Episode 698 - The Gentlemen (2020‪)‬ One Movie Punch

Hi everyone!
Welcome back for another Matinee Monday! This week, I’ll be covering Guy Ritchie’s new film, one of my favorite directors once upon a time, especially for classics like LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS and SNATCH, along with a host of English gangster films. He’s hit a rough patch as of late, but will today’s film be a return to form? You’ll find out in a moment!
Before the review, we’ll have a promo from the Top 5 from Fighting podcast. Every episode, Greg and Mike discuss a wide range of topics, and when they disagree, you know they’re gonna fight about it! Always fun, but always contentious, you don’t want to miss a single episode. You can find them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @Top5forFighting. They have been some of our biggest supporters from last year. Shout out to their Marketing Angel. You know who you are!
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Here we go!
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Today’s movie is THE GENTLEMEN(2020), written and directed by Guy Ritchie, based on a story developed with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The film follows an attempt by American-born Irish drug lord Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) to sell his extensive marijuana business to Oklahoma billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong). After an attack on one of Pearson’s growhouses puts the deal in jeopardy, Pearson must manage the repercussions, even as other players seek a more hostile takeover.
No spoilers.
I remember when I began my career out of college, traveling to Los Angeles in 2001 for a consulting gig, where I met one of my good friends, who was also a fan of movies. Movies hadn’t yet moved to streaming services, but he had grown up closer to Chicago than I had, and as such, had access to a much more extensive selection of films than either my corn town or state university rental stores had to offer. So, once we got to talking about movies, he asked if I knew about Guy Ritchie, and I said no, and his jaw hit the floor. So, that weekend I went to our rental store in Denver, checked out LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS (1998) and SNATCH (2000), and immediately fell in love with UK gangster films as a whole. Every few years, Ritchie would put out another gangster picture, including REVOLVER (2005) and ROCKNROLLA (2008). There was also SWEPT AWAY (2002), but we don’t talk about that one.
Ritchie’s star was really on the rise when he was given the green light for his SHERLOCK HOLMES franchise, which completed two films before Robert Downey, Jr. disappeared into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It opened up his schedule to pursue a number of mainstream films, all of which only did okay critically speaking, including THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (2015), KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD (2017), and strangely, the recent live-action adaptation of ALADDIN (2019).
It seems like a strange direction for the previous monarch of UK gangster films, but that’s because other things have been in the works, most notably the successful “Snatch” television series, expanding on the story from the 2000 film in the same way the “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” television series followed the 1998 film. And clearly, that has most recently influenced today’s film, THE GENTLEMEN, a return to form for Ritchie, but in some ways, maybe from a bygone era.
There are a lot of things I liked about Ritchie’s gangster films, but most especially his combination of characters and story he brings to whatever project. THE GENTLEMEN is driven by both characters and story, told on multiple levels. Initially, the story begins as a conversation between Pearson’s reserved right-hand man Ray (Charlie Hunnam), and an almost unrecognizable Hugh Grant as the hilarious, pansexual reporter Fletcher, who has stumbled across the deal to sell Pearson’s operation. In fact, Fletcher playfully na