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Review: The Gentlemen (2019)
This was a very Guy Ritchie movie. To be honest I'm surprised he still makes movies of this style but I'm pleased. His movies hit a certain spot, that fast-paced fast-moving kind of story with a convoluted story and lots of characters. This movie was very much his usual style. I liked it. It wasn't perfect, but it felt very much like a Guy Ritchie movie.
Spoilers.
Story
Again, Guy Ritchie's movies have a lot of moving parts so I will try to explain it lol.
Michael "Mickey" Pearson was an Oxford drop out who became a marijuana kingpin. He was in the process of selling his business to Matthew Berger, so that he could retire. Mickey's business model took advantage of lords and those of nobility who had huge estates but little money. He would borrow their land and earn them money.
Mickey attended a party where he slighted Big Dave by not shaking his hand. Big Dave was a newspaper editor. Big Dave wanted revenge by publishing a bad story about Mickey. Fletcher, someone who worked for Big Dave, then approached Raymond to let him get ahead of the scoop, in return for money of course. The majority of the movie was told from the perspective of Fletcher retelling events to Raymond.
So Matthew was prepared to buy Mickey's business. Dry Eye wanted to buy Mickey's business as well but Mickey rejected him.
Then, one of Mickey's labs was raided by a group of young aspiring Youtubers. They raided it, stole some plants, and made a music video about raiding the lab that was then posted online, and compromised Mickey's operation. The young men were called "the Toddlers," and they had a coach, simply called Coach.
Mickey was then called on by one of his peerage partners to help them find their daughter. She was found at a council estate hanging out with some other drug addict kids. While escorting her out, Raymond and his henchmen got into a fight with the other drug addicts, resulting in one death of a man called Aslan, the son of a Russian oligarch. The daughter was returned but she later died of drug overdose.
Coach visited Raymond to try to apologize and get his students out of control. Coach found out that the person who approached his students to raid the lab was Phuc, Dry Eye's henchman. So Mickey approached Dry Eye's boss, Lord George, to threaten him. This exacerbated the conflict between Lord George and Dry Eye. Dry Eye had Lord George killed so that he would become the boss.
Dry Eye and Matthew were in cahoots, both wanting to get their hands on Mickey's empire.
Coach and the Toddlers, on Raymond's direction, kidnapped Big Dave and drugged him and filmed him having sex with a pig. (I have seen two pieces of British media about men having sex with pigs and had to Google to see if this was related to anything...) So Raymond successfully got Big Dave to drop the story he was going to publish about Mickey.
Dry Eye tried to attack Mickey's wife Rosalind, but Mickey came in time to save her and killed Dry Eye.
Obviously because of the raid, Matthew wanted Mickey to drop the price of his empire because of the recent raids. However, Mickey turned the tables back on Matthew. Getting confirmation from Fletcher that Matthew was behind the raid on his lab, and that Matthew was collaborating with Dry Eye (who attacked and almost raped his wife), Mickey was pretty mad at Matthew. So he threatened him to send the money and to give him a pound of his flesh. The fate of Matthew remained unknown at the end.
Fletcher approached Raymond for his payment but Raymond revealed that he knew Fletcher was following Mickey and he had dirt on Fletcher. But Fletcher revealed that he had also sold information to Aslan's father, a Russian oligarch, who would now be after Mickey's empire.
Mickey was kidnapped by two of Aslan's father's men, but they were killed by the Toddlers. Meanwhile, some of Aslan's father's men came after Raymond, but Coach killed them.
At the end of the movie, Mickey remained the kind of his empire.
For most of the movie, I expected that Matthew would be the mastermind. It seemed pretty obvious to me. So I liked that there was a bit of a twist at the end with Aslan's father, though it didn't change much for the most part.
I was a little icked out by...some of the racism? I know that the truth is, guys like these will be racist but eh, it still wasn't really my thing.
Overall, a very Guy Ritchie-esque film.
Production
The overall direction was pretty good. I quite enjoyed the scenes between Fletcher and Raymond, they were shot in a more interesting way than the usual action style.
Unfortunately I felt there were acting weak spots in this movie. I hate to say it, but Henry Golding as Dry Eye and Michelle Dockery as Rosalind did not do anything for me. But otherwise most of the guys we're familiar with did well.
Characters
Mickey Pearson
The kingpin of the marijuana business. The movie kind of revolved around him, as the big players wanted his business.
As a character, honestly I didn't really feel anything for Mickey. They were trying to make Mickey as close to Matthew McConaughey as possible but Matthew McConaughey isn't really that kind of charismatic enigmatic guy. He's a little more down to earth.
Raymond
Charlie Hunnam as Raymond was generally fun. I liked his no-nonsense personality, much needed for a right-hand man. I recently watched RocknRolla and Raymond functioned a lot like Mark Strong's character, except that Raymond was loyal to Mickey to the end.
Rosalind
At the risk of sounding sexist, I didn't really feel what about Rosalind was so alluring that Mickey would be "obsessed" with her, as the movie explained it. I would have expected her to feel a bit more like a dream, if that makes sense. Thandiwe Newton's character from RocknRolla is what I would have expected Rosalind to be like. This kind of unattainable ideal, even if Rosalind was actually Mickey's wife.
I know Rosalind was supposed to be a bit of a girlboss but she didn't really feel girlboss enough for me or for anyone to simp over.
Matthew Berger
Matthew was Mickey's business partner, an American who wanted to buy Mickey's business. He attempted to lower Mickey's asking price on account of the heightened risk. Mickey had already suspected that Matthew was the cause behind the raid on his lab, and Fletcher only confirmed it.
Lord George
Lord George was a heroin dealer, the head of the Chinese gang. Dry Eye reported to him.
Because Phuc was a link in bringing the Toddlers to Mickey's lab, Mickey wanted to threaten Lord George. He poisoned Lord George with a laxative and then destroyed one of his heroin labs.
Mickey lectured Lord George about that heroin ruined lives. And while marijuana is not on the same level of heroin, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I am a rather straight-laced person who has not touched marijuana so maybe that's why.
Dry Eye
Dry Eye was part of Lord George's gang, though clearly trying to go for the top spot.
He first approached Rosalind to get an audience with Mickey, because he wanted to buy Mickey's empire. Mickey refused several times. Later, Dry Eye collaborated with Matthew. Dry Eye's subordinate Phuc enlisted the Toddlers to raid the lab.
Eventually, Dry Eye attempted to kidnap Rosalind to expose Mickey. He was about to rape her but Mickey came to the rescue and killed him.
Henry Golding as Dry Eye did not do it for me. He was described as a James Bond type by Fletcher and right from the get go he did not fit that type in my eyes. He tried acting tough and it just didn't feel...real at all. It just felt so artificial. Henry Golding was just not cool enough. Or he was a little too rough to fit in Guy Ritchie's kind of movie.
Coach
Coach owned a martial arts gym and his job in this movie was to clean up his students' mess. He approached Raymond and in exchange for his students' transgressions against Mickey and Raymond, Coach agreed to do things for Raymond, which involved blackmailing Big Dave, and getting dirt on Fletcher. Coach really didn't like getting involved with Raymond because he knew they were the gang sort. But in the end he helped Raymond one last time by killing Aslan's father's men who to kill Raymond.
The Toddlers
The Toddlers were definitely a fun part of the movie. A group of four dudes who were students at Coach's gym, and also aspiring viral Youtubers. We first saw them as they raided Mickey's lab, which was heavily guarded by numerous thugs. Of course we expected the Toddlers to get destroyed but they actually destroyed Mickey's security.
Afterwards, they stole some plants and then posted their music video online, which showed where Mickey's lab was.
Later on, the Toddlers helped Coach kidnap Big Dave and extort him. Lastly, the Toddlers, knowing that Coach was trying to do business with Raymond to get them off their back, took out Mickey's car, though only killing the Russian thugs. I'm not sure if they had intended to kill Mickey.
Big Dave
Big Dave was an editor at a newspaper, though more like a tabloid.
Mickey turned his nose up at Big Dave because Big Dave had published a story about one of Mickey's lord friends. So in turn, Big Dave wanted to publish a story about Mickey, which gave Fletcher an opportunity to make more money by letting Raymond know (and basically extorting him again).
But later on, Coach and the Toddlers drugged him and filmed him having sex with a pig, blackmailing him into dropping the story altogether.
Fletcher
Fletcher basically followed people for stories, which was why he worked for Big Dave, because his stories were tabloidy enough. Much of the story was told from his point of view, as Fletcher had been following Mickey enough to know these things.
In addition to that, Fletcher had dubious business practices, blackmailing people for money, which was sort of what he was doing with Raymond.
But Raymond and Mickey had known about Fletcher all along so nothing that he told them was news to them.
Raymond in turn had Fletcher followed by Coach, so they had dirt on Fletcher. But Fletcher revealed that he had also sold information to the Russian oligarch, which was new information to Raymond.
When the Russian henchmen came to attack Raymond, Fletcher ran away. He was later revealed to be pitching his script to a film company.
Overall
Decent Guy Ritchie movie. If you like Guy Ritchie, you're going to like this.
Spoilers.
Story
Again, Guy Ritchie's movies have a lot of moving parts so I will try to explain it lol.
Michael "Mickey" Pearson was an Oxford drop out who became a marijuana kingpin. He was in the process of selling his business to Matthew Berger, so that he could retire. Mickey's business model took advantage of lords and those of nobility who had huge estates but little money. He would borrow their land and earn them money.
Mickey attended a party where he slighted Big Dave by not shaking his hand. Big Dave was a newspaper editor. Big Dave wanted revenge by publishing a bad story about Mickey. Fletcher, someone who worked for Big Dave, then approached Raymond to let him get ahead of the scoop, in return for money of course. The majority of the movie was told from the perspective of Fletcher retelling events to Raymond.
So Matthew was prepared to buy Mickey's business. Dry Eye wanted to buy Mickey's business as well but Mickey rejected him.
Then, one of Mickey's labs was raided by a group of young aspiring Youtubers. They raided it, stole some plants, and made a music video about raiding the lab that was then posted online, and compromised Mickey's operation. The young men were called "the Toddlers," and they had a coach, simply called Coach.
Mickey was then called on by one of his peerage partners to help them find their daughter. She was found at a council estate hanging out with some other drug addict kids. While escorting her out, Raymond and his henchmen got into a fight with the other drug addicts, resulting in one death of a man called Aslan, the son of a Russian oligarch. The daughter was returned but she later died of drug overdose.
Coach visited Raymond to try to apologize and get his students out of control. Coach found out that the person who approached his students to raid the lab was Phuc, Dry Eye's henchman. So Mickey approached Dry Eye's boss, Lord George, to threaten him. This exacerbated the conflict between Lord George and Dry Eye. Dry Eye had Lord George killed so that he would become the boss.
Dry Eye and Matthew were in cahoots, both wanting to get their hands on Mickey's empire.
Coach and the Toddlers, on Raymond's direction, kidnapped Big Dave and drugged him and filmed him having sex with a pig. (I have seen two pieces of British media about men having sex with pigs and had to Google to see if this was related to anything...) So Raymond successfully got Big Dave to drop the story he was going to publish about Mickey.
Dry Eye tried to attack Mickey's wife Rosalind, but Mickey came in time to save her and killed Dry Eye.
Obviously because of the raid, Matthew wanted Mickey to drop the price of his empire because of the recent raids. However, Mickey turned the tables back on Matthew. Getting confirmation from Fletcher that Matthew was behind the raid on his lab, and that Matthew was collaborating with Dry Eye (who attacked and almost raped his wife), Mickey was pretty mad at Matthew. So he threatened him to send the money and to give him a pound of his flesh. The fate of Matthew remained unknown at the end.
Fletcher approached Raymond for his payment but Raymond revealed that he knew Fletcher was following Mickey and he had dirt on Fletcher. But Fletcher revealed that he had also sold information to Aslan's father, a Russian oligarch, who would now be after Mickey's empire.
Mickey was kidnapped by two of Aslan's father's men, but they were killed by the Toddlers. Meanwhile, some of Aslan's father's men came after Raymond, but Coach killed them.
At the end of the movie, Mickey remained the kind of his empire.
For most of the movie, I expected that Matthew would be the mastermind. It seemed pretty obvious to me. So I liked that there was a bit of a twist at the end with Aslan's father, though it didn't change much for the most part.
I was a little icked out by...some of the racism? I know that the truth is, guys like these will be racist but eh, it still wasn't really my thing.
Overall, a very Guy Ritchie-esque film.
Production
The overall direction was pretty good. I quite enjoyed the scenes between Fletcher and Raymond, they were shot in a more interesting way than the usual action style.
Unfortunately I felt there were acting weak spots in this movie. I hate to say it, but Henry Golding as Dry Eye and Michelle Dockery as Rosalind did not do anything for me. But otherwise most of the guys we're familiar with did well.
Characters
Mickey Pearson
The kingpin of the marijuana business. The movie kind of revolved around him, as the big players wanted his business.
As a character, honestly I didn't really feel anything for Mickey. They were trying to make Mickey as close to Matthew McConaughey as possible but Matthew McConaughey isn't really that kind of charismatic enigmatic guy. He's a little more down to earth.
Raymond
Charlie Hunnam as Raymond was generally fun. I liked his no-nonsense personality, much needed for a right-hand man. I recently watched RocknRolla and Raymond functioned a lot like Mark Strong's character, except that Raymond was loyal to Mickey to the end.
Rosalind
At the risk of sounding sexist, I didn't really feel what about Rosalind was so alluring that Mickey would be "obsessed" with her, as the movie explained it. I would have expected her to feel a bit more like a dream, if that makes sense. Thandiwe Newton's character from RocknRolla is what I would have expected Rosalind to be like. This kind of unattainable ideal, even if Rosalind was actually Mickey's wife.
I know Rosalind was supposed to be a bit of a girlboss but she didn't really feel girlboss enough for me or for anyone to simp over.
Matthew Berger
Matthew was Mickey's business partner, an American who wanted to buy Mickey's business. He attempted to lower Mickey's asking price on account of the heightened risk. Mickey had already suspected that Matthew was the cause behind the raid on his lab, and Fletcher only confirmed it.
Lord George
Lord George was a heroin dealer, the head of the Chinese gang. Dry Eye reported to him.
Because Phuc was a link in bringing the Toddlers to Mickey's lab, Mickey wanted to threaten Lord George. He poisoned Lord George with a laxative and then destroyed one of his heroin labs.
Mickey lectured Lord George about that heroin ruined lives. And while marijuana is not on the same level of heroin, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I am a rather straight-laced person who has not touched marijuana so maybe that's why.
Dry Eye
Dry Eye was part of Lord George's gang, though clearly trying to go for the top spot.
He first approached Rosalind to get an audience with Mickey, because he wanted to buy Mickey's empire. Mickey refused several times. Later, Dry Eye collaborated with Matthew. Dry Eye's subordinate Phuc enlisted the Toddlers to raid the lab.
Eventually, Dry Eye attempted to kidnap Rosalind to expose Mickey. He was about to rape her but Mickey came to the rescue and killed him.
Henry Golding as Dry Eye did not do it for me. He was described as a James Bond type by Fletcher and right from the get go he did not fit that type in my eyes. He tried acting tough and it just didn't feel...real at all. It just felt so artificial. Henry Golding was just not cool enough. Or he was a little too rough to fit in Guy Ritchie's kind of movie.
Coach
Coach owned a martial arts gym and his job in this movie was to clean up his students' mess. He approached Raymond and in exchange for his students' transgressions against Mickey and Raymond, Coach agreed to do things for Raymond, which involved blackmailing Big Dave, and getting dirt on Fletcher. Coach really didn't like getting involved with Raymond because he knew they were the gang sort. But in the end he helped Raymond one last time by killing Aslan's father's men who to kill Raymond.
The Toddlers
The Toddlers were definitely a fun part of the movie. A group of four dudes who were students at Coach's gym, and also aspiring viral Youtubers. We first saw them as they raided Mickey's lab, which was heavily guarded by numerous thugs. Of course we expected the Toddlers to get destroyed but they actually destroyed Mickey's security.
Afterwards, they stole some plants and then posted their music video online, which showed where Mickey's lab was.
Later on, the Toddlers helped Coach kidnap Big Dave and extort him. Lastly, the Toddlers, knowing that Coach was trying to do business with Raymond to get them off their back, took out Mickey's car, though only killing the Russian thugs. I'm not sure if they had intended to kill Mickey.
Big Dave
Big Dave was an editor at a newspaper, though more like a tabloid.
Mickey turned his nose up at Big Dave because Big Dave had published a story about one of Mickey's lord friends. So in turn, Big Dave wanted to publish a story about Mickey, which gave Fletcher an opportunity to make more money by letting Raymond know (and basically extorting him again).
But later on, Coach and the Toddlers drugged him and filmed him having sex with a pig, blackmailing him into dropping the story altogether.
Fletcher
Fletcher basically followed people for stories, which was why he worked for Big Dave, because his stories were tabloidy enough. Much of the story was told from his point of view, as Fletcher had been following Mickey enough to know these things.
In addition to that, Fletcher had dubious business practices, blackmailing people for money, which was sort of what he was doing with Raymond.
But Raymond and Mickey had known about Fletcher all along so nothing that he told them was news to them.
Raymond in turn had Fletcher followed by Coach, so they had dirt on Fletcher. But Fletcher revealed that he had also sold information to the Russian oligarch, which was new information to Raymond.
When the Russian henchmen came to attack Raymond, Fletcher ran away. He was later revealed to be pitching his script to a film company.
Overall
Decent Guy Ritchie movie. If you like Guy Ritchie, you're going to like this.