THE GENTLEMEN: Is Guy Ritchie the Tits or an Arsehole?

Guy Ritchie is back to his roots with a fresh Cockney gangster film.  The Gentleman focuses on an American weed tycoon in England looking to get out of the game, cash out and retire.  The film centers around this transaction with a host of outside players weaving their way into this tale.  The movie is narrated internally by Hugh Grant's character as he attempt to blackmail himself a piece of the pie.   That's all the detail I'll go into about the plot as we keep it spoiler free around here.

So the question is, was this a return to form?  Is Guy Ritchie back in a big way?  The short answer is maybe.  Its complicated.  The Gentlemen has some glaring flaws at the start but then suddenly it hits a classic Guy Ritchie pace in the middle and blazes to the finish line in style.  The slow burn of the first nearly, half, of this film make it tough to take but once he kicks into gear the amazing banter between characters, the bullets start flying and the twists and turns of the plot unravel, its a beautiful thing to behold.

The bad has to really begin with Charlie Hunnam.  To be blunt, I hate him as an actor.  I don't believe he's salvageable when it comes to performance.  He's only and always Jax Teller.  He can't be anyone else apparently not even when he uses his native accent.  The accent makes it so much worse because his accent seems fake because it not pronounced so his dialogue comes off so trash.  He is horrible at hitting comedic notes and timing and if he never acted again it would be too soon.  Funny enough, even though he's a central character in the film, thankfully his presence doesn't hurt the overall main action since its mostly just him in a narrative conversation with Hugh Grant's character.

Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, Matthew McConaughey, and Michelle Dickerson are absolute gems in this movie and they take on the mantle set by the previous iconic characters of Lock Stock and Snatch and Rock and Rolla.  They all hit the notes beautifully and produce some fun quotable scenes, some hilarious situations and some damn cool action that are staples of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie.  Guy isn't known for his female characters at all, in fact they are notably scarce in most of his movies of this ilk which shines a bright light on how fantastic a job Michelle Dockery does as the boss bitch wife of Michael (McConaughey).  She has a couple of the best scenes in the whole movie and slays them.  Colin Farrell as The Coach is my favorite character for sure.  He's funny and unfuckwithable as the wildcard along with his young gang of rapping fighters (yes you read that right and it works so well).

All in all I won't say this is a must see, but it DOES end up good if you stick out the slog of the beginning.  I'm thankful it didn't disappoint me and you can confidently put this one right in with the rest of Ritchies awesome Cockney gangster catalog.