the gentlemen movie review

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How Does The Gentlemen Do It?

The Gentlemen movie is a ghastly low point in Guy Ritchie’s career, a compilation of exhaustingly hammy performances, throwback racism , and the realization that Matthew McConaughey just isn’t the right guy for Ritchie’s world of quick-talking and fast-firing London gangsters. ( The Gentlemen fell smack-dab between Ritchie’s soulless Aladdin remake and tediously self-serious Wrath of Man ; it was not a good stretch.) But The Gentlemen TV series is as frothy, enjoyable, and undemanding as its predecessor was a mess, and that’s because it’s not really a remake. The Gentlemen (TV version), is more like Ritchie paying homage to the era of his career when he was having fun rather than doing whatever films like The Gentlemen ( movie version); Aladdin; and Wrath of Man are doing.

Ritchie has done the TV-spinoff thing before. Two years after Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels introduced audiences to his talky, violent, and brash writing and directing style, he adapted his film into the 2000 series Lock, Stock …. Nearly 20 years later, his sophomore film, Snatch , became a same-named streaming series that lasted two seasons on Crackle. (A pre- Servant Rupert Grint and a pre- Bridgerton Phoebe Dynevor were both in that one. A real time capsule!) The Gentlemen , which premieres on Netflix March 7, is similar to those series in that it’s not about its source material’s original characters, but rather the labyrinthine heists and capers in which so many of Ritchie’s bombastic creations find themselves.

That approach ends up working like gangbusters in an episodic format, with eight briskly paced installments that each take on a few of Ritchie’s specific quirks, interests, and preferences: boxing and gambling, Traveller communities and no-nonsense brunettes, speed-ramping and Vinnie Jones. The Gentlemen even pulls off making some of Ritchie’s most annoying predilections less so by … spending even more time with them over a full season and letting the ideas wear themselves out? It shouldn’t make sense! But Ritchie sets us firmly in this world with the first two episodes he directs and co-writes before handing the series off to Matthew Read, with whom he co-wrote the story, and veteran TV directors like Nima Nourizadeh and David Caffrey. The cast, led by the frenemy-flirtatious Theo James and Kaya Scodelario, is game. And hey, there’s only a little racism this time around. Let’s review how this surprisingly entertaining and pleasantly forgettable series puts a spin, or doesn’t, on Ritchie’s favorite tropes.

. The Trope: Everyone’s vulgar, deadpan, and speaks in British slang that might be made up.

As Seen In: Basically every other Ritchie project, excluding the family-friendly Aladdin

How does The Gentlemen do it? The Gentlemen is about an aristocratic British family whose patriarch dies and leaves their centuries-old country estate, Halstead Manor, and accompanying duke title to his second son, Eddie Horniman (James), skipping over his eldest, addict and fuckup Freddy (Daniel Ings). The brothers’ oppositional relationship is a recurring Ritchie dynamic, as is their inability to go a single conversation without some amount of mellifluous vulgarity: First episode “Refined Aggression” has an elongated, immature gag in which everyone says “cock” as many times as possible. But once the series’s penis posturing is over, it settles into some running riffs that aren’t nearly as exasperating, like the rhyming staccato rhythm of Freddy and Eddie constantly saying each other’s names.

Some of the joy of watching a Ritchie joint is in hearing how these characters tease, neg, and criticize each other, and there’s a fair amount of that in Eddie’s relationship with Scodelario’s Susie Glass. Susie is, like Eddie, the smart child tasked with running their family’s business. While her father Bobby (Ray Winstone) is in prison, she’s leading the Glass crime family, who grows marijuana on aristocrats’ land and gives them a cut of the profits to maintain their crumbling estates. Susie negotiated a deal with Eddie’s father while he was alive to use Halstead Manor farmland, but Eddie wants to get the family out of the drug business, and that tension drives both the season’s long narrative arc and Eddie and Susie’s combative, coy, wordplay-based interplay. They banter about class difference, about the details of the violence they increasingly get into (how many severed fingers is too many?), and about whether they’re ever going to sleep together, arguments that work because of their chemistry. James and Ings are a similarly effective pairing; Freddy might be one of Ritchie’s most irritating characters, but his mania versus Eddie’s coolness makes for good friction. Every episode also includes a line of dialogue about what a “gentleman” does, to really excite that Leo-pointing-at-the-screen demographic.

. The Trope: The main characters include an odd-couple pair of one wary straight man and one impulsive fuckup …

As Seen In: Snatch; The Man From U.N.C.L.E.; Sherlock Holmes; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

How does The Gentlemen do it? Eddie is responsible, calculated, and deliberate. Freddy is impulsive, immature, and short-sighted. Can you believe that these at-odds personalities complicate the Hornimans’ attempts to extricate themselves from the Glass crime family? Literal and figurative brothers-in-arms willing to do anything to protect each other is a Ritchie thematic mainstay, but The Gentlemen does rely a little too much on the degree to which Freddy is a fuckup whose mistakes Eddie has to fix. The first half of the season sags under the predictability of Eddie’s “that’s what brothers do for each other” vow, which is tested as Freddy makes foolish business decisions and pisses off the wrong people. The series shifts into a more engaging gear when Freddy moves out from Eddie’s shadow and the brothers grapple with what the future of Halstead Manor should be; did you notice that “Freddy” sounds a lot like “Fredo”? Hmm.

… and they’re usually in the orbit of a resourceful and no-nonsense brunette woman who isn’t going to take any man’s shit.

As Seen In: Sherlock Holmes; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows; Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre; The Gentlemen (movie version); The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

How does The Gentlemen do it? Capable brunettes are as essential to Ritchie’s filmography as they are to the Mission: Impossible films , and in The Gentlemen , Scodelario and her Louboutins step into many predecessors’ shoes: Rachel McAdams in Sherlock Holmes , Noomi Rapace in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows , Aubrey Plaza in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre , Michelle Dockery in The Gentlemen , Alicia Vikander in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. . All these women are hard-edged, resourceful dynamos who won’t be limited by their male protagonists’ expectations and assumptions, and Scodelario’s Susie Glass is cut from the same designer cloth. (The costume design for her character, by Loulou Bontemps and Carly Griffith, is fantastic.) At first, Susie is sketched narrowly, since her primary responsibility is showing Eddie everything he doesn’t know about the drug business. But the series eventually gives her so much to do — butt heads with her father over strategy, problem-solve Eddie and Freddy’s errors, parry with Johnston when he quizzes her about antique watches, protect her brother Jack from his own ego — that she might have the most screen time of any Ritchie-created female character. And Scodelario gives Susie a steely core that works quite well against James’s more upright presentation of Eddie; she often steals scenes out from under him with coquettish-yet-smug line deliveries like, “I can be nice, and I can be not so nice. You’ve only seen me in one setting.” A request for season two: Can they kiss?

. The Trope: A lot of people get randomly and brutally killed …

As Seen In: Again, basically every other Ritchie project except Aladdin

How does The Gentlemen do it? If you’re watching a Ritchie project, you’re definitely going to watch someone die, often by murder and sometimes by accident. The Gentlemen has a whole spectrum of fatal intentionality and a bunch of old-timey weapons lying around Halstead Manor and waiting to be used, so, no spoilers, but if you were curious what an antique shotgun could do to a modern drug dealer, you’re in luck! Also present: blood splatter on beautifully luxe clothes, secret killings that end up being meaningful later, some brutal fight scenes that evoke Gangs of London (director Nourizadeh helmed a couple episodes of that series), and a slow-motion dismembering by machete. It sounds like a lot, and the machete attack is quite egregious, but The Gentlemen spaces out the gore so the series’s comedic tone is always primary. And most of the time, the violence is in service of character development, so Ritchie can return to a question that has occupied him for a long time: Why does our culture train killers if we think killing is so bad? That leads us into our next trope-within-a-trope!

… often by characters with military and spy backgrounds.

As Seen In: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.; Sherlock Holmes; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows; The Covenant; Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

How does The Gentlemen do it? Most of the criminals in a Ritchie project want to be criminals; they like the power, the quick cash, and the camaraderie that comes with breaking the law and getting away with it. When The Gentlemen introduces Eddie, he’s a member of a United Nations military convoy at the border between Turkey and Syria; as the second son who was never going to inherit Halstead Manor, Eddie left his family behind to find his own way. It’s easy for The Gentlemen to present Eddie as a good guy when he comes back home and tries to put the family on the straight and narrow by getting out from under the Glasses, but it’s more compelling storytelling that Eddie is, thanks to his military training, really quite good at being a criminal. The skills he learned to protect his country are pretty helpful when it comes to lining his own pockets, and James does well in contradictory modes — as the man who initially insists that he wants to help his family get legitimate, and eventually as the guy comfortably doling out violence to protect his allies and friends. Ritchie’s spy films like Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. are certainly more fun than his toll-of-war pictures The Covenant and Wrath of Man , but they all share an interest in the fluid borders between violence for societal reasons and personal ones. And James’s ability to believably hold a gun (remember the Divergent films and the Underworld spinoffs he was in?) does come in handy when The Gentlemen explores that boundary.

. The Trope: Those trained killers rub shoulders with London gangsters, bookies, fixers, and drug dealers …

As Seen In: The Gentlemen (movie version); Snatch; Revolver; RocknRolla; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

How does The Gentlemen do it? You’d think from Ritchie’s world-building that London was exclusively populated by organized-crime families and their employees, and The Gentlemen only contributes to that sense. Sure, there are Hornimans not directly involved in the family’s weed-growing, but we don’t spend any significant time with them, and nearly every new character has some obvious (or hidden) criminal motive. Eddie can’t get the Glasses out of Halstead Manor because Susie helps him pay off a debt Freddy owed to a Scouse crime family trafficking in cocaine, Bible scripture, and track suits. If Eddie had his way, he’d sell the estate to Stanley Johnston (Giancarlo Esposito, playing a character who seems like an explicit nod to his time on Breaking Bad ), whose gigantic mansion in the middle of downtown London suggests an impressive amount of power, but Stanley’s motives for wanting Eddie’s family home are mysterious.

Supporting characters include myriad bookies (nearly all untrustworthy, of course); a fixer played by Dar Salim, reuniting with Ritchie after The Covenant ; the Glasses’s head grower Jimmy (Michael Vu), as earnest as he is constantly high; and a couple of brunettes in yet another crime gang who are great at upending men’s expectations (more on that trope later). Ritchie has often used drug dealing as a story engine, and the same goes here as The Gentlemen inches closer to widespread war over the course of the season. (One of the clearest links between The Gentlemen TV series and movie is their shared ideology on marijuana use as a source of joy rather than addiction, and other drugs — always dealt by minorities — as the problem. More on that later.)

… who gamble a lot, especially on boxing.

As Seen In: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , Snatch , Revolver , Sherlock Holmes , Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

How does The Gentlemen do it? No one will ever be Brad Pitt in Snatch , but Harry Goodwins as Susie’s boxing brother Jack, all swagger and shirtlessness, sure does try. He hangs out at the Glassknuckle boxing ring, a business that seemingly serves as a front for the Glasses and further deepens their relationship with the Hornimans thanks to Freddy’s bad bets. “Nothing brings people together like a spot of blood on the canvas,” Susie says, and an early scene at Glassknuckle uses the contrast between the heightened atmosphere of a boxing match and the coolness of Susie identifying all the power-players ringside to show Eddie how this world works, with finesse as well as brute force. Sadly, James doesn’t get into the ring, so that’s something else to hope for in a potential season two.

. The Trope: A lot of explaining via flashbacks, onscreen text, and narration …

As Seen In: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels ; Snatch ; Sherlock Holmes ; Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows ; King Arthur: Legend of the Sword; The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

How does The Gentlemen do it? Ritchie doesn’t always trust his audience to follow complicated subterfuge, including scenes in which his characters retroactively explain everything that we might not have noticed (or even seen) the first time around. The Gentlemen does this primarily through flashbacks, where we jump ahead after an action sequence and then revisit it when one of the characters involved talks about it to another character who wasn’t there, allowing the series to switch between first- and third-person perspectives. Less necessary, though, is the series’s overuse of onscreen text, often rendered in difficult-to-read yellow. As characters negotiate monetary amounts, equations appear on screen; as they discuss wines, the vintage names show up; when Eddie and Susie squabble about what to do with a foe, “Eddie’s alternative narrative” lists the steps of his plan and accompany a montage of hypothetical scenarios. It only works once, when during negotiations between Eddie and Susan and a Traveller family, the former’s whispering is labeled as “incomprehensible posh mumbling” and the latter’s as “incomprehensible traveler mumbling.” Otherwise, all that font is unnecessary flair.

… and a lot of customary Ritchie visual style, including speed ramping, slow-mo, and abrupt zooms.

As Seen In: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword , Sherlock Holmes , Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows , Snatch

How does The Gentlemen do it? Remember the slow-motion dismemberment by machete mentioned earlier? That scene keeps us in the moment, experimenting with how we experience time to make it seem like the gore is going on forever. Ritchie loves to mess with linearity and camera movement (he has that in common with Zack Snyder, if nothing else), and little moments of that approach are all over The Gentlemen : the camera, focused on Eddie, begins to shake as he watches a boxing match, and then zooms in on his enemies in the crowd; Freddy does line after line of cocaine in slow motion as he gathers the courage to stand up for himself against an opposing gang. Also, nearly all these scenes are set to opera? Which is unexpected!

. The Trope: Ethnic, racial, and nationalist stereotyping

As Seen In: The Gentlemen (movie version); Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre; Snatch

How does The Gentlemen do it? Ritchie isn’t wrong that crime families are often organized by ethnic, racial, and national identities; tend to self-segregate; and survive by means of shared cultural heritage and a near-total rejection of outsiders. But Ritchie also has a tendency to portray these groups stereotypically, and sometimes offensively; think of how the Asian baddies in The Gentlemen movie are unfailingly honor-obsessed sexists who use rape as a weapon. The TV series uses that simplistic angle for its minority characters, too: The ones it portrays, like Kosovan-Albanians and Pakistanis, are uniformly cowardly and annoying, while the ones it only mentions, like Colombians and Russians, are bloodthirsty and threatening. Money launderer Chucky (Guz Khan) and his sycophant Ishy (Adam Kiani) trying to bully Eddie into eating a halal corn dog is an especially weird scene. (To bring up Gangs of London again, that series does a far better job depicting London’s feuding families with cultural nuance and specificity.)

The Gentlemen does at least put some care into its characterization of the Traveller community, following Ritchie’s trend of centering the Irish Travellers in Snatch and Rapace’s Romani fortune-teller character in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows . The Ward family might be known for its “dynastic volatility,” Eddie learns, but they’re trustworthy and dependable — and distill a moonshine so gnarly that it even knocks Freddy back on his ass. Of all the people with whom Eddie and Susie are forced to do business to keep their product moving around Europe, the Travellers are the most convincingly conceived.

. The Trope: Hey, Vinnie Jones is here!

As Seen In: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch

How does The Gentlemen do it? Ritchie movies love a certain kind of guy, and Vinnie Jones might very well be the archetype of that guy. Jason Statham is one of Ritchie’s most recurring collaborators, but former footballer Jones has a lived-in, earthy, and legitimately threatening quality — which is why it’s such a surprise to realize he hasn’t worked with Ritchie since appearing back-to-back in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , and such a delight that Jones is playing totally against type in The Gentlemen . As Geoff, Halstead Manor’s groundskeeper, Jones is soft-spoken and loyal, protective of all weaker than himself and clear-eyed about the danger the Glass family has brought to his longtime home. His cabin is full of injured animals he’s brought home and nursed back to health, and he gets to be paternal with the Horniman siblings in a way we haven’t seen Jones be before. It did Bullet-Tooth Tony good to settle down! And there may a little bit of metatext in Jones — a conservative supporter of Queen Elizabeth II — showing up in The Gentlemen , which adds another potential trope to Ritchie’s arsenal …

. The (Possible) Trope: Pro-nobility leanings?

Seen in: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword; Sherlock Holmes; The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

How does The Gentlemen do it? Maybe it’s far-fetched to suggest that Ritchie, whose early films were so much about the grimy strivers of London’s working class, is interested in celebrating royals and landed gentry in his more recent projects. But, consider the evidence! King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is about the importance of being led not just by a strong ruler, but the right ruler: The Britons can only thrive with the ordained monarch who is able to pull the sword from the stone, not some interloper imitator. In The Man From U.N.C.L.E. , Hugh Grant plays an MI6 agent who unites a superteam devoted to defending world leaders, including British royalty. Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law’s Dr. John Watson (a veteran!) prevent a coup attempt on the monarchy and maintain the sanctity of the British Empire in Sherlock Holmes .

The Gentlemen keeps the low-key pro-nobility stance going with the suggestion that Eddie’s greatest self-discovery over the course of the season is that being a duke is actually an honorable, esteemed position — particularly if it’s used to protect other aristocrats from riff-raff who try to infringe on their land or steal their wealth. When Eddie defends the manor from outside coveters and maintains it for his family, those moments of triumph for the 13th Duke of Halstead feel like a suggestion that maybe aristocracy isn’t so bad if it has members this intelligent, brave, and resourceful. The Crown may be over, but The Gentlemen feels a bit like Ritchie picking up Peter Morgan’s mantle of defending those with inherited titles. If Ritchie gives the London family in his Ray Donovan spinoff royal connections, this theory’s got legs.

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The Gentlemen Reviews

The dialogue, acting, and story pacing evoke the kind of irreverent, playful attitude that invites enjoyment. Even if, once the cloud of smoke dissipates, we find there's nothing behind it. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 11, 2024

a clever, compelling, absolutely insane crime drama whose incredibly appealing visuals match its complex characterisation and intriguing plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 12, 2023

The Gentlemen is another hit for Guy Ritchie, and it might even be his best movie yet. Interesting characters, intriguing mystery, and hilarious bits of comedy make this feature very entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 24, 2023

A typical Guy Ritchie movie... very masculine and as a consequence isn't heartfelt. But fun and with well-written dialogues and interesting fights. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 29, 2023

The Gentlemen is a classic Guy Ritchie crime flick. It combines everything we know and love from him while sprinkling in some new faces and weaving his complicated storyline at a slightly slower pace.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 8, 2023

The film contains memorable moments that make the messy and twisting plot worth trying to figure out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 22, 2022

In the end, no one should ever take a Ritchie film too seriously. Should I ever read that sentiment expressed in a headline, it just might cure my headache.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2021

Great performances, I loved Hugh Grant.

Full Review | Sep 15, 2021

The Gentlemen is all seductive swagger, irreverent quips and effortless style.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 16, 2021

A strong ensemble cast with Hugh Grant like you've never seen him before. Plus Ritchie proves why he's the guv'nor of the British Gangster flick.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 5, 2021

More stars. More budget. Less inspiration.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 29, 2021

Like the vast majority of Ritchie's work, The Gentlemen is both entertaining and almost instantly forgettable

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 28, 2021

The cast is top notch and everyone is on their A-game, and it gives more fodder for Sons of Anarchy fans to boast about what Hunnam can do when he's directed well.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 24, 2021

The Gentlemen is easily Ritchie's best movie in years. Each of the actors, from the big stars to the bit players, is a joy to watch, and they bring the story to life even when the plot mechanics threaten to drive it into a ditch.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2021

London underworld story, Guy Ritchie style, but with maturity and Hollywood faces to reward the two decades experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 9, 2021

Sometimes, The Gentlemen gives the impression that Ritchie doesn't consider this a return to form so much as an insistence that no number of flops would dare issue him a comeuppance.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 5, 2021

But it feels sloppily made without a coherent tone and while there are some great performances, they don't entirely work next to each other.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

As rock 'n rolling as the filmmaking is, the story acts as an anchor, bogging things down as it gets more and more convoluted.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 30, 2021

The Gentlemen is a crisp and comedic action entertainer with fascinating characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 27, 2021

Guy Ritchie returns to his British crime caper roots with this fun but disposable bit of malarky.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 15, 2021

Screen Rant

The gentlemen review: a wildly clever & stylish ride from guy ritchie.

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Director Guy Ritchie made a name for himself in Hollywood with the slick action and clever humor of his earliest films, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch . Though Ritchie evolved from crime comedies to tackle more well-known properties like Sherlock Holmes , The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and, most recently, Disney's live-action Aladdin movie, he now returns to the gangster flicks on which he cut his teeth. Ritchie's latest is The Gentlemen , about an American expat in London turned marijuana kingpin who's looking to get out of the game. Ritchie delivers his signature blend of humor and action in spades in The Gentlemen , with a wildly clever script and uproariously entertaining comedy.

Ritchie, who wrote and directed The Gentlemen , employs a clever framing device to tell the story of Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), who's looking to sell his marijuana empire to fellow American expat Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong). The movie kicks off with a promise of bloodshed, then pivots to investigative reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant) telling the story to Mickey's right-hand man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam). Fletcher has a flare for the dramatic as he spins the tale of the newspaper editor Dave (Eddie Marsan) who wants to take Mickey down, as well as the rival gangster Dry Eye (Henry Golding), who also wants to buy Mickey's business. It's an exceptionally convoluted, if engaging plot that's helpfully broken up by little interactions between Fletcher and Raymond, which help to further set up Ritchie's big third act twists - of which there are many.

Related: Every Movie Releasing In January 2020

Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant talking in The Gentlemen

The Gentlemen script features a rare blend of smartly woven mystery and drama, with Ritchie setting the stakes high in the very first scene of the movie, then paying it off over the course of Fletcher's story and what happens after Fletcher finishes. But it's clear that Ritchie had plenty of fun writing many of the lines, just as it's clear the cast had a blast delivering them. Michelle Dockery, who plays Mickey's wife Rosalind, has some of the best line readings in the movie, including this gem: "There's fuckery afoot." The rhythm of the movie's script and the cast's genuine enthusiasm for the lines help to propel it forward when The Gentlemen gets too wrapped up in itself. There are sure to be moments when even the most sophisticated moviegoer loses the plot, and Ritchie's script is sometimes too clever for its own good. But The Gentlemen manages to dig itself out of every hole, even if it's done inelegantly at times and, on the whole, the movie makes for an entertaining ride.

Still, for all the clever ideas and plot twists Ritchie employs to surprise The Gentlemen viewers, the movie is also riddled with eye-rollingly outdated cliches. Much of the characterization of Dry Eye and the leader of his East Asian crime syndicate, Lord George (Tom Wu), paints both as Mickey's morally inferior rival crime lords. Where Mickey only deals in the non-deadly product of marijuana, Lord George deals in cocaine, heroine and human trafficking. And where Mickey is sophisticated, moving amidst the London gentry, Dry Eye is brash and vulgar, and at one point, attempts to rape one of the female characters - because apparently it's 2020 and filmmakers are still using rape/attempted rape as a lazy way of telling audiences a male character is bad. The dichotomy of Ritchie's smartly plotted story and these trite cliches is frustrating and will inevitably, and understandably, turn off many viewers.

Henry Golding, Matthew McConaughey and Charlie Hunnam in The Gentlemen

For those that persevere, there is an entertaining gangster film at the heart of The Gentlemen . There's a frenetic energy to Ritchie's movie that comes in part from his directing style, and part from the cast's clear enjoyment of bringing the film to life. Though the movie is built around McConaughey's charming Mickey, and he works well enough as the central pillar, Grant and Hunnam are the real stars, having to deliver much of the story beats in a way that's both engaging and understandable. Thankfully, the two actors play off each other ridiculously well, with Grant giving a bawdy and hilarious performance as the slimy (and racist) Fletcher, while Hunnam plays the calm and commanding Raymond. The rest of the cast is similarly entertaining, excellently pulling off even the toughest of lines and scenes in Ritchie's script while making it look deceptively easy. Altogether, it makes for a wild ride in The Gentlemen that will hook viewers early and keep them laughing and guessing at what Ritchie has in store.

Ultimately, The Gentlemen won't be for everyone, but those that enjoy Ritchie's particular style will find plenty to love. The explicit and implicit sexism and racism will be enough to turn off some viewers, and the film's cliches will come off as all the more stale when compared to the otherwise clever script. Still, Ritchie and his cast are clearly having fun in his return to crime comedies, enough to buoy The Gentlemen amid its rougher moments. Since The Gentlemen is such a fast-paced romp, with Ritchie's frenetic energy propelling it forward, it's able to keep viewers hooked on the unfolding story, delivering plenty of slick action and clever humor along the way. With such a complicated plot, The Gentlemen may even warrant repeat viewings and thankfully, it's fun, entertaining and stylish enough to make make further trips to the theater well worth it.

Next: The Gentlemen Trailer

The Gentlemen is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 113 minutes long and rated R for violence, language throughout, sexual references and drug content.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

The Gentlemen

From writer/director Guy Ritchie comes The Gentleman, an action/crime comedy that follows a prominent American cannabis dealer in London as he attempts to leave the industry for good. When word gets out that the dealer is looking to sell off his business, several opportunists emerge from the woodwork, employing every manner of schemes and ploys they can to undercut him and claim the market for themselves.

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‘The Gentlemen’ Review: Boys Will Be Boys, Sometimes With Guns

Guy Ritchie makes a very Guy Ritchie movie, this time with Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant and Charlie Hunnam.

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By Manohla Dargis

“The Gentlemen,” the latest from the excitable British director Guy Ritchie, gives you exactly what you might expect from a Guy Ritchie movie that hasn’t been constrained by studio decorousness (and ratings) or suavely tricked out with big-Hollywood cash. It’s talky and twisty, as usual, but also exuberantly violent (rather than PG-13 safe) and mischievously — or just aggressively — offensive (cue someone saying “Chinaman”). Also as usual, it’s stuffed with name actors who seem to be having a good time, which can be diverting when you’re not cringing. As is often the case with Guy Ritchie, the dudes far outnumber the women, here by roughly six to one.

The actors have been studiously ornamented and sometimes flamboyantly sleazed up with flash outfits, hair product and statement eyewear. Hugh Grant wears glasses (and a goatee), as do Charlie Hunnam, Jeremy Strong and Colin Farrell. All deliver lightly funny, loose turns and are generally nice to watch. That’s especially true of Grant (as a scummy snoop with an overcompensating long photo lens) and Farrell (an earnest, lethal coach with many tracksuits), whose roles, performances and outfits seem designed to obliterate their leading-man personas. Henry Golding, a romantic lead in the hit “Crazy Rich Asians,” doesn’t demolish his persona, just shrewdly roughs it up.

One of Farrell’s tracksuits — a resplendent tartan — is a thing of ludicrous beauty, as is his performance. His character is soft and tough, likes hats and further accessorizes with a crew of gym rats, who also wear tartan. In one scene, the gym rats rip off an illegal cannabis farm owned by a slinky kingpin played by Matthew McConaughey; they record the theft and turn it into a diverting music video, posting it online. It gets a lot of hits. This reads as yet another of Ritchie’s moments of reflexive cinematic self-reflexivity (as well as wishful thinking), much like the long-winded story that Grant’s character tells and that eventually leads to a laugh-killing shot of the Miramax logo.

The story, in very brief, hinges on McConaughey’s kingpin, an American who’s built a lucrative illegal pot empire and is now thinking of hanging it all up. His wife, an Amazon played by Michelle Dockery with the blank hauteur of a dominatrix, has a garage mostly staffed by women. They don’t sing and dance or shoot guns, which is too bad. The kingpin’s plans lead to complications, including from Strong, whose wealthy businessman is sometimes called the “the Jew,” has an unplaceable accent and walks with the daintiness of an overindulged Pomeranian. The character comes with a wife so isn’t strictly coded as gay, though the words gay panic may run through your head.

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The Gentlemen

An American expat tries to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire in London, triggering plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him. An American expat tries to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire in London, triggering plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him. An American expat tries to sell off his highly profitable marijuana empire in London, triggering plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him.

Guy Ritchie
Ivan Atkinson
Marn Davies
Matthew McConaughey
Charlie Hunnam
Michelle Dockery
1.8K User reviews
310 Critic reviews
51 Metascore
1 win & 4 nominations

Top cast 75

Michael Pearson

Rosalind Pearson

Lord George

(as Simon Barker)

Lisa the Mechanic

Lord Pressfield
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia Hugh Grant filmed his scenes with Charlie Hunnam in five days; he had to deliver over 40 pages of dialogue during the shoot.
Goofs When the audience is first introduced to Rosalind she is walking into her garage wearing distinctive black Louboutin high heels with red soles - shortly after talking to Michael she leaves the office wearing black high heels with a light coloured sole.

Ernie : Did he just call me a black cunt?

Coach : Yes, he did.

Ernie : He can't do that. That's racist.

Coach : But you are black and you are a cunt, Ernie. Those are the facts. I don't think Primetime cares what race you run in.

Ernie : The fact that I'm black has nothing to do with the fact I'm a cunt.

Coach : He didn't say black people were cunts, Ernie. He was being specific to you. One has nothing to do with the other. And I'd go a step further and say it was a term of affection.

Ernie : Primetime's a Gypsy. I wouldn't call him a pikey cunt.

Coach : Why not? He might be very understanding. Only if it comes from a place of love, of course.

Crazy credits The closing credits scroll unencumbered for about one minute. After that, the full uncensored music video for the in-film song "Boxes of Bush" by the Toddlers plays on one side of the screen, with the credits on the other side.
Connections Featured in Good Morning Britain: Episode dated 4 December 2019 (2019)
Soundtracks Cumberland Gap Written by David Rawlings , Gillian Welch Performed by David Rawlings Courtesy of Agony Records

User reviews 1.8K

Dec 31, 2019
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January 24, 2020 (United States)
United States
United Kingdom
Official Facebook
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Los caballeros
Emirates Stadium, Highbury House, 75 Drayton Park, Highbury, London, Greater London, England, UK (Gangsters in Box on Upper level)
Toff Guy Films
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$22,000,000 (estimated)
$36,471,795
$10,651,884
Jan 26, 2020
$115,175,729

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 53 minutes
Dolby Digital
Dolby Surround 7.1
Dolby Atmos

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‘the gentlemen’: film review.

Guy Ritchie revisits his London gangster-comedy roots in 'The Gentlemen,' with Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam and Colin Farrell among those caught up in the complicated sale of a drug empire.

By Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton

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Guy Ritchie ‘s new action comedy The Gentlemen returns the 51-year-old writer-director to the stylized London gangster milieu where he first made his name two decades ago with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , only this time he brings the slickness and swagger he accumulated during his hit-and-miss Hollywood career, including this year’s billion-dollar smash Aladdin . Featuring a stellar ensemble cast headed by Matthew McConaughey , Hugh Grant , Charlie Hunnam , Michelle Dockery and Colin Farrell , Ritchie’s homecoming is a fairly familiar affair, but also refreshingly funny and deftly plotted, with more witty lines and less boorish machismo than his early work. Violence still plays a key role, but mostly occurs offscreen, and the body count is surprisingly low.

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