![]() ![]() ![]() Reviewed at BAFTA preview theater, London, July 2, 1998. production designers, Iain Andrews, Eve Mavrakis costume designer, Stephanie Collie sound (Dolby Digital), Simon (Purple) Hayes sound designer, Matthew Collinge stunt coordinator, Glenn Marks line producer, Ronaldo Vasconcellos associate producers, Sebastian Pearson, Jan Roldanus assistant director, David (Disco) Reid casting, Celesta Fox. Hughes, John Murphy music supervisors, Nicola Fletcher, Cool Music Ltd. Gloria - Suzy Ratner Camera (color), Tim Maurice-Jones editor, Niven Howie original music, David A. Executive producers, Steve Tisch, Peter Morton, Angad Paul, Stephen Marks, Trudie Styler. Pic has an overall ochrish look that fits the mood, and the mostly tawdry sets by p.d.s Iain Andrews and Eve Mavrakis convincingly paint a corner of London’s East End where Richard Burton would have felt at home in “Villain.”Ī Polygram Filmed Entertainment release (in U.K.) of a Steve Tisch Co./SKA Films presentation. As Eddy’s father, Sting is in for only a couple of scenes. Of the central quartet, Flemyng makes the most impact as the red-haired, balding Tom, though he’s overshadowed by the colorful, more brutish characters in the huge cast, such as Moriarty’s Harry, Lenny McLean as Harry’s muscle and, especially, Jones as Big Chris, who comes into his own in the latter stages. The attempt at ironic, Runyonesque humor and phrasing is occasionally successful but does not permeate the script. Ritchie’s snazzy technique, and a busy music track of songs (plus Morricone-ish music by David Hughes and John Murphy), papers over this weakness for a while but when the action pauses and character and dialogue are meant to take over, the movie becomes a progressively cold construct. For a start, there are simply too many characters - confusingly introduced in the early stages - for the viewer to root for, even if they were likable in the first place. Though Ritchie’s screenplay scores a 10 for sheer complexity and cleverness, it rates much lower down the scale for comprehensibility and audience involvement. The only problem is that they have accidentally come into possession of some antique guns highly desired by Hatchet Harry, whose bag man, Big Chris (British soccer bad boy Vinnie Jones), takes no prisoners. ![]() get there first and, after some heavy gunfire, make off with Winston’s cash and plants. Desperate to raise some quick cash to pay off Harry, Eddy happens to overhear a plan by some thuggish neighbors (Frank Harper, Steve Sweeney) to rob a marijuana factory run by Winston (Steven Mackintosh) and some louche, upper-class friends.Įddy & Co. Hereon, the plot spirals off in a dizzying number of directions. Harry’s true goal, however, is to take over a bar run by his archenemy, J.D. The quartet scrabble together £100,000 ($160,000) to get Eddy in on the card game.īut things go drastically wrong during the game - staged in a boxing ring and shot with virtuoso, in-your-face camerawork - and Eddy loses his bundle and ends up owing Harry half a million pounds instead, with a week’s grace before his limbs get broken. Moriarty).Įddy’s pals are flatmate Bacon (Jason Statham), wheeler-dealer Tom (Jason Flemyng) and the more levelheaded Soap ( Dexter Fletcher), who actually has a job as a chef. Set in a grubby, working-class armpit of London’s East End, the complex story centers on four layabouts who cook up a scheme to make some big money by having one of them, cardsharp Eddy (Nick Moran), enter a card game with gangster and porn king Hatchet Harry (P.H. (One scene, in Cockney rhyming slang, is subtitled for comic effect.) On an international level, the film falls more into the category of specialized fare than mainstream commercial, and may possibly have missed the boys-with-guns boat, even in Europe. 23 world preem at the Edinburgh fest.Ĭockney dialogue presents no major problems for North Americans, though it requires some attentiveness. distribs turned it down - and is getting a big ad push in Blighty, where it opens Friday following its Aug. The film is an independently produced pickup by Polygram - after most other U.K. ![]()
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