The Gentlemen is a fast-moving, hilarious crime caper

FILM REVIEW: THE GENTLEMEN (18), THE LIGHT CINEMA, WISBECH, OUT NOW

STARRING: MATTHE MCCONAUGHEY, CHARLIE HUNNUM, MICHELLE DOCKERY, COLIN FARRELL AND HUGH GRANT.

RUNNING TIME: 1 HR 53 MINS DIRECTOR: GUY RITCHIE.

Some of the best films I’ve seen in recent months have involved fast-moving scripts and laugh out loud comedy... and this cracking watch is another along those lines.

Tarrantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood set the ball rolling for me in the summer and Knives Out had me rocking in my seat just before Christmas – but this crime caper was even funnier.

An all-star cast shines throughout, with Matthew McConaughey at his brilliant best as cool as cucumber drug lord Mickey Pearson, who is planning to sell his empire Lady Mary Crawley.

The action starts when Pearson’s top man Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) is paid a visit by the sleazy Fletcher, who is played superbly by Hugh Grant.

While Hunnam’s character is all cool and poise, Grant is deliciously wicked as the low life Fletcher, who wants to blackmail millions out of Mickey to stop the story of how he made his fortune getting into a national paper.

As he tells Raymond what he knows and how he knows it, complete with some hilarious banter between the two, the plot unfolds in front of us, flicking back regularly to these two and their verbal dual.

When a gang is hired to raid one of Pearson’s drug factories in order to discredit the operation and lower the selling price, ‘Coach’ (Colin Farrell) knows he has to get his young protegees – who are responsible – off the hook and is unwittingly drawn into helping Raymond.

This role was made for Farrell, who is very scary, extremely funny and pretty cool in equal measures.

And I don’t know how many Downton Abbey fans watch Guy Ritchie movies, but any that do might be surprised how adept Michelle Dockery is at playing gangsters wife Rosalind – certainly a long way from Lady Mary Crawley.

And Henry Golding is menacingly cool as Dry Eye as he fights Cannabis Kingpin Mathew (Jeremy Strong) over who gets Mickey’s empire.

This film throws political correctness out of the window - and a couple of people out of windows and over walls to their comical deaths – and the language is shocking yet funny at the same time.

If you’ve liked Ritchie’s previous work, you’ll love this and even if you’re not a fan, this should make even the biggest prude crack a smile.

Rating: 9/10

Also...

'Knives Out' is funny and clever with a delicious plot

The Good Liar - plot twistingly brilliant or completely bonkers?!

Doctor Sleep a good watch, but the book was better

Gemini Man - they had the technology but not the plot

Joker is a triumph with Joaquin Phoenix mesmerising