free short selection of clips, all beautifully stylised and inviting. And it's true that the only reason you should even go and see this is the look of the piece. A quite beautiful collection of shots and styles. Anything else to recommend? Well no. From the constant repetition of meaningless and foolishly pretentious quotes littered throughout the narrative to the utterly stupid characters (Ray Liotta is embarrassing) this is the perfect depiction of turkey. Simply throwing ideas around without the intelligence, it seems, to actually see what they mean Ritchie only proves that he has lost it. Jason Statham's voice-over soon becomes mind numbing and meaningless and the constant barrage of images induces headaches. It's quite impossible to describe how awful this confused mess is. Finally what is even more apparent is that Ritchie is clearly ripping off other films. From the mysterious presence of a crime boss called Mr Gold that reminds strongly of The Usual Suspects to the cartoon violence scenes so clearly ripped from Kill Bill Ritchie allows what originality he had to slip away. Quite ironic considering he's trying to broaden out.
A cinematic turd and without doubt the worst film of the year.
A cinematic turd and without doubt the worst film of the year.