intelearts

20 May 2012

My 387th Review: Smart film spoiled by blatant buffoonery

Boulevard is a mishmash of plots, characterization, and mostly works.When it works it's very good indeed. But, and it's a massive but, whenit loses it's way it's nearly dirigible. There juxtaposition of the twoworlds: gangster London vs. Holland Park (think Upper West Side) ishandled well, but the 70s Get Carter / 90s Guy Richie feel is at oddswith the romantic plot and the palette of genres and styles is too much- you end up feeling that it's a bit overwhelming.Everyone does what they're supposed to do effectively, all the Londongeezers are just that, and Kneightley is actually way better here thanI can remember - a big big improvement on The Duchess. I could very happily take away Ray Winstone's role and you'd have acomplete film (and another entire film) that would work just as well.His role overbalances this film into the cartoonish and what could havebeen a really nicely done film turns into something bordering on thebuffoonish.It's a good attempt at doing something new with the British class moviebut you never get to feel truly involved, in addition, the film isweakened by an ending that should move us and just leaves us empty.Liked the themes and the chemistry between the leads a lot and theyshould have gone with that. Worth watching but the last quarter lets itdone a lot.

AZINDN

19 May 2012

Brit Crime, Brit Love, Eh, Mate?

Colin Farrell has developed into a seriously credible actor after hisstint in rehab and Hollywood pretty boy roles. In London Boulevard, hissubtlety as Mitchel, an ex-con trying to not be sucked back in the hisold life, is a role that brings Farrell one of the best performances ofhis career. As in Triage, Farrell is a reluctant hero and victim ofcircumstances created by others. Mitch is summoned by the headgangster, Ghant (Ray Winstone) to carry out money collection andvarious acts of vicious payback crimes. Refusing, he opts of bedriver/aide of Charlotte (Kiera Knightly), a fragile, married, andpaparazzi hunted actress whose film career is notable for sexual actsand which she has no interest to pursue. Assulted while in Italy, sheis desperate for privacy, but stalking cameras and rude press make herhousebound, depressed, and fearful. Her friend, Jordan (David Thewlis),a loyal, druggie failed actor and guardian recognizes Charlotte'ssecurity rests with Mitch, but he recognizes Mitch's other dilemmas:Briony, a dizzy alcoholic sister (Anna Friel) who won't stay sober, andthe dead body of his former mate, Billy, who was left on doorstep.Several story lines weave around the situation of Mitch which canconfuse some, but the central theme of a perceived bad man trying to gostraight persists clearly. The billboard face of Charlotte appears as athematic goal for Mitch in Piccadilly, on buses, and Hollywood, instunning b/w portraits by London bad-boy photographer, David Bailey,another icon-maker of the swinging London's 60s era of the Kray's. Likethe ruthless Kray's, Winstone's character's homosexuality is known butnever flaunted among the gang, although it becomes another thread inthe doomed story of Mitchell. A film that is small yet filled with exceptional performances by manyof the outstanding character actors of Britain, London Boulevard is notfor every taste. It's vile, dark, and bloody. The characters are cruel,the setting contemporary. Makes one think about what's going on in thecity besides Wills, Kate, and Harry. Excellent action for the no carchase set, it is a throwback to Greek tragedy with 60s soundtrack.

liveweaver

16 May 2012

http://readreels.blogspot.in/ : A half baked cake.Half is so good that you'll want your full but sadly its not there.

London Boulevard, a crime caper kind of a movie stars Keira Knightleyand Colin Farrel in the lead. The films starts with Colin Farrel'scharacter Mitchel getting out of prison after three years.He decides togo straight.He takes a job of protecting this young out of work actressCharlotte that Keira Knightley's playing who is quite unsocial andreclusive in nature and is quite paranoid with the surroundingpaparazzi.Charlotte lives with Jordon played by David Thewlis who playshis part exceptionally well.The problems start when Gant who is a bigtime don becomes interested in Mitchel.You'll get the idea if you haveseen Michael Mann's Thief as this film's outline is quite similar butthey are totally different films.Keira has little to do in the movie, though i haven't read the novelthis film is based on but I'm sure Keira's character in the novel wouldhave been much more developed than what we see in the film and to makethis story work that was essential.The chemistry between the leads hasfew moments but they are not fully realized and it feels choppedoff.Although the film was beautifully scripted but the acting sometimeslooked forced and quite unnatural at times.Only David Thewlis catchesyour eyes every time he's on the screen.Colin Farrel never makes mecare about his situation or his dilemma.London Boulevard doesn't quite finds its foot between its romance andviolence and sadly stays quite mediocre throughout.Through last twentysomething minutes promise to be fulfilling but they are undone by theending with what we see and what we don't.Its a nice time spender butyou don't get a reward back from it and that's what makes it sodisappointing.Its a dart that misses the board.

16 May 2012

Muddled dialogue, clicheed plot

I could only make out about half the dialogue in this stylish thriller. Most of the Cockney accents are all but impossible to decipher. I kept turning up the sound. hoping to make out what they were saying. In the end, it didn't matter that much because the plot is fairly standard for a gangster flick, and things turn out pretty much as expected, with the usual Godfather-esque litany of brutal murders of all the enemies as the grand finale to the pent up violence we endure to reach that point. Colin Farrell is pretty as the recently released convict who gets a bodyguard job for a star of some sort who can't go out of the house without papparazi trailing. I was mystified by her handyman who seems to be a nut job and who happily assists in a couple of unrelated hits. The conclusion may annoy you a bit, but it keeps you guessing a little.

12 May 2012

Blu-Ray Review

What garbage of a movie. The Soundtrack is nice but that's about all. The rest is a total waste of time.

12 May 2012

What a waste of time

I had high hopes for this after reading some decent reviews. What a shambles this film is. A decent cast all fail to provide anything worth sticking with.What a long two hours this was listening to Colin Farrell's awful Cockney accent. The story is boring and has far too much swearing, even for a gangster film.Don't bother with this. there are far better films out there!

bartireid

10 May 2012

Boulevard or Bust

London Boulevard is a big screen adaptation of Ken Bruen's 2001fictional crime novel of the same name and a directorial debut forWilliam Monahan of Departed (2006) fame, for which he contributed thescreen play in Martin Scorcese's seminal Oscar triumph. Monahan managesto assemble a pretty interesting cast for the job matching big nameattractions notably Colin Farrell for the lead of Mitchell an ex-contrying to place his life on the straight and narrow who findscomplications aplenty but centrally in the shape of Keira Knightleyplaying Charlotte, a reclusive actress in need of Mitchell's muscle inorder to fend off pesky paparazzi, perform some odd jobs around herabode whilst also seeking comfort in his softer side when making use ofMitchell as a confidante.The strength of the piece is in the supporting cast who mainlytranspire as conduits for Mitchells struggle with the temptations of apotential return to his old ways. Leading the second tier is RayWinstone as crime lord Gant who genuinely creates an atmosphere ofdread when on screen as he attempts to lure Farrell back to thedark-side. David Thewlis is equally adept as he plays Jordan a druginduced failed thespian who is Charlotte's business manager. There arealso roles for Ben Chaplin as a blundering hood whilst Stephen Grahamand Eddie Marsan are shamefully under used in their minor roles.As you might be thinking there is a lot a going on here and that's sortof where Monahan gets into trouble, the narrative is littered withplot-holes and semi developed ideas and characters such as Anna Frielwho pops in and out the story as a Mitchell's troubled sister, this islargely a product of the derivative nature of the project. Monahanseems to be tipping his hat at the types of movie he himself hasindulged, for example there is clear a sense of early Guy Ritchie instyle of the visuals, soundtrack and occasional attempts at humour. Themood and tone owes more to Scorcese traits such as an angry gratuitousracism and overly proud glorification of the gangster life style. It'sa rarity when a film could be said to be too short, but one way LondonBoulevard could have been improved is an extra 45 minutes or so to payattention to its many details.The major task London Boulevard will have is proving it has anysubstance, it will be interesting to see if William Monahan will beencouraged to take this debut any further and perfect or enhance hisdirectorial style with future work, if so this could be remembered morefondly as part of a bigger picture. If not it will fall through thecracks of irrelevance rather quickly.

09 May 2012

A Problem With Language

Though it has its issues, LONDON BOULEVARD is a pretty good gangster movie, which seems to draw some of its inspiration from films like CARLITO'S WAY and even SUNSET BOULEVARD.Fresh out of a British prison after spending three years on an assault charge, tough guy Colin Farrell is determined to go straight, even though his best buddy (Ben Chaplin) and his brutal, ultra-violent boss (Ray Winstone) are determined to bring him back into the rackets by fair means or foul.Farrell gets a job working for reclusive movie actress Keira Knightley, who is constantly being stalked by paparazzi stationed outside of her house. A romantic relationship develops between them, and they even make plans to escape London forever. Unfortunately, the spurned Winstone is not about to let that happen.William Monahan (THE DEPARTED) both wrote and makes his directing debut with LONDON BOULEVARD, which moves along at a fairly nice clip and never really loses our interest. The cast is uniformly excellent.The primary problem that I have with this picture is one that is shared with many of today's British movies, and that's its language.Years ago, when actors like Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave or Trevor Howard were making films, you could hear and understand every word they said on screen. Today, performers akin to the very talented and charismatic Colin Farrell often mumble their lines or speak in an accent and/or with slang that is difficult to understand. You may be able to generally comprehend what is happening on screen, but the subtleties escape you.There are also a couple of unexplained "holes" in the story, like: Who was the paparazzi in the olive green jacket and what was his purpose?On the other hand, perhaps that was explained in the dialogue that I didn't understand.Next time I watch this movie, I think I'll turn on the subtitles.© Michael B. Druxman

phd_travel

06 May 2012

Incomprehensible dialog and an unpleasant story

Two watchable stars Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley can't save thisunpleasant and meaningless story. The romance is weak. The dialog isincomprehensible. Really need subtitles. This movie is not meant to beunderstood by people who do not come from South London. At least theviolence is not too gratuitous. They try to age Colin a bit bylightening his hair but his silly grin now and then spoils things. Theonly interesting thing was watching how the paparazzi go after a moviestar (Keira). Seeing it from her point of view is quite good. BenChaplin is quite convincing as a cockney gangster. The main weakness isthe whole gangster plot. Don't understand why the big gangster neededColin so badly. Even if you are a fan of any of the actors just doyourself a favor and skip this one.

Anthony Little

05 May 2012

Don't see it!!

I hated this movie; thought it was ridiculous, especially its ending.It left me thinking I'd wasted 2 hours of my life. I didn't see thepoint to this movie and keep waiting for more…only for the movie to endwithout any climax. Thought the cast seemed good but none of the acting was good; I justdidn't buy any of it. Felt like movie was trying to be like The Departed...but ended up beinga very sad attempt at it and very disappointing as a result. The script is has so many ridiculous story lines and the ending isweak. Don't see it!!

Jaime-b

02 May 2012

Entertaining if you can look past some of the poor writing & clichés

This film was brimming with potential, an adept cast, some stylishdirecting & gritty yet beautiful set locations. However some of thestory & the actions taken by its characters were implausible, & most ofits ideas didn't develop effectively on screen. Recently released gangster Colin Farrell meets a young female friend ofreclusive celebrity actor Kiera Knightly & offers him a job protectingher from intrusive paparazzi. He shows up for work & What feels like ascene or two later they have (unconvincingly) fallen in love. parallelto this Farrels character is finding it hard to escape his past & issoon roped into a feud with gangster boss Ray Winstone. He is now facedwith the dilemma of either returning to his previous nature orbeginning a life of new found love in LA.All this is played out with some very stylish moments, such as thedialogue between Winstone & Farrel in the restaurant or the artisticbut realistic way in which the environment is captured. All the actingis well done & Its accompanied by a great soundtrack, but a huge amountof the script feels rushed & underdeveloped. As a whole it isentertaining if not taken to seriously but may not appeal to anyserious film enthusiast.I also felt that the ending of this film was brave but what I had seenprior to it lacked enough substance or attachment to make it stick & Ithink I would have been more satisfied with a conventional ending.

gradyharp

02 May 2012

The Dark Side: Miscalculations

London BOULEVARD is a British film that is unafraid to take a long hardlook at the dark side of London - organized and unorganized crime,miscreants of all ages, vengeance, substance abuse - and still come upwith a 'bruised hero' with whom we can relate. The film has itsproblems: the dialects of these 'English speaking' actors is so thickthat it becomes necessary to turn on the subtitles to understand thedialogue, some characters are insufficiently define, the musicsoundtrack overwhelms the action too frequently. Yet the cast of actorsis so strong that they overcome these problems and ultimately give us aterrifyingly real glimpse at the low life happenings in that majormetropolis.Mitchel (Colin Farrell, looking better than he has in years) has justbeen released from jail, an experience he never wants to face again,but his old friends such as Billy (Ben Chaplin) tempt him to get backinto big crime. Mitchel still stops by the street people to see his oldfriend Joe (Alan Williams) who warns Mithcel to stay away from Billy.Mitchel finds a job as a bodyguard for actress Charlotte (KeiraKnightley) who stays secluded from the omnipresent paparazzi in herhome where she lives with an ex-actor now druggie Jordan (DavidThewlis). Billy learns of Mitchel's new job and informs the local crimelord Gant (Ray Winstone) and a plot to rob Charlotte's home is hatched.Mitchel will have nothing to do with the plot, warning Gant that hewill never work for crime again. A series of brutal murders occurincluding the slaughter of old Joe by two young footballers - a deedthat enrages Mitchel, but even this need for vengeance is something hecannot carry out. The plot thickens and other atrocities arise, butMitchel has fallen in love with the delicate Charlotte and urges her toflee to Los Angeles to rid herself of the dangers and the paparazzi.But despite Mitchel's attempts to stay clean in the midst of thethickening mire that Gant creates, he is thwarted at every turn. Theending is a major surprise.William Monahan (Body of Lies, The Departed, Kingdom of Heaven) wroteand directed this film based on the novel by Ken Bruen. It is harsh, itis dark, but it is a fine example of film noir. Colin Farrell is superbin the every difficult role of Mitchel - his acting skills are polishedand his characterization is wholly credible. The supporting cast -Winstone, Thewlis, Knightley, Chaplin, Eddie Marsan, Anna Friel asMitchel's alcoholic wasted sister, Jamie Campbell Bower - isastonishingly fine. This is not a film for the fainthearted, but it isa powerful little movie with many bits of afterburn to keep theaudience guessing. Grady Harp

priyantha-bandara

01 May 2012

Classic crime movie with a novel turn

Mitchel (Collin Farrell) is just released from prison. And he don'thave any intention of going back in though his good old life has quitea few creative methods of living to put him back there. Not exactly agangster but hot tempered and known around the block, Mitchel looks fora fresh start. He gets to work for a solitary actress Charlotte (KeiraKnightley) who is broken after controversy and disturbed to brim withpaparazzi. In the mean time find's him selves caught up between a ganglord and his so called friend who wants to recruit him for their dirtywork. Unexpectedly falling for the actress and making the biggest ganglord in town his grave enemy, Mitchel starts to struggle to balance hislife and get out of everything clean. "London Boulevard" is an entertaining movie. It has drama, crime andquite a bit of action in it as well. And it's quite straight and brutalwhen it comes to shooting and killing people. Amidst all that the moviefirmly builds up the Mitchel character which is portrayed well byFarrell (By now I'm quite disappointed of him not appearing inHollywood movies anymore). He got a sister who is mischievous whom hetries to take care of the way he can, but hard to tolerate with. He gotfriends whom are junkies or crooks he really cannot trust. All he wantsis to live clean but that's the only thing he fails to achieve. Theother characters are pretty much strong as well. Charlotte the actressseems to have a lot going around her and now looking for earlyretirement after disliking many what had happened. The gang lord Granlikes to show his might around the block and a tough guy in a cleansuit. The movie has a good phase. It hardly drags or hardly over accelerates.The script is good which I had a little difficult time to catch up dueto British pronunciation and sub titles came for my rescue. However comparing with those good gang movies which came out in Brittonlike Layer Cake or Green Street Hooligans, London Boulevard is prettyimmature. It has a good plot but not a very creative one or a memorableone. You may enjoy this movie no doubt. But if you felt that it endedtoo soon welcome to my boat. More of my reviews at flickshout.blogspot.com

01 May 2012

Great cast

This review is from: London Boulevard (Amazon Instant Video) Ok......this movie was a complete waste of time. Don't watch it, you will be sorry. Colin Farrell was sexy and I loved to watch him walk.....haha.....that was about all the enjoyment I got out of this horrible movie. Not only was it a "what?" storyline, I couldn't understand a bloody word they said half the time. I understand this was a gangster movie but, f--- this and f--- that everyother word???---not so much. Horribly done.....and I am with the other review that was just glad it was over, even though he dies in the end.

hen_kie

30 April 2012

Fun and Slick

This movie really did it's best to build something up, and you expectsomething to happen. Mostly in other movies, where the ex-prisonerdoesn't want anything to do with crime, but cannot get disconnectedfrom that world of gangsters. And of course there has to be a girl whoget's into the middle of this, which makes it even more stereotype. Butthat didn't happen, it really surprised me, and made it a lot moreentertaining. Colin Farrell makes it look smooth, and he fits in this role perfectlyjust like in In Bruges or in The Recruit. Keira Knightley is not thatimportant in this movie, it could have been anyone. David Thewlisplayed a careless somewhat hippie, which makes it a bit less serious.Other supporting actors like Ray Winston (Gant) performed well. Concluding, it surprised me, plus I thought the acting was very welldone, especially by Colin Farrell, who made it really look easy!

Julian Left

29 April 2012

Wow, what a letdown...

I don't know what's with Colin and why he picks all these terriblemovies but I'm getting frustrated as hell... He does one decent filmand after that he completely chooses the most boring and crappy scriptever.London Boulevard starts boring as hell. In the first five minutes Isaid "this is another bad movie with great cast" and yes it is. BesidesFarrell you have the lovely Keira Knightley and the young OpheliaLovibond (a name probably unknown for many but a face prettyrecognizable) and the two British actors Ray Winstone, David Thewlisand Stephen Graham. With all that, the movie departs itself completelyfrom reality and enters into a world of boredom and mindlesssavageness. I would have been more interested in a film where Colinbangs all these hot actresses attached to this messy project than tosee a "whatever" type of movie.The story mainly is about this guy Mitchell (Colin Farrell) who justout of prison gets hired by this beautiful actress Charlotte (KeiraKnightley) to protect her from the paparazzi and other interferences inher life. Now, the director got it all wrong with these journalismthing. Since when 5-6 publications put the same picture of the sameactress on their magazines? You could have thought about other methodsto show how popular this Charlotte was but don't do such amateurishmistakes like this because it really takes away the realism. There's nosuch thing as 2 big tabloids having the same picture on the front pagebecause that would be BAD BUSINESS you dumbass. Back to the topic, thisguy Mitchell, even with a proper job, he still gets in parallelproblems. Why? Honestly, there is no logical reason. I mean god damn...you got a nice job man, get over it. But no, he has this friend whodied in ugly circ*mstances, being killed by two bastards. He goes on apersonal vendetta, a pointless revenge to say the truth. With all thathe goes on a criminal journey for a "big shot" jumping out in aclicheic form out of a black Rolls Royce Phantom. Laughing my ass off.ON TOP OF THAT, Mitchell and Charlotte, of course, end up together. Soyou got a "love story", a "revenge story", a "crime story" and a"family story" considering Mitchell's relationship with his sister(forgot to talk about that). But the film doesn't offer nothingsatisfying for neither these issues. All hail the paparazzi though, atleast they know what they were after because obviously the directordidn't. I was surprised at times that had some funny moments which arespecific for any British film. You need to have that English humorimpregnated in the story otherwise the film will loose it's britapproval stamp. I enjoyed those moments but other than that there'snothing interesting left.The acting was barely mediocre. Keira was not in her good days, Farreldid his old bored to hell character and the rest were simply "usual".Nothing to talk about so I'll go directly to the execution. First ofall, the music is terrible in the movie. It has nothing to do withwhat's on the screen and I think it was chosen just because it soundedcool. Well, it didn't. It's one of the worst choices for a film Iheard. The music was too quick for the film's slow pacing. It's like awrong contrast between brown and purple. The camera work was average.The editing was average. Everything was under my expectations.I honestly don't know why this movie was made. It's pointless, it hastons of bad lines, awful dialogue, mediocre acting, average execution,messy storyline... Wow, what a letdown...

27 April 2012

Awful Movie with Great Cast

I have little to add to the one and two star rated reviews. The film sucks. It apparently rips off Nicholas Roeg's incredibly great film Performance (as in Performance, London Blvd has a rolls royce, a house in a dumpy area of London, a hero who's been in prison, a failed artists, etc). But London Blvd is entirely banal. You can see the ending coming an hour away. William Monahan wrote the screenplay and directed. It's quite an atrocious film.

sajj_malik

26 April 2012

A fairly nice movie

This movie is based on a novel with same name by Ken Bruen. The moviestarts by showing Mitchell(Colin Farrell) in a prison room. He isreleased after three years for some crime that he don't even remembercompletely. He is greeted by Billy Norton (Ben Chaplin). Billy worksfor a Shady Gangster named Gant(Ray Winstone). Gant is a loan collectorand a ruthless crime lord. He wants Mitchell to do some work for himbut Mitchell resists because he doesn't want to end up in jail again.In the mean time Mitchell gets a job of guarding a film actress namedCharlotte(Keira Knightley) from the Paparazzi. There he metJordon(David Thewlis) who is a crack-head and use to run some errandsfor Charlotte in her home. Charlotte is a sadist and she confinedherself in her home where she lives with her painting. She hates beingin front of camera flashes and newspaper.Mitchell starts to fall inlove with her but he can never truly escape his violent past or thedangerous world of loan sharks, druggies, and other bottom-feeders.The movie is directed by William Monahan making his first directorialdebut.The cast is extra-ordinary. The movie has action romance anddrama in it. Although it is not perfectly balanced film but still it isworth watching.

luke-134-420716

26 April 2012

London Boulevard

For me this film was a complete waste of time for a couple of reasons;I don't like how every character is introduced, it's almost as ifyou're seeing the final part of a story without a beginning and middleto each character and leaves you having work out who they are, who theyare associated with and what's their main purpose in the film.The other bit that caught me unawares was how quick the scenes were,the film looked like a story half complete but completed in a rush, thekillings were too quick without any real background to them or suspensebuilding for example; one minute he's on the phone to his sister thenthe next scene he's all suited and booted in France then the next cliphe kills one of the biggest gangsters in the film.I struggled to get into the movie, found it hard to relate withcharacters and was generally complexed by the whole storyline which wassummed up by two lads killing Collin Farrell at the end..It's a confusing story between a busker, a promising footballer strokehood rat killing one of the biggest villains in the movie, an over thetop involvement on paparazi for a women who appeared to be stuck in ahouse despite having millions..What I would say is, the little stories before Ray killed his victimswas very chilling.

Daniel F-P

25 April 2012

Great gangster movie

I did not know anything about this film until I saw it. I felt greatlyentertained while watching it and was happy to find David Thewlis inthe cast (haven't seen him since Naked). The movie takes this sort ofviolent trajectory and just spirals down into the inevitable finale.There is a sort of a romance going on between Colin Farrell and KeiraKnightley but thankfully it does not overshadow the gangster theme ofthe story. Ray Winstone is great as the villain and there are othergreat performances as well (for instance by Thewlis). All the acting isnot flawless but all in all it's a movie I would tell my friends to gosee. Only negative thing I have to say is about the ending. I don'tlike it when the hero is killed in the end by a good-for-nothing kid!One thing that brought me a lot of pleasure the plot aside was the factthat Farrell at one point cites the writer R. M. Rilke. I did not nowthat guy until I saw the film. Guys, you cannot but dig the quote"Everything terrible is something that needs our love".