The Gentlemen (2019)

I finally watched "The Gentlemen" or otherwise said, the return of Guy Ritchie to his main genre, probably something that could be called "British gangster action/comedy/thriller". Even though we had some bits and pieces of that also in "Sherlock Holmes" or in "The Man from UNCLE", the series that practically defined the genre started in '98 with "Lock, Stock..." and took a break in 2008 with "RocknRolla", hitting a peak with "Snatch", which stays as definitive reference.

"The Gentlemen" starts slowly, with a story told one evening by a private investigator who bring together the tangled pieces connecting a pot grower who wants to sell his business with his potential clients - actually only one. The purpose of the whole story is a simple blackmail for start, undoubtedly getting more complicated as we get through it. But to stick to my spoilers free rule, let's let the movie do his job for the rest of the story. In summary, we have the typical entanglement present also in the above titles, which is part of their charm after all, adding new threads to the subject as it evolves and more and more colorful characters.

All the build-up part in "The Gentlemen" up to the first scene, so to the present day, goes on for as much as three quarters of the movie, and the action really pushes the acceleration pedal only in its last quarter, which might make the rhythm to seem a bit aged compared to its younger predecessors. That was the reason of complaint for some early reviews as far as I remember. But if we check the composing pieces, some artificially introduced - fake story in the story, these maintain a certain dynamic which I find to be more than decent. Add to that the editing style which makes up for half of the movie - besides James Herbert, the editor who's working with Ritchie since long ago (you can notice similarities with "The Man form UNCLE", "Sherlock Holmes", etc), we also have Paul Machliss on the credits ("Baby Driver", "Scott Pilgrim"), so you can imagine the result. Top that with the brilliant ensemble cast, where again I'd rather let the movie tell what's to be told. Even though the story is rather predictable and clearly not as consistent as "Snatch", everything besides it dresses is extremely well. To conclude, we have a revival of the genre + in general an example of how a movie targeting pure entertainment should look like.

Rating: 4 out of 5