THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN : Tuesday 27th December 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN' this week, and this is a black tragicomedy film Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh, whose prior film making credits take in his debut in 2008 with 'In Bruges' and then 'Seven Psychopaths' in 2012, and the critically acclaimed 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' in 2017. This film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Venice International Film Festival on 5th September, where it received a fifteen minute standing ovation from the audience. Colin Farrell won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and Martin McDonagh won the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay. It was theatrically released in Ireland, the UK, the US at the end of October and was released in Australia this week, having generated widespread critical acclaim and bringing in so far US$20M in Box Office receipts. The film was named one of the best films of 2022 by the National Board of Review, and it has received a leading eight nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Best Director.

Towards the end of the Irish Civil War in 1923, on the remote Irish island of Inisherin, Padraic Suilleabhain (Colin Farrell) is devastated when his long term friend and drinking buddy Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) suddenly puts an end to their lifelong friendship. Padraic is generally liked well enough by the local islanders, but Colm announces that he finds him dull, and that he now wishes to spend whatever years he has left composing music, writing poetry and doing things for which he will be remembered when his time comes to move on from this mortal coil. 

Padraic is mortified by the sudden loss of one of his closest friends and becomes more and more distressed by the whole situation which he finds tough to reconcile in his own mind. Colm meanwhile becomes more determined to distance himself from his old friend as Padraic attempts to reason with him. One day at J.J.Devine's pub, and at which the pair used to meet at everyday at 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon, Colm delivers Padraic an ultimatum. Every time Padraic bothers him or tries to talk with him, Colm will cut off one of his own left fingers with a pair of sheep shears that he has back at his cottage.

Padraic's caring sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) and local lad Dominic Kearney (Barry Keoghan) make attempts to defuse the whole sorry situation, but their efforts prove to be in vain. One night after Padraic has had a few too many Irish Whiskey's, he confronts Colm in the pub saying that he is 'nice' and he can't still understand why Colm no longer wants to be his friend. Colm responds saying that in ten years, twenty years ands fifty years from now no one will remember you for being 'nice', but people will remember your music, your poetry, your books, just as they remember Mozart from the 18th Century. The next day Padraic attempts to apologise for what he said, but Colm cuts off one of his fingers and throws the bloody digit at Padraic and Siobhan's front door. Later Padraic sees Colm meeting with a fiddler from the mainland, and laughing and chatting in the pub. Padraic sees the fiddler and offers him a ride on his horse drawn carriage and tricks the fiddler into returning home to the mainland by lying about his father's life threatening injuries after being hit by a milk cart. As the tensions grow increasingly bleak, local elder Mrs. McCormick (Sheila Flitton) warns Padraic that death will come to the island soon. Meanwhile, Siobhan diplomatically rebuffs Dominic's romantic advances towards her, which whilst he accepts leaves him devastated. 

Dominic suggests to Padraic that he should stand up for himself and be more forthright. Padraic tells Dominic what he told the fiddler in order to get him off the island, and Dominic responds by walking away in disgust saying that he thought he was one of the nicest people on the island and the truth is that he's one of the meanest. And so the 'new' Padraic visits Colm to reprimand him for behaving so badly. Colm reveals that he has finished composing his song, which he calls 'The Banshees of Inisherin'. Having seemingly made their peace, and as the church bells ring at 2:00 o'clock Padraic suggests that he should go ahead to the pub and order them a couple of pints. Colm says that would be fine. Upon leaving Padraic turns and says that he might run into the fiddler he had run off the island and that perhaps all three of them could have drinks. Colm cuts off his remaining left fingers and thumb with the shears and throws them one by one at the door of Padraic and Siobhan's cottage. 

Come 4:00 o'clock and there is till no sign of Colm at the pub. Siobhan walks in and asks what he is doing there. She tells Padraic to come home immediately as there is something she needs to discuss with him. He gets up, albeit reluctantly and she tells him that she's leaving, that she's sick of life on the island and that she has landed a job as a librarian on the mainland. Devastated by this turn of events, Padraic waves farewell to his sister from atop the cliffs overlooking the harbour where Siobhan catches the ferry boat to take her away to her new life. Padraic comes home to find his pet donkey Jenny had choked on one of Colm's fingers and consequently died, leaving him doubly distraught. He bury's Jenny in the yard of their cottage. 

Heartbroken, Padraic blames Colm for Jenny's death. He confronts Colm to tell him he will burn his house down the next day at 2:00pm either with him inside or not. Following the Sunday church service and 2:00pm comes round, Padraic sets the house on fire as promised, taking Colm's dog to safety. As Padraic leaves he takes one final look inside through a window and sees Colm sitting inside the now burning building smoking a cigarette. The local Policeman, Dominic's abusive father Peadar (Gary Lydon), goes to Padraic's house to deliver him a beating after saying in the pub that he beats up and fiddles with Dominic. However, Peadar is diverted away by Mrs. McCormick, who silently leads him to a nearby lake where Dominic's corpse is floating face up.

The next morning, Mrs. McCormick finds a chair next to one of the windows in Colm's burnt-out and still smouldering house. She sits there as Padraic, with the dog, finds Colm standing on the beach. Colm apologises for Jenny's death and suggests that by destroying the house this has ended their feud and that they are now even, but Padraic advises his former friend that it only would have ended if he'd have stayed inside the house. As Padraic turns to leave, Colm thanks him for looking after his dog, to which Padraic replies, 'any time' and continues walking.

Given the rave reviews for 'The Banshees of Inisherin' I left the movie theatre feeling a little nonplussed. Make no mistake, the acting here by Farrell, Gleeson and Keoghan is top rate and you would be hard pressed to find more nuanced performances on the big screen this year; the dead-pan black and bleak humour when it lands created some real laugh out loud moments amongst the packed cinema audience I saw this with; the cinematography of this little corner of Ireland is beautiful; and Writer/Director Martin McDonagh has crafted a telling story of two lifelong buddies gone horribly wrong and from which the gravity of their situation escalates to a point of no return and from which they will suffer the consequences for as long as they both shall live. This film won't be for everyone, it's hardly uplifting and for some it will leave you feeling melancholy and depressed, while for others it may deliver a heartfelt message about human frailty and the importance of acceptance. 

'The Banshees of Inisherin' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE BATMAN : Wednesday 3rd March 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'THE BATMAN' at an advance screening earlier this week. This much-hyped highly anticipated American superhero film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, and is a reboot of the Batman film franchise. The film is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by Matt Reeves, whose previous film making credits take in 'Cloverfield' in 2008, 'Let Me In' in 2010, 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' in 2014 and 'War for the Planet of the Apes' in 2017. Development began after Ben Affleck was cast as Batman in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) in 2013. Affleck signed on to Direct, Produce, Co-Write, and star in 'The Batman', but had reservations about the project and dropped out. Reeves took over and reworked the story. This film saw its World Premier screening in London on 23rd February and gets a worldwide release from this week having been delayed twice from an initial June 2021 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film cost somewhere in the vicinity of US$190M to produce, and has a running time of just a few minutes shy of three hours. This film is intended to be the launch pad for a Batman shared universe, with two sequels planned and two spin-off television series in development for HBO Max.

On the evening of Halloween, Gotham City Mayor Don Mitchell Jnr. (Rupert Penry-Jones) is at home watching himself on the TV in earlier coverage of his debate with Mayoral candidate Bella Real (Jayme Lawson). He is talking anxiously on the phone. His family are out trick or treating. Lurking in the shadows directly behind him, and unseen is a masked figure who pounces upon Mitchell inflicting several fatal blows to his head with a steel carpet tucker, and then wraps his head in gaffer tape and inscribes 'No More Lies' on his face with a red pen. He also cuts off his thumb, which it is deduced was done before he died. Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) who has been operating for the past two years or so in Gotham as the masked vigilante Batman investigates the murder scene with Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) of the Gotham City Police Department. Gordon discovers that the murderer, known as the Riddler (Paul Dano), has left a cryptic message for Batman, but GCPD Commissioner Pete Savage (Alex Ferns), gives Gordon a hard time for allowing the Batman onto the crime scene, and forces him to leave. Later, the Riddler kills Savage and leaves another message for Batman. 

Batman and Gordon discover that the Riddler left a USB stick in Mitchell's car with his thumb attached to it (a thumb drive) which contained images of Mitchell with a woman, Annika, at the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub operated by mobster Carmine Falcone's (John Turturro) lieutenant Penguin (a heavily made up and unrecognisable Colin Farrell). Batman questions the Penguin, who claims to know nothing, but notices that Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz), Annika's roommate and girlfriend, works there as a waitress. He follows Selina to question Annika, but she disappears. Batman persuades Selina to go back to the Iceberg Lounge to search for answers. Through Selina, Batman learns that Savage was on Falcone's payroll, and so is District Attorney Gil Colson (Peter Sarsgaard) who is seen at the club with a bunch of co-workers living it up. Selina shuts down visual and aural contact when Batman presses her about her relationship with Falcone.

The Riddler abducts Colson just as he steps into his car having left the Iceberg Lounge and promptly straps a time bomb to his neck. Bruce Wayne attends the funeral of Mitchell, and sends Colson crashing through the church at the wheel of his car sending bodies in all directions. Wayne rushes to the aid of Mitchell's young son to get him out of harms way. The Police descend on the vehicle and order the driver out of the vehicle. Out steps Colson, with ticking bomb strapped to his neck, with another message for Batman taped to his chest. When Batman arrives at the scene, the Riddler calls him via Colson's phone which is taped to his hand, and threatens to detonate the bomb if Colson cannot answer three riddles within two minutes. Batman gives the answers to the first two to a panicked Colson, but Colson refuses to answer the third—name the informant who gave the GCPD information that led to a historic drug bust ending mobster Sal Maroni's very lucrative business. As a result, the bomb explodes after the two minute deadline is reached. 

Batman and Gordon come to a conclusion that the informant may be the Penguin and track him to a drug deal. There they discover that Maroni's operation never actually ended and many GCPD officers are in fact involved. Selina inadvertently exposes them when she arrives to steal a stash of cash. As the Penguin flees behind the wheel of his car, Selina discovers Annika's corpse in a car boot. Batman captures the Penguin after chasing him in the Batmobile but comes to the conclusion that he was not the informant.

Batman and Gordon follow the Riddler's clues to the ruins of an former orphanage operated by Bruce's parents Thomas and Martha. They learn that the Riddler was a resident at the orphanage and holds a grudge against Thomas, and as Thomas is dead, the sins of the father are visited upon the son. Bruce's butler and caretaker, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), is hospitalised after opening a letter bomb addressed to Bruce. The Riddler then leaks evidence to the media claiming that Thomas, who was running for Mayor when he was murdered, hired Falcone to kill a journalist for threatening to reveal embarrassing details about Martha's history of mental illness. Bruce, who grew up believing his father was a good upstanding man, confronts Alfred when he comes round in hospital. Alfred confirms that Thomas asked Falcone to intimidate the journalist, but decided to turn Falcone over to the Police after learning of the journalist's murder - he surmises, without clear proof however, that Falcone had Thomas and Martha killed to prevent this.

Selina later advises Batman that Falcone is her father and that he neglected her for much of her life, and especially after her mother died when she was eight years old. She learns that Annika was killed because Mitchell told her that Falcone was the informant, and as a result is determined to kill him. Batman and Gordon arrive at the Iceberg Lounge in time to stop her and arrest Falcone, but the Riddler shoots him dead from a nearby building, as he is being escorted to a waiting patrol car. The Batman quickly runs up to the Riddler's apartment, and gets a tip off that a man was seen running down a fire escape immediately after the shot rang out, and is now sitting in a cafe across the street. Unmasked as forensics accountant Edward Nashton, the Riddler is locked up in Arkham State Hospital. Batman visits Nashton who reveals that he knows that the Batman is Bruce Wayne and that he was envious of the sympathy Bruce received after his parents' murder. Whilst they both grew up as orphans their lives couldn't have been more different, with Bruce living a life of privilege while he lived in abject poverty. While he was ignored, he harboured a desire to partner with Batman and become a similarly masked vigilante. Batman angrily rejects Nashton and discovers back at his apartment that the Riddler had parked seven car bombs around Gotham, all located strategically to detonate at the same time and to breach the city's defensive sea walls. 

The bombs destroy the sea walls around Gotham and rapidly flood the city. In the resultant chaos, Batman and Selina prevent a Riddler-inspired gang from assassinating Mayor-elect Bella Real. As Batman begins to aid the recovery efforts, Selina asks Batman to leave the city with her as she now deems Gotham beyond saving, saying that the Bat and the Cat has a nice ring to it, but Batman declines her offer saying that he has much work to do in trying to clean up Gotham. She leaves on her motorbike, with Batman following closely behind on his, and when they come to an intersection, they go in opposite directions. Meanwhile Nashton is beside himself in his jail cell because his plan failed. But a voice from a neighbouring cell tells him not to be so down on himself as Gotham loves nothing more than a good underdog story as the pair begin to laugh menacingly. That other inmate is assumed to be the Joker (Barry Keoghan in cameo and credited as 'unseen Arkham prisoner').

'The Batman' is an enthralling captivating detective story that melds good old fashioned police work with our caped crusader Superhero. It's dark, bleak, gritty and grim and seemingly always raining in Gotham City which only serves to add a sense of tension to the films key scenes. Here Matt Reeves has crafted a fresh take on an all too familiar Superhero that has seen over the last thirty years Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder helm various Batman instalments with varying degrees of success. Robert Pattinson is well cast as The Batman and the fractured emotionally torn Bruce Wayne, and he is ably supported by Paul Dano whose turn as the maniacal Riddler is right on point, while Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman adds kick-ass heft as Batman's reluctant foil, and would be love interest. With two further instalments to come, it will interesting to see where Reeves and Pattinson take us on Batman's next journey and whether the pairing can go one better than what they have been able to achieve here. See it on the big screen, and be prepared to remain glued to your seat for three hours, which like most critical reviews, is my only gripe about this film when thirty minutes less would have been prefect. 

'The Batman' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

VOYAGERS : Wednesday 21st April 2021.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'VOYAGERS' at my local multiplex last week. This American Sci-Fi drama is Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Neil Burger whose prior film making credits take in 2002's 'Interview with the Assassin', 2006's 'The Illusionist', 2011's 'Limitless', 2014's 'Divergent' and 2017's remake of the acclaimed French film 'The Intouchables' with 'The Upside'. Originally slated for a release at the end of November 2020, the film was pulled from the schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was released earlier this month. The film cost US$29M to produce, has so far recouped US$3.5M and has garnered mixed critical reviews so far.

The film opens up in 2063 and we are told that the future of planet Earth is doomed due to the ravages of climate change, drought, and disease. The only alternative for any hope of humankind surviving is to find a planet capable of sustaining life as we know it, and lo and behold, one such planet does exist. The problem is that it will take eighty-six years to get there. So, the powers that be, breed a crew of brilliant cadets who will live in sterile conditions from the moment they are born by artificial means, and will not know of life outside the confines of the purpose built space station they inhabit until such time as they are old enough to launch for that far away planet. The aim is that when they board the ship, they will in time procreate during their long journey into deep space with the intention that their grandchildren will start over on the distant planet. Enter Richard (Colin Farrell) a scientist, who up to now has played a pivotal role in the upbringing of the cadets from their very earliest days and wants to join them on their mission, even though he knows it is a one way ticket and he will not live long enough to see the journey through. He persuades the mission commander to let him go, meaning that they will be able to bring the launch date forward from seven years hence to four years. And so the thirty or so young children with Richard take off leaving our humble blue planet behind. 

And so as the months turn into years, we fast forward ten years into their eighty-six year journey and the cadets are now young adults. There is Christopher (Tye Sheridan), chief medical officer Sela (Lily-Rose Depp) and Zac (Fionn Whitehead) amongst others. The crew busy themselves by making repairs, growing their own food, keeping fit, and studying and they all appear to get along with one another in a state of peaceful harmony. Of course part of their daily routine is eating together in the mess hall, which includes sipping back a shot of 'blue' which they have been told is for their general health. In reality it is designed to suppress emotions, urges, jealousy and anger. Christopher and Zac begin to question what the blue is really for and what is contained therein. Some further digging reveals the truth, and so they decide to stop drinking it and convince some of the others to do likewise. 

Within a few days a sensory awakening occurs in each one which leads them to take risks including to wrestle in the gym, to touch a member of the opposite sex and to run down the narrow corridors of the ship (all of which were previously against the rules and strictly forbidden). Then one day there's a problem with the comms link which means that Richard has to venture outside the ship on a spacewalk to rectify the issue. He elects for Zac to go with him, but in preparing to suit up Zac starts coming onto Sela. Sela backs away none too pleased with Zac's advances just as Richard enters the airlock. A scuffle ensues and Zac flees into the ship. In his place Richard chooses Christopher to accompany him. While on their space walk tethered to the main body of the ship, with all the crew closely monitoring their every move, a black mass suddenly appears from nowhere, engulfs Richard and sends him reeling backwards into the dark void of space, albeit still tethered. Christopher pulls him in and once back inside the ship he is attended to quickly by Sela. He is badly burned to his hand, arm, neck and face and subsequently dies on the table. Zac claims that the black mass was an alien, and that Richard and/or Christopher possibly brought it onto the ship with them, inside their bodies.

With Richard no more, a new Chief Officer needs to be appointed. Zac puts his hand up straight away but Phoebe (Chante Adams) who is the one that can be relied upon as the straight-talking no nonsense voice of reason follows the rules and states that an election needs to be held. And so the crew all vote and Christopher is declared the winner and the new Chief Officer, much to Zac's surprise and consternation. And so the rebellious Zac starts to tell his ardent followers to ignore their designated duties and responsibilities and basically do as they please. At the same time he spreads increasing paranoia about the presence of the alien aboard the ship, which is only heightened from time to time when mysterious creaks, groans, rattles and unexplained sounds emanate around the ship. And, all the while he is undermining Christopher's attempts to exert his authority and instil a sense of order. When a fire breaks out on the ship all of the comms go down and the surveillance footage is destroyed. It's repairable, but will take time and every crew member is deployed round the clock to bring the ship back up to fully functioning order. 

Meanwhile, Christopher has retrieved the archived footage of the incident outside the ship that cost Richard his life. From it he learns that Zac and his offsider Kal (Archie Madekwe) sent a powerful electrical surge to Richard's suit, and this is what killed him and not some trumped up story about an alien. Christopher reveals this truth to the gathered crew in the mess hall and needless to say Christopher and Zac's relationship comes to a head when Zac announces that he is taking over the reins as the self appointed Chief Officer because Christopher has no clue. 

Zac encourages those that want to follow him can, and so all but five choose to go with Zac. What ensues is an all out race for supremacy with Zac gaining the upper hand at every turn it seems. He finds a stash of weapons concealed in a secret room that are meant for the third generation and so arms his followers to the teeth, while Christopher and Sela have nothing more than a scalpel with which to defend themselves. 

On the run now and fearful for their lives with very few places to hide, Christopher and Sela make the best of a bad situation while Zac is now mightily pissed off and baying for blood. The pair run down the corridors with Zac following closely behind, firmly bolting closed every door behind them, until they run out of doors and come to the airlock. Christopher and Sela suit up, secure themselves as best they are able, and open the airlock door, just as Zac on the other side blasts open the remaining door to the room. He is immediately sucked out but manages to cling on to Christopher as the two battle it out for the upper hand. Christopher who has the protection of a space suit loses his grip on Zac who is wearing nothing but a T-shirt and track pants and is fighting against the freezing temperatures of deep space. Christopher is sucked out and disappears from view. Sela meanwhile launches herself feet first directly at Zac who is caught off guard and is propelled into deep space never to be seen again. She clings on to the airlock door and steadies herself as Christopher comes back into view.

And so with Zac gone, his followers down their weapons and some sense of normalcy is restored. Sela is voted as the new Chief Officer and she seems to be more capable than the previous two. We then fast forward down through the years and see that Sela and Christopher give birth to a son, who grows up with a whole bunch of other youngsters on board. In time, the space ship is seen to be descending on to its destination planet with aged second generation crew and younger third generation crew peering out of the window as the Earth like planet below comes into view.  

With nods to 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Passengers' this nurture versus nature space romp in which the testosterone goes off the scale while the female crew are there seemingly only to provide eye candy, certainly looks the part, has some solid enough set pieces, and the Direction is deftly handled by film maker Burger. The YA Actors and the characters they portray are all largely one dimensional, aside from the three principle leads in Whitehead, Sheridan and Depp who prop up the rest of the cast and carry the film on their slender shoulders. This is predictable territory albeit reasonably well realised, it plods along for a goodly while without much really going on apart from a few cross words and a gnashing of teeth, and when the end comes there's nothing new to see here that we haven't seen countless times before.

'Voyagers' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GENTLEMEN : Tuesday 7th January 2020.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE GENTLEMEN' this week from British Director, Producer and Screenwriter Guy Ritchie. He is no stranger to the British crime drama often tinged with a hint of tongue firmly planted in cheek comedy, a la 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Snatch', 'Revolver' and 'RocknRolla' which have helped propel its emerging stars into mainstream success - including Jason Statham, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba and Vinnie Jones. Here Guy Ritchie, is going back to his London gangland genre roots with his latest crime comedy offering that he Directs, Co-Produces, wrote the Screenplay for and also came up with the story with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The film was released in the UK last week too, and not in the US until the back end of January, and has so far taken US$8M at the Box Office, and judging by the packed cinema theatre I attended this week, it looks like this is a winner!

Our film opens up with American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) alighting from his chauffeur driven car and walking into a London pub, in what looks like pre-opening time, and orders from the barman a pint of London's finest Gritchie (get it!) ale and a pickled egg. He sits down at a table in the empty pub and calls his wife, saying that's its steak night, dinner later that evening at The River Cafe at 9:00pm, at which point an unknown gunman enters the room unheard, and shoots at Mickey. Cut to the red crimson stuff plastering the table and the pint glass in front of him. Roll the title credits and you could easily be mistaken for thinking that you are watching the latest James Bond offering, as Ritchie here has copied to good effect from the Bond play book.

We then enter the home of Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), Mickey's consigliere and right hand man, and as Raymond prepares to settle in for the night, his peace is disturbed by Fletcher (Hugh Grant) lurking in the shadows in wait. Fletcher is a sleazy tabloid newspaper investigative journalist who has been doing a lot of digging into Mickey's history, his business exploits and his connections and its through an extended interview with Raymond that we learn of Mickey's business empire. Fletcher works for Big Dave (Eddie Marsan), the Editor at the newspaper, who has an axe to grind with Mickey for disrespecting him at a lavish gathering in front of various movers, shakers and high powered associates of his.

And so Fletcher begins to recount everything he knows of Mickey's exploits as though he's prepping a movie script, and in fact he has written one based on what he has come to know of Mickey. And so we learn that Mickey hailed from a dead end family in the US, but despite his less than humble upbringing he gained a scholarship to Oxford University. There he quickly learned that there was a demand amongst the student population for weed, skank, sweet Mary Jane, ganga - marijuana. As his university business began to flourish, so he broadened his horizons and ultimately grew his business but not without getting blood on his hands and taking out those who would oppose him, stand in his way, or try to muscle in on his action. And now after thirty years at the top of England's marijuana supply game, Mickey has decided it's time to retire. Fletcher thinks he's been incredibly cunning and thorough in his investigations and unfurls all of his collected intelligence to Raymond, seeking £20M to keep quiet and ride off into the sunset never to be heard from again. Needless to say Raymond is fiercely loyal to Mickey, and sits intently listening to what Fletcher has to say, occasionally chipping in to neither confirm nor deny the allegations being made, but asking for clarification or responding to a direct line of questioning.

Wanting therefore to liquidate his weed farm empire which is concealed very cleverly within twelve stately homes of the well off and not so well off landed British gentry, spread across the length and breadth of the land, there are two very interested parties circling. Those interested parties are specifically Jewish American billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) and young pretender Chinese mobster 'Dry-Eye' (Henry Golding).

Mickey is in favour of selling his business to Matthew and has no time for the Chinese upstart Dry Eye, and so he takes Matthew on a tour of one of his weed facilities buried somewhere in the remote English countryside under the grounds of a stately residence for which Mickey pays the owner of the property £1M annually. Mickey announces to Matthew that he is looking to sell his business for £400M in total including his network of European connections, his distribution channels and the whole caboodle. Matthew doesn't baulk at that figure, when Mickey tells him that ten years from now the business will be worth half a trillion!

Later Dry-Eye pays an uninvited visit on Mickey and states in no uncertain terms that he wishes to buy the business and taps out an undisclosed sum on his smart phone. To which Mickey retorts that his business is not for sale, the sum quoted is an insult anyway, and he should leave as he's busy. Dry Eye persists saying that its a very good offer as Mickey grows increasingly impatient, and is ultimately shown the door, through which Dry Eye exits with one of his henchmen, none too pleased at the dismissal.

One evening under cover of darkness, Mickey's farm that he had previously shown to Matthew is raided by five beefed up tracksuit wearing youths who do their very best to beat up and overpower several of Mickey's more sturdy, yet older workers, and rob Mickey of many of his marijuana plants. The lads in question all record this and live stream it over the Internet, and in no time, Mickey, Raymond and Mickey's wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery) are witnesses to the robbery and the beatings unfolding before their very eyes from the comfort of a sofa far away. Outraged Mickey and Raymond go on the hunt for the perpetrators, and who could have revealed the location of his underground marijuana bunker.

Enter Coach (Colin Farrell) who runs a boxing gym for disadvantaged youths and to get the youngsters off the streets and away from a life of crime. It just so happens that the gang who raided Mickey's premises, are a group of lads under Coach's mentorship. When Coach finds out that it was his lads who were at the centre of the robbery, he is none too pleased, having heard of Mickey's reputation with those who dare cross him. Coach tracks down Raymond, seeks his forgiveness and says that he will do whatever it takes to make amends for his boys misdeeds, as long as Mickey agrees not to take revenge on them. Raymond says he'll consider it, if Coach can uncover who ordered the robbery.

In no time at all, Coach has the robbery organiser Phuc (Jason Wong) bound and gagged in the boot of his car, and delivered to Raymond. Phuc is manhandled out of the boot, and quickly makes a run for it, jumps over a high wall and lands several metres below straddling a railway track, only to be promptly run over by a speeding intercity express train, with Coach and Raymond looking on from above.

By now, Matthew is getting agitated over the recent incident at one of Mickey's farms and is starting to show signs of cold feet. Meanwhile, Mickey has visited another of his farms and learned that the property owners drug addled pop star teenage daughter is shacked up somewhere doing hard drugs with a bunch of no hopers. Mickey offers to help find the daughter Laura Pressfield (Eliot Sumner), and tasks Raymond with tracking her down, which he is reluctant to do. Needless to say, Raymond is successful with two of his henchmen in tracking down the group and Laura to a tenement block, but in an ensuing scuffle a Russian lad who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time gets thrown out of the window several storey's up and crashes to the ground stone dead. All this is filmed on smart phones by a group of local likely lads hassling Raymond's driver in the street below. The men give chase through the estate to retrieve the smart phones and the potentially damning evidence against them, eventually catching up with the youths and 'persuading' them to part company with their phones. We learn that the Russian lads father is a former high ranking official from the KGB, now resident in England, where his son attended private school. Laura is returned safe to her family.

Fletcher is still laying out all these facts that he has witnessed and has photographs of to Raymond to further reinforce his case for his £20M hush money. Dry Eye is still putting pressure on Mickey, and so Mickey and Raymond pay a visit to his ageing Uncle who runs a cocaine and heroin pushing business at arms length so that there is no comeback on him. Mickey threatens the uncle with exposure and further less subtle repercussions if Dry Eye doesn't get off his back. When the uncle speaks with Dry Eye and tells him to ease off, Dry Eye shoots uncle in the back, dead.

Fletcher reveals one last video clip of Matthew sat next to Dry Eye at a football game in which they are seen and heard to be collaborating together to drive down Mickey's asking price to rock bottom. When he is done with his story telling to Raymond, he gives him 72 hours to come up with the £20M, and leaves. Over the course of the next couple of days, Mickey is heard speaking with Rosalind over the phone from the office of her all female very upmarket auto repair shop, in which Dry Eye is present with the intention of kidnapping her to put pressure on Mickey to comply. Mickey senses something is not right, and here we go back to the very opening scene where the blood is spattered all over Mickey's pint and pickled egg. The man who pulled the gun on Mickey is a Russian who was shot in the back of the head by Raymond who arrived just in the nick of time.

Mickey is involved in a head on collision with a truck en route, from which he scrambles out of the upturned car and races to the auto shop, only to find that Rosalind has shot two of Dry Eye's henchmen in the forehead with a small gifted twin chamber hand gun. Dry Eye is furious and he fights with Rosalind gaining the upper hand and has her pinned down on a desk when Mickey arrives and shoots him dead.

Later Mickey is in conversation with Matthew at one of his refrigerated distribution outlets discussing the deal. Matthew states that Mickey's business is now worth £120M and not the £400M as originally discussed because of the events that have unfolded since the raid, that all twelve of his farms are impacted by this, and that it will take three years for the business to re-establish itself. Mickey turns the tables on Matthew showing him the footage of him conversing with Dry Eye at the football game, and says that he knows it was him who turned over the location of the farm that got raided. Mickey also reveals the now hanging and frozen body of Dry Eye behind a pile of boxes in a freezer container, and says that Matthew has one hour to transfer £100M into his bank account and to give up a pound of his flesh for all the hurt he has caused his business, which is no longer for sale.

When Mickey gets into his car and is driving off, it is revealed that it's not his usual driver behind the wheel but two smiling Russians, one pointing a pistol directly at Mickey. In the meantime, Fletcher has returned to Raymond's place after 72 hours expecting to collect on his £20M, only for the pair to be greeted by two more Russian henchmen wielding guns. Fletcher runs off. The two Russians are taken out by Coach, who by now has more than made good on his commitment to Raymond. Coach's track suited boys meanwhile, follow Mickey's car in a minivan before it leaves the premises, overtake the car, and open fire from the back all guns blazing killing outright the pair of Russians seated in the front, so allowing Mickey to escape out the back unharmed.

Fletcher is last seen pitching his movie script to a Producer at Miramax Studios in London. The Producer ask what happens to Mickey, to which Fletcher responds, 'that's for the sequel'. Fletcher excuses himself as he has an appointment in LA with another Studio and must catch a flight. As he gets into a London cab, Raymond reveals himself to be the driver. Mickey and Rosalind settle down for a cozy night at home.

With 'The Gentlemen' Guy Ritchie has returned to form following an averagely received but nonetheless US$1B+ live action remake of Disney's 'Aladdin', the disastrous 'King Arthur : The Legend of the Sword' and the lacklustre 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E'. The film features stand out performances from the principle cast especially Hugh Grant channelling Michael Caine, has fast paced wise cracking razor sharp foul mouthed dialogue, tangled plots, twists aplenty, snappy editing, racial insults that come thick and fast, faux English gentry, good crims and bad crims and those of just about every nationality and cultural background, some real laugh out loud moments, and just enough deaths and beatings and tongue in cheek humour to satisfy any fan of the genre and Ritchie's much earlier works. It's witty, a lot of fun, very entertaining, contains many of Ritchie's touchstones and well worth the price of your cinema ticket.

'The Gentlemen' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-