Synopsis:
Guy Ritchie is back with another English underworld/crime thing.
Review:
Gerard Butler, Idris Elba, Thandie Newton, and Mad Bane headline this ensemble work of people that talk funny. The non-dentally impaired include Ludacris and Jeremy Piven. You'll also remember Mark Strong from Kingsmen, who could be Stanley Tucci's double. As usual, it's not as good as the gold standard, Snatch, but it's also tolerable unlike the flaming piece of shit that was Smoking Aces. I'd even put it above Way of the Gun and Lock, Stock....
Leonidas, Luther, and Mad Bane are strong-arm thieves in debt to the local gangster-type old dude. Thandie (Karl Urban's woman from the second Riddick flick) is a bookcooker for a Russian mobster doing biz with the old thug. She's also stealing from the Rooski. Mark Strong is the thug's righthand man while Ludacris and Piven are the managers for the thug's kid, a rock star who faked his own death so his sales would go up. The common macguffin moving everything along is a painting, much like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction or the diamond in Snatch. The dude playing the junkie, eurotrash rocker is some motherfucker I don't know, but apparently he was Dr. Doom in the latest F4, Koba in the last Whatever of the Apes, and landed a role in the upcoming Warcraft POS. He was semi-interesting.
Verdict:
Better than I thought it'd be.