London Boulevard

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. (28/02/2013)

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. (27/03/2011)

An attempt at a melodramatic gangster film that completely misses the mark – psychology, dialogue and directing, which, instead of rhythmization, is a vexing retardation. If I take away the fact that the whole thing makes no sense at all, and the film is more of a hanger for clichés (which is also beating itself up), I have to appreciate the magnificent Farrell – when he's circling the screen in a suit with a gun in his hand, there's a Bond elegance to it... And Thewlis character is constantly on a trip, so one forgives him the illogical babbling (as far as I know, the other characters do not take drugs). Otherwise, it's a pretty simple-minded patchwork of a guy trying to look like Ritchie kissed by the ghost of de Palma. **1/2 (you know why I’m rounding up) (03/02/2011)

I didn’t know what to expect from London Boulevard based on all the other reviews I’ve read. Yet it certainly was not the fact that it would be so entertaining. The screenplay is not great, predictably combining mainly the unbeatable Carlito's Way and Costner's Bodyguard, but the film has a good British atmosphere and plenty of likeable actors (apart from the central duo, mainly Ray Winstone and David Thewlis, but it would be unfair to leave out sleazeball Ben Chaplin and the overly cute Anna Friel), which eventually made me forget the clichés and enabled me to watch, have fun, listen to the awesome soundtrack and not think where the hell I've seen this all before. (13/11/2011)

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. (08/03/2011)