The MTV-style editing feels passé, its humor smug and fratty.

For all its energy and vulgarity, The Gentlemen is a slog, a tedious and unnecessarily unpleasant tour of ground that Ritchie's already covered.

Telegraphing dialogue, Tarantino-speak tributes, and a third act plot logjam are tantamount to bringing ants to the picnic, but there's enough repellent on board so as not to bother or distract too much.

...for the first time, Guy Ritchie has convincingly evoked several different echelons in the class system...The Gentlemen is a mature, amusing, deftly plotted and politically subversive film that has the narrative nous to have its cake and eat it....