London Boulevard [Blu-ray]

This film had a lot going for it: Lead actor Colin Farrell (a smoldering flame just beneath the surface); lead villain Ray Winstone (plays scum like an art form); lead damsel Keira Knightley (playing a damaged character); and, a killer soundtrack by Sergio Pizzorno (w/ rock band Kasabian).The supporting cast were noteworthy as well: David Thewlis, Anna Friel, Ben Chaplin, Velibor Topic, Eddie Marsan, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Stephen Graham, Ophelia Lovibond, Simon Grover, Gerald Home, and Matt King, the reason why I watched this film (who played a delicious henchman, not enough screen time, though).I never read the book on which this film was based so I wasn’t expecting the ending – I gasped. Overall, unfortunately, I believe the screenplay over-reached and crammed too much of the book into the 1 hour 43 min. duration of the film; but, the brilliant acting played it out.

Saw some previews and thought I would give it a try, despite the bad reviews.Wish I hadn't. Very heavy accents make it difficult to understand some of the actors.After about an hour, We decided we didn't care. The movie is shallow and uninteresting.I thought with a few of the stars, how bad can it be? Well, it can be very bad....save yourself!!Pass it by.

Without Keira Knightley this film would be a near total flop...Colin Farrell is effective as a tough guyprospective gangster who just got out of prison but his backstory and supporting characters areuninteresting to watch...the number of times the expletives %uck off and $unt are verbalized by all ofthe characters becomes annoying...while Keira Knightley has presence the love story presented is uninspiringand the image advertisements become too repetitive....I did like the occasional 1960's themed music montagesbut in the end the story is unsatisfying...

I don't want to give anything away. So lets just say, the acting was just amazing as you would expect. The writing was a bit inconsistent which made the main character (Farrell) look a bit confused at times as to his future. Just as I thought I had a handle on how the character was, rough, gangster type trying to figure out what he wants out of life and his direction, things change again. No issues so far really at this point in the movie I would say. But there were to many subplots and then there were just things that Colin Farrell's Character in my opinion would not have done. Some of this movie, or much of this movie you can figure out as you go along. Nothing wrong with that. I only wish to be entertained. Knightly is just amazing and she plays her character to perfection, an Actress who is described in the movie as a "Howard Hughes Type". The two just work and click perfectly. But as one review in here said, don't watch it for a love story, or the idea you cant figure out how the movie is going during most of it. Watch it for the value of the entertainment of it. If you approach it from that point of view, you will really enjoy it. This is not a feel good movie, as it gives you hope at times, then takes dark turns, only to bring you back again. A real treat, and although not a lot of screen time, you do feel as though he had much more just due to his brilliance performance as a crude, and nasty crime boss, the man himself, Ray Winstone. This is a who's who of actors in my opinion. Winstone was perfect for this role and if memory serves me correctly, The Departed, and Mel Gibson's movie Edge of Darkness he played similar characters although a bit more dark in this movie. Another great and under appreciated actor was David Thewlis (Harry Potter Movie's, Seven Years In Tibet) who plays Jordan was an integral part of this movie as well. He enabled for the two lead actors Knightley and Farrell to interact well together and was used as a buffer and he certainly added to the enjoyment of this movie, and gave it some very dark and intelligent humor at times.I don't want to give anything away, but you can see by watching the preview, or reading what it is about, that Farrell is out of jail, looks for work, wants to have a more normal life or any life at all, and finds Knightley and then the story really begins. It is at this point that I thought there were mistakes made in that I felt this character would not have made. Not someone who was in Jail, and was around people who lead a life of crime. So it was in that, the few inconsistencies in Farrell's character that just made me scratch my head and think, no way would he do this or that. So that all said, I still loved the movie, I gave it 5 stars due to how entertained I was, but I think they could have done just a bit better with the writing. The type of language, meaning the use of language, street language, code words, and just the way all the actors communicated was just different and so well done. This was very different, and you have to watch it to understand more of what I am saying. I also thought the chemistry between Knightly and Farrell was outstanding. So, I would say it's worth every dime, and sit back and enjoy. Remember, you will not feel like you just watched a Disney film when done. It is dark, with some moments of levity and light. Fyi...This is not a Kids movie..... Enjoy.....

"London Boulevard" includes terrific actors, which is a righteous motivation to watch the film. Still, I found it superficial and wanted more depth into the main characters' lives--especially Keira Knightley as Charlotte, a/k/a the victim of stardom resulting in her "Howard Hughes"-esque" retreat from public life. With the paparazzi's crude harassment and stalking, one wonders about her films and pre-retirement life (fictionally-speaking). People are obsessed with her, but WHY?

I really liked this movie. It is worth a watch. More than one watch, even. Colin Farrell is terrific as an ex-con who still has the balls to call his own shots and pay for his own steak. Ben Chaplin, David Thewlis, Eddie Marsan and Ray Winstone (I hope I spelled his name correctly and yep, Keira Knieghtly as a troubled and reclusive star round out the cast. This film has a terrific soundtrack too. It is a gangster's love letter to London.

Did not stick to the story. This film was a story full of too many grungy fight scenes and spent too little time on a romance, which lasted a few minutes. There was no love story here. The entire movie was nonsense. It was a mishmash of little side stories that did not add value to the overall story. A waste of time + $. The lead character was cute but that is all. Not worth it.

Love these actors, love the concept. Unfortunately the story didn't go anywhere. I suspect this is probably a terrible adaptation of a book because there were characters and plot points introduced for no reason whatsoever, and never resolved. It didn't need Kiera Knightley's character at all.

Colin Farrell is really a pretty good actor. In Phonebooth he plays the pathetic cowardly nobody-that-pretends-to-be-somebody (a "player") excellently, and among others he was great in Seven Psychopaths, in Alexander, in A New York Winter's Tale, and perhaps best of all in In Bruges, where his comic timing is absolutely spot on.In London Boulevard he carries the opposite to the Phonebooth guy as a streetwise guy with a solid moral compass, but with huge balls of steel that he has to eventually show to Ray Winstone's psychopathic and ruthless crime boss, when Winstone fancies pushing him around.Keira Knightley as usual doesn't do a lot, Atonement for me was her finest hour but apart from then I have never found her to be convincing. I think she is widely fancied, though not by me (too skinny and not all that pretty) so gets starring roles in things and doesn't pull them off.I'm not sure if the ending is supposed to be a major twist, but it's just a mild surprise and a highly ineffective one. Farrell, Winstone and David Thewlis carry it well enough. The cameos by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Anna Friel and Eddie Marsan add quite a bit and the film might have benefited from more development of their characters.

One of those films that you enjoy watching, but will end-up probably watching only once. Although well acted, I found the portrayal of Mitchell's (the lead character) booze-addled sister annoying and implausible, and the ending, although unexpected, took the edge off the overall enjoyment.

Not a big gangster movie fan,what with all the silly shouting and swearing and trying to come across as hard,but this one kept my interest,even with the odd ending. So this guy gets out of prison and is offered a job protecting a celebrity,she's depressed and hounded by the press. The ex-con's sister is a drunk nymphomanic,which he struggles to put up with and his friends (sort of) are trying to get him into the gangster world,which he eventually gets forced into. It's not a special movie and i wouldn't spend long praising it,but it does the job with some great acters doing their job well,the story it passable and at 1 hour 40ish,i wouldn't say it's too long.So there's far worse gangster films out there if you ask me,but then i'm not a gangster film fan,i just enjoyed this for what it was,good but nothing special.

There is good and bad in this film. Some pulp and cool moments, Colin Farrell, a strange nouvelle vague approach with metacinema solutions. But this is also the weakness of the film, that is not entirely enjoyable or totally "independent" and authorial film. So you get stuck in the middle.From a former screenwriter who made excellent stuff like The Departed and Edge of Darkness, a not so well scripted film

Not a bad little film, but much less than the considerable sum of its acting talents might have led us to expect. I was surprised to find the bit of the film that worked best was the little romance between Farrell & Knightley; although it wasn't really explored or closely argued they did have a bit of chemistry.Still, not a disc for the keeper shelf.