Reviews of the Bosch

                We conclude British gangster month with Layer Cake , another debut for a promising director, Matthew Vaughn. He’s made a name for himself for his style, kinetic action choreography that’s a visual marvel usually paired with an excellent script and intriguing characters in films like Kick-Ass , X-Men: First Class , and Kingsmen: The Secret Service . He had produced the previous films of Guy Ritchie giving him experience in the British crime genre, which combined with his unique flavour and energy make Layer Cake an incredibly underrated gem of a gangster film.                 Based on the novel by J.J. Connelly who also wrote the screenplay, the film concerns an unnamed protagonist credited as XXXX (Daniel Craig) an accomplished drug manufacturer and distributor with plans on an early retirement. He makes a quiet living off the business, aided by an e...

Snatch is Guy Ritchie’s follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and you can definitely tell. It’s very much like that last film which is both its saving grace and its Achilles heel, resulting in a good but not great movie. But still one entertaining enough to seek out. Boxing promoters Turkish (Jason Statham) and Tommy (Stephen Graham) convince a dangerous gangster called Brick Top (Alan Ford) to add their champion to the bets of his bookies. However that champion is injured and they’re forced to replace him with the man who injured him: an incomprehensible Irish gypsy (“pikey”) Mickey O’Neil (Brad Pitt) who may get them into further trouble with the mobster. Meanwhile the architect of a major heist in Antwerp Franky “Four Fingers” (Benicio del Toro) is delivering the prize diamond to Doug (Mike Reid) the British cousin of New York jeweller Avi (Denis Farino), but his gun-seller Boris “the Blade” (Rade Serbedzija) looks to steal it himself. There are certainly simil...

Aside from the kid who helps around the villa, there was not a significant character in Sexy Beast who was under forty. If nothing else that’s impressive, especially for a film with the word ‘sexy’ in its title. Fortunately there are a number of other impressive aspects to this film. It too is a directorial debut this time from Jonathan Glazer (who most recently directed Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin ) and also pays off as quite a good starting point for a director. Not amazing, but a good one. Gary “Gal” Dove (Ray Winstone) is a safe-cracker who after some prison time has put his criminal past behind him and retired to a villa in Spain where he lives in luxury with his wife Dee-Dee (Amanda Redman) and their friends Aitch and Jackie (Cavan Kendall and Julianne White). However his former associate the manipulative sociopathic Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) arrives to recruit him for one last job. He wants Gal to participate in an elaborate bank heist organized by crime lord Ted...

                Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is the directorial debut of Guy Ritchie who’s gone on to make among others the Sherlock Holmes films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.   His name has somewhat become synonymous with British gangster films because with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels he practically reinvented the genre. He made the film eighteen years after The Long Good Friday and made it stand out by heavily stylizing it and infusing it with elements of comedy and caper films. The result is a wild and outrageous but exciting and intense triumph!                 Four friends Eddy (Nick Moran), Tom (Jason Flemying), Bacon (Jason Statham), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher), pool their money so Eddy who’s a card-shark can afford to play a game of three card brag with mob boss “Hatchet” Harry Lonsdale (P.H. Moriarty). But his enforcer Barry the Bap...

            Who doesn’t love gangster films? They’re thrilling, dramatic, and often action-packed, with writing and performances that at their best can make you relate to an ensemble of violent, morally ambiguous criminals. But there’s a sub-genre of gangster movies that has its own charm, tropes, and style: the British gangster film. British gangster films (or British crime films) are more than just Goodfellas in London, but they reflect the unique culture of British organized (and unorganized) crime. Where an American gangster film commonly has a tone of drama and suspense throughout, their British equivalents often seem to employ a more darkly comic edge rounded with a cast of colourful characters (and language), intrigue, and themes that are inherently British. They give a very interesting perspective on British culture, crime, and character. And because of my fascination with this, and realization I haven’t seen enough films of this genre, each Wedne...