London Boulevard

London Boulevard is a "cool gangster movie" that tries in vain to look like one of Guy Ritchie’s films or Jonathan Glazer’s refined Sexy Beast. The dialogue is more WTF than witty or brutal, the pace is slow and the form too conventional. The romantic storyline doesn’t work too well either. The only thing that saves this badly directed film from being mediocre is its stellar cast. (03/08/2011)

A souped-up soundtrack, the great Colin Farrell, the skinny Keira Knightley, and a well-trodden tale of a gangster trying to live "right" after getting out of prison, whereupon his past catches up with him, of course. Nice locations, direction commensurate to the resulting quality of the film. Doesn't impress, doesn't offend. (02/28/2013)

William Monahan probably said to himself that he will try to repeat his success with the film "The Departed", for which he received an Oscar for the screenplay. He stuck with gangster films, but moved to London, where the boy was not born. He is a pure American, which may be one of the reasons why the film doesn't quite work. True, he studied Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he fully understands how a gangster film could look in English. Guy Ritchie gave life to similar films and Monahan tries to follow in his footsteps. Besides writing the screenplay himself, he also made his directorial debut. It shows a little, because the film definitely lacks the right momentum, in which it is incomparable to Ritchie, whose older, as well as newer pieces like "RocknRolla," are so high-energy, as if they never had to stop for a moment. "London Boulevard" is not lacking action, but it is more of a conversational film than an action film. And actually, it is a romance, which is the element that mainly works here. Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley actually go together quite well. Who would have thought that? The second highly functional element is the actress being hounded by the paparazzi. In this sense, there are excellent scenes here and it is evident the pressure that is placed on actors and actresses mainly. However, in other respects, the film "London Boulevard" does not stand out, its story is perhaps too simple, although it is not a complete mishmash. Monahan tries to top it off with a punchline. The violence is depicted quite realistically here, which again refers to Ritchie or McDonagh. Average in my opinion. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/07/mistrovsky-plan-nerdi-bel-ami-susi.html (02/24/2013)

Fucking soccer players. Strange. London Boulevard completely lacks momentum. It has enormous potential, great actors, a solid plot, but there are places where it really runs out of air. Meanwhile, Keira Knightley is amazing. I haven't seen her in a while, but even in this small role, she's bewitched me again. Otherwise, the choice of music was better than I have heard for a long time. A soundtrack of genius. (03/27/2011)

The beginning definitely didn't promise anything great. But it picks up decently about halfway through and the ending is surprising. Colin Farrell may fit the role of a big time gangster, but I didn't find him that convincing here. Like many others, I have no idea where he got such huge respect. Of course, it's not Farrell's fault, it's the half-baked script. I enjoyed the wonderful music. 3 stars. (02/05/2012)