1 out of 5

Directed by: Paul W. S. Anderson

My lord, the cast on this thing is ridiculous: beyond it being Jude Law’s first role, you’ve got Sadie Frost, Sean Pertwee, Sean Bean looking mad young, Jonathan Pryce, Marianne Faithful??, Ralph Ineson, and even Jason Isaacs showing up for a hot moment.  What?

And then, during one hour and forty or so minutes of lots of shouting, 90s UK house, car races, and several smashing through shop openings… Paul W. S. Anderson’s first written and directed film manages to be completely boring.

It’s well made, and because I’m an Anderson supporter, I feel like it shows off his sense of visual rhythm and framing, even at this early stage when his camera work was much more static – there are some great transitions, and the editing (from my novice perspective) is solid.  There’s just no content, and no reason to care about the characters.

Jude Law gets out of jail, shacks up with girlfriend Sadie Frost, and then acts like a prat and goes on ‘shopping’ smash-and-grab joyrides, running from the po-po and pissing off rival gang guy Pertwee.  Anderson weaves some of the norms in there – of disconnection with family, suggesting why Law’s character is the prat he is; of Frost’s character pleading with her boyfriend to change his ways (rather suddenly, after enjoying his escapades most of the while); the ‘last job’ that the duo and their cronies decide to pull – but it’s sooo thinly applied between scenes of, again, shouting, and cars zooming, and raves, that it never forms into actual characters, or an actual movie.

Interesting as a relic due to all of its stars, and as a stepping stone to better things, for those of us who approve of PWSA.

Blu-ray notes: Having not seen this in any other format, I can’t tell you if the visuals are an upgrade or not, but the movie looks good, considering it’s about 25 years old at this point.  Severin Films’ release doesn’t have any of the obvious smoothing that some blu-ray transfers do, and though the film has a rather muted palette, it’s just the right level of crispness.  The special features include some archival interviews, which are definitely interesting – even at this youthy stage, you can tell Jude Law put thought into his performance – a 30ish minute featurette of Paul and Jeremy Bolt talking about the flick, and a commentary track with Paul, Jeremy, and a fellow from Severin, whose name I apologize for forgetting, but who prompts the duo with some questions.  Which is the main benefit to that track, as a lot of the other tidbits are covered in the featurette.  So both are worthwhile (Paul gives a good commentary track, I find, mixing in an ideal blend of technical stuff and vignettes) – there are unique elements in each – but the featurette is the compressed version, if you just want to pretend like you care when you’re telling your blu-ray commentary-track-listening friends about your recent purchases.

Additionally, Paul’s explanations of what they accomplished on their budget, and of their goal of making a movie for the British youth, which was a rarity at the time, make me appreciate that this probably would’ve been pretty effective at the time.  It also captures a pre-renovation London – all abandoned warehouses and whatnot – which I would’ve had no clue was a thing.  Overall, this doesn’t change its rather boringness to my modern, American eyes, but it adds to the technical quality I believe I spied between the lines.