I was planning to visit Great Britain. Now I will not. Not the gangsters. Children that are killing just for fun. This terrifies me. Where this western world is going? I was planning to visit Great Britain. Now I will not. Not the gangsters. Children that are killing just for fun. This terrifies me. Where this western world is going? I was planning to visit Great Britain. Now I will not. Not the gangsters. Children that are killing just for fun. This terrifies me. Where this western world is going? I was planning to visit Great Britain. Now I will not. Not the gangsters. Children that are killing just for fun. This terrifies me. Where this western world is going? I was planning to visit Great Britain. Now I will not. Not the gangsters. Children that are killing just for fun. This terrifies me. Where this western world is going? I was planning to visit Great Britain. Now I will not. Not the gangsters. Children that are killing just for fun. This terrifies me. Where this western world is going?

I like Gangster movies, which is to say I like films about gangsters rather than films about cops trying to catch gangsters, which is a completely different genre. I like American gangster movies and I like Japanese gangster movies but I especially like British gangster movies. There have been many really good British gangster movies from the jokey offerings of Guy Ritchie to the grimmest of the grim "40 inch chest" and the sublime "Sexy Beasts" and of course "In Bruges". "Layer Cake" was another really good British gangster movie and it is this film that London Boulevard tries so desperately to emulate. Certain sections of the movie are basically re-shoots of similar scenes, it makes one wonder if Colin Farrell was staking a claim to be the next James Bond. Sorry Collin, if you had made this film 6 years earlier you might have been in with a shout but as it stands it is merely an average effort from a list of talent who should really have done better. David Thewlis is an exception to this, his performance, although a bit generic as the stoner English toff is the best part of the film. This is not to say that there isn't some entertainment to be found here and even the sparrow like Keira Knightley isn't as annoying as she usually is but just don't go getting your hopes up, its nowhere near a classic.

It's incredible that a man of William Monahan's (THE DEPARTED, EDGE OF DARKNESS) talents could consider this viable material for a feature film. It's an entirely superfluous and predictable London gangster movie of the kind that were doing the rounds 15 years or so ago, and yet it pretends and acts like it's a unique, fresh and contemporary take on the gangster genre. It's not, and nothing that happens here is a surprise.The main problem I have with Colin Farrell is a leading man is his inability to craft sympathetic characters, and his one here is no different. I actively disliked the guy from the very start, from when he stepped out of prison, and he does nothing to engage the viewer's empathy as the story progresses. His facile romance with a stiff Keira Knightley does nothing for him, either.It doesn't help that Monahan's script is chock-full of brain-dead profanity that quickly becomes irritating. It takes a certain calibre of writer to make profanity work - Tarantino finds a natural rhythm in it, for example - but here it's just grating in the extreme. The talents of numerous actors are also wasted in nothing roles; you wonder why Stephen Graham, Lee Boardman, Jamie Campbell Bower and Eddie Marsan even bothered turning up. Ben Chaplin and David Thewlis get more to do in support, but neither are at their best here. Thewlis is on autopilot while Chaplin is slightly uncomfortable and miscast. Ray Winstone is wasted in the most clichéd and predictable gangster imaginable, although Anna Friel is very sexy, I'll give her that.London BOULEVARD isn't all bad - it's fast-paced and has lots of twists and turns to keep you watching, of course - but at the end of the day it offended me with its glib attitude and refusal to provide originality in any way, shape or form. It even rips off part of CARLITO'S WAY with a certain bare-faced cheek.

Energetic and thickly plotted British Gangster Movie with some Talent both on and off the Screen. It is an expected violent and scuzzy affair with momentum that keeps one interested if confused at times. There are so many Characters and Subplots that it is better to just strap in and enjoy the Rocking and Rolling.With its Sixties Soundtrack of fuzz-tone and angst it can't help but remind one of Scorsese because there is so much of it. That's not necessarily a bad thing. What is a bad thing is some ill advised use of undeveloped and mishandled side Stories. A suggestion might be to eliminate or develop the Bodyguard stuff and enhance the Sister's Story, since that seems to be dear to our Anti-Hero's Heart.Anyway, there is more here than needed and things come off as jigsaw puzzle pieces in the wrong box. But it is engaging with its despicable Thugs (one actually brags he has killed Babies while laughing about it), and a perverted, ruthless Kingpin. This is not airy-fairy-wacky and frivolous like so many Lock and Stock rips, it is a rather serious and downward look at the always interesting crusty Criminal Element.