Steve Guttenberg hits a career low in this shallow, brutish London crime drama that portrays women with contempt
Original? Nah. You could put this grim, unimaginative London crime drama under a microscope and still not find the teensiest speck of originality. It’s a nasty little film, shallow and badly acted, with a queasy macho streak – like a Guy Ritchie, only without the subtlety or attention to female characters.
Original Gangster follows the rise of a hitman and begins with his backstory. As a 10-or-so-year-old, Castor (Badger Skelton) is spared death by Milo (Ian Reddington), a thug who murders his parents. For the next decade, orphaned Castor lives rough in London parks, eating cold beans out of the tin and honing his mugging skills; this is a film where men commit violence in swaggering slo-mo, music blaring. The illiterate voiceover feels like a parody: “The street was a money-hungry whore...
Original? Nah. You could put this grim, unimaginative London crime drama under a microscope and still not find the teensiest speck of originality. It’s a nasty little film, shallow and badly acted, with a queasy macho streak – like a Guy Ritchie, only without the subtlety or attention to female characters.
Original Gangster follows the rise of a hitman and begins with his backstory. As a 10-or-so-year-old, Castor (Badger Skelton) is spared death by Milo (Ian Reddington), a thug who murders his parents. For the next decade, orphaned Castor lives rough in London parks, eating cold beans out of the tin and honing his mugging skills; this is a film where men commit violence in swaggering slo-mo, music blaring. The illiterate voiceover feels like a parody: “The street was a money-hungry whore...
- 3/31/2021
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
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