Netflix R-Rated Dark Crime Comedy Proves Fan-Favorite Director Still Has It

The fact that Ritchie can write and direct films that have so many twists and turns in addition to snappy dialogue and comedy is remarkable.

In The Gentlemen, we meet Michael Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), a pulled-himself-up-by-the-bootstrap American who won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford and has been selling marijuana to rich kids ever since.

He’s smart, he’s charming, and he’s willing to get blood on his hands. In the present day, he has built a drug empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

He and his team now want to be the gentleman that can retire, relax, and take it easy, getting out of the crime business entirely. After all, we find that Great Britain is legalizing marijuana, so Michael wants to sell the business to someone who can take it legit.

Michael’s right hand man, second-in-command, is the sharp and ruthless Raymond Smith (Charlie Hunnam). Raymond is willing to do the dirty work to keep his boss’s nose clean. He’s relentless and unwavering in his loyalty to Michael. 

As Michael considers his potential buyer, Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong), he flirts with his gorgeous wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery) and manages to keep competing drug empires at bay. One of those drug empires is led by Dry Eye (Henry Golding).

The first scene between Michael and Dry Eye is one of those “oh my God did that just happen?” scenes that leave you truly appreciating Ritchie’s craftsmanship. Matthew and Michael behave like the gentleman they both aim to be, but in the background, it seems shady deals are afoot. 

Matthew asks to see Michael’s secret labs, and finds that Michael has them hidden underground, beneath the protected private estates of various members of the elite British aristocracy, all of whom depend on Michael’s very generous rent money.

However, shortly after Michael shows Matthew his lab, it is raided by amateur MMA fighters who video the whole robbery, calling themselves “The Toddlers” and uploading the video to YouTube. When their coach (Colin Farrel) finds out, he orders them to delete the video and takes every step he can to make it right with the gentlemen in charge, if he can find them. 

As if all of this insanity wasn’t enough, enter one of Michael’s landlords, a duke, who asks for Michael’s help getting his heroin-addicted daughter out of the crack house she’s been staying in. Michael calls in the gentlemen he trusts, his team led by Raymond, to get the task done, and to get it done right.

Of course, nothing goes right. It goes sideways, and in typical Ritchie fashion, all the blocks start tumbling down and all the pieces start falling into place. There’s violence, smartly shot running and jumping sequences, and fight scenes galore. It is perhaps the Ritchie film that most closely resembles Snatch. 

Seriously, The Gentleman deserves 5 stars out of 5. Every actor plays his part to perfection, even Hugh Grant as the slimy private detective Fletcher. It’s intelligent and action-packed at the same time. Perfect for a brainy action junkie.