translated from Spanish: Analysis ? The Knights: Guy Ritchie returns to his roots, but loses inspiration

After trying their luck with successful franchises like “Sherlock Holmes,” others not so much as “The Agent of C.I.P.O.L.” (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., 2015) and “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, 2017), and transit the ATP terrain with the live action version of “Aladdin” (Aladdin, 2019), Guy Ritchie decided to return to the known earth and what best comes out of him : the verborrhagic action comedies with criminal background in the home field of England.  “The Knights” (The Gentlemen, 2020) is a right-wing, not confusing Ritchie film. His dizzying camera, outlandish characters, inordinate and almost cartoonish violence, and sharp dialogue are present in each of his scenes, but he brings little and nothing novel to a style that became his trademark from the beginning Film. We understand that it is part of his “authoritalist” record, although it seems more like a refried of his greatest successes, beyond that we applaud the original idea, something not so seen these days.

Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) had a poor childhood in the United States, but a scholarship and his intelligence took him to Oxford University, where he learned to do business by selling marijuana to his rich, wealthy peers. After dropping out of school and making a criminal career, Mickey became the grass emperor in the City of London, a company he now wants to sell to retire and live a more pleasant life with his wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery). The potential buyer is billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong), another American inbound tycoon, well willing to pay $400 million for the product and the processing methods that come with the offer.  Things start to get complicated when Fletcher (Hugh Grant) comes on the scene. This private detective and frustrated filmmaker works under Big Dave (Eddie Marsan), news editor of an English tabloid determined to bring out Pearson’s dirty rags, after he left him unemployed at a social gathering. Fletcher is in charge of gathering the indictment information, but instead of reporting to his ‘boss’, he prefers to address Raymond Smith (Charlie Hunnam) – Mickey’s right-hand man – to try to make the most of it through blackmail.

Nobody gets in with Mickey Pearson.

Twenty million pounds seems to be a fairly reasonable price when the largest and most affordable drug empire in the region is at stake, a business that Dry Eye (Henry Golding), a disciple of Chinese mobster Lord George, and “The Toddlers”, , a group of young mixed martial arts fighters and aspiring youtubers who grab any dangerous work to gather more followers. The attack on one of Pearson’s bases of production is just the tip of the iceberg of a criminal plot that spans several branches and obviously leaves a few bodies along the way. Ritchie, also responsible for the script, uses the quirky Fletcher as an unreliable, but most entertaining storywhen when it comes to taking us hand in hand for this story laden with super-action, inordinate violence, bizarre moments, confusion and betrayal they always have their consequences around the corner. Nothing we haven’t seen before in “Games, Traps and Two Smoky Weapons” (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, 1998), “Snatch: Pigs and Diamonds” (Snatch, 2000) or “RocknRolla” (2008), as to add some examples, hence “The Knights” fulfills its role as amusing, but have nothing new to bring to the table.

This plane has already been seen

The filmmaker is covered by a good set of performers – many of his fetish actors – a more “mature” cast, as if making it clear that he too is already great for this type of story, although that is life… and business. Nor can we ask you, at this point, to include more female presence in your seas of testosterone, but at least it gives a little place of privilege to the experienced Dockery, the Mary Crawley of “Downton Abbey”. The rest has the function of being “a character in a Guy Ritchie movie”, with all that it entails, and what the audience best knows how to recognize.” The Knights” is a film more contained when it comes to visual artifice, but Ritchie still brings out all those narrative talents for what is recognized. Perhaps, he falls too far into the worst stereotypes, brushing somewhat racist- made-up attitudes with his classic English humor, somewhat deciduous these days. The result is effective and entertaining, even more so for director-style fans who know what they will find when they pay for a ticket.     
In this note:

Original source in Spanish

Related Posts

Add Comment