The press reviews for this film had been atrocious, so bad in fact that I went into this film with an open mind, expecting it to simply be Guy Ritchies turn to be slated by the press, regardless of whether the film was any good or not. A film about a gangster who struggles with his inner demons and ego sounds like a good idea. Well, not this time. The first 2/3rds of the film is ‘relatively’ interesting, and is very stylised. It all starts to go really wrong when the gangster starts to fight with his dark side, his ego and his inner ‘satan’, and the script tries to be too clever, using Chess as a metaphor blah blah. The last 3rd of the film is one of the most embarrassing pieces of cinema I have ever seen. The scene set in the bedroom with Liotta letting go of his ego made me shrink in my seat out of sheer embarrassment. Some of the criticism of the film was that it was too convoluted, too confusing, and yes, at times it was, but it simply tried to be too clever, and the director seems to have lost the control in the last 3rd. Know where near as funny as Lock Stock or Snatch, and believe it or not, it almost makes Swept Away a classic!
This is one of the worst films I have ever seen, which is shame as the idea was a good one. On this occasion, the press reviews were spot on. I wouldn’t touch this with yours…