London Boulevard (2010)

London Boulevard is written and directed by William Monahan. It stars Colin Farrell, David Thewlis, Ray Winstone, Ben Chaplin, Keira Knightley and Anna Friel. Music is by Sergio Pizzorno and cinematography by Chris Menges.After serving his stretch for GBH, Harry Mitchel (Farrell) returns to his manor and finds gangland boss Rob Gant (Winstone) wants him as one of his charges.Written and directed by the man who co-wrote The Departed, it's not hard to guess what sort of tone London Boulevard is set at. Which for anyone who follows neo-noir will find plenty to like here, not least the stylish and tonally compliant photography of Menges.However, falling under the neo-noir banner becomes a curse in a way because there are far greater films of this ilk to liken it too. Pic at least does have the courage to not cop out in resolutions, but again there is no surprise factor for the genre faithfuls.The narrative often meanders, shoehorning in Knightley's (underused) harassed actress as a love interest in the process, and London accents are choppy. It also is criminal to have Stephen Graham and Eddie Marsan in your movie and barely give them screen time!On the plus side of things, the violence and dialogue is often taut and tart respectively, backed by a scorching rocky hipster soundtrack. Farrell is good value as a tough guy, Winstone does what he does best, menacing of course, while Thewlis steals the film as a wired cool cat with menace surprisingly lurking in is heart.As a whole it fails to hit all the right spots, but enough in here for neo-noir fans to feed on as an appetiser to a more fulfilling noir meal. 6/10

I loved this film. It is extremely well cast; by that I mean each actor fit their character perfectly. I wouldn't change any of them. It really is more of an ironic black comedy than a "gangster" film. I believe the hardest role is that of Harry Mitchel, played by Colin Farrell (no surprise there). Mitchel is a gangster by nature, but wants to change; and, has the moral fortitude and character to do so. I think one of the best played roles is that of Anna Friel. Her performance as the character Briony (Mitchel's alcoholic sister) is absolutely brilliant. I rolled with laughter at some of her lines and stunts. I think director William Monahan (an absolutely stunning writer/screenwriter) didn't have Mitchel go through with killing the footballer (played by Jamie Blackley; an up and coming young actor) just to upset the audience. It reminds me of the same ironical reason in Joel Schumacher's film "Tigerland" that Private Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell's breakout, star-making role) ends up going to Vietnam, after getting so many people out of the Army. Lastly, in the "Making Of" featurette short on the Blu ray disc for this film, director Monahan mentions that during the scene in which Rob Gant (played perfectly by Ray Winstone) takes the egg sarnie (sandwich) from Det. Bailey (played by the extremely versatile Eddie Marsan), he shot the scene at that very spot for a personal reason, but doesn't say what it was. I believe it is because that is the same exact spot in Stanley Kubrick's film "A Clockwork Orange" where Alex, played by Malcolm McDowell (in the role of a lifetime) is leaning against the railing when the drunk he and his "droogs" (gang) had previously beat up asks him, "Can you spare some cutter me brother?" and recognizes Alex, who is then beaten up by all the other drunks.

I asked the DVD store guy for an action ROM-com.He misunderstood what I said with romantic-drama and gave me this DVD.I watch British movies now & then 7 liked most of them.So, went ahead and bought it.I rushed to my home to watch it(BTW I know you don't wanna know you don't give a damn about why & where I 've bought the DVD but I wrote it because of the 10 line rule of IMDb).Now about the movie,it was a stereophonic European movie in which everyone died at the end except Keira Knightly.From the beginning till the end it had too much of conversation and less of action really made me go to sleep.If there is anything I liked in this movie,then It would be,Ferrel punching Winstone's girlfriend & Ray Winstone killing Anna Friel.I was pretty much disappointed with the movie and would recommend it only if you like movies with -'ve ending.

It's too bad the rest of the film was not as interesting as the graphics used in the opening and closing credits (I don't think talking about the closing credits can be described as a "spoiler"). This is the kind of film I would describe as a British version of the American genre "mumble-corp". It's one of the few times I wished I had set my preferences to show subtitles along with the English version of the film. The greatest crime perpetrated in this film is that good actors capable of so much better actually got paid for the rote performances they all turned in. The British gangster genre is something that stands on its own for the sheer villainy of the bad guys. However, the histrionic levels of punishment meted out by these gangsters is so over the top that you have to ask yourself: "Was that really necessary?". In the words of the late Toronto film critic, John Harkness, "Wait until it comes out in video and then don't rent it."