Matthew Vaughn has learned a lot from Guy Ritchie. The producer of "Lock Stock", "Snatch" and "Swept Away" made his directorial debut with "Layer Cake" and provided his audience with everything that they expect from a modern British crime thriller. Vaughn is clearly a man who loves London, and he has worked closely with cinematographer Ben Davis to show the city's glamorous side, as well as its dark underworld.
There is a lot of surface glitz in "Layer Cake" and the story is hardly an original one, but it is well written (adapted from his own novel by J J Connolly) and well acted by a fine cast that includes some of the UK's best character actors. What sets it above the slew of post-"Lock Stock" Brit gangster flicks of recent years is its conviction. The story is played straight and any moments of humour arise naturally from the interplay between the characters. The cinematography is blessedly free of pop video tics, but Ben Davis is not afraid to view things from odd angles. The scene where a beating is viewed from the victim's perspective is particularly well shot.
This is the most important lesson that Matthew Vaughn has learned from Guy Ritchie. Shooting a film like it's a pop video and filling it with comedy stereotypes only works once. Vaughn deserves credit for taking a stale Brit-flick genre and giving it a much-needed injection of style, instead of trying to copy "Lock Stock" like so many before him (including Guy Ritchie's "Lock Stock" re-tread, "Snatch"). "Layer Cake" is up there with "Get Carter" and "The Long Good Friday". It doesn't get much better than that, son.
There is a lot of surface glitz in "Layer Cake" and the story is hardly an original one, but it is well written (adapted from his own novel by J J Connolly) and well acted by a fine cast that includes some of the UK's best character actors. What sets it above the slew of post-"Lock Stock" Brit gangster flicks of recent years is its conviction. The story is played straight and any moments of humour arise naturally from the interplay between the characters. The cinematography is blessedly free of pop video tics, but Ben Davis is not afraid to view things from odd angles. The scene where a beating is viewed from the victim's perspective is particularly well shot.
This is the most important lesson that Matthew Vaughn has learned from Guy Ritchie. Shooting a film like it's a pop video and filling it with comedy stereotypes only works once. Vaughn deserves credit for taking a stale Brit-flick genre and giving it a much-needed injection of style, instead of trying to copy "Lock Stock" like so many before him (including Guy Ritchie's "Lock Stock" re-tread, "Snatch"). "Layer Cake" is up there with "Get Carter" and "The Long Good Friday". It doesn't get much better than that, son.