A very good movie

If they would announce today a new movie directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Daniel Craig, it would be highly expected and probably a hit. However, this movie was released 8 years ago and actually barely noticed but how could you blame the mainstream audience? Up to that point, Vaughn was mostly known as Guy Ritchie's BFF and as the producer on Ritchie's early flicks and Daniel Craig was so far a rather obscure character actor. Still, even though it was not a real success upon release, it did manage to reach cult status pretty quickly and I became rather curious about this flick. The main critic is usually that it looks too much like Ritchie's early work but even if it was indeed similar in tone, it didn't bother me whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I think it was actually a pretty smart move from Matthew Vaughn. Indeed, if you are going to make your directing debut, it is maybe better to focus on a genre that you are already familiar with instead of making something completely alien to you and making an ass of yourself in the process. The other fun thing about this movie is that it was basically some kind of warm up for Daniel Craig before the James Bond gig. Indeed, his character already displays the charisma, the coolness and the lethality needed to portray the most famous spy that ever existed. Concerning the plot, it is basically your average British crime story, not very original but still pretty funny with some colorful characters and damned entertaining. To conclude, I really liked this movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10