What exactly is happening in ‘The Gentlemen’ trailer? Beats us
In the beginning of the new trailer for “The Gentlemen,” Hugh Grant appears first — but you may do a double take. Because in this role, Mr. “Notting Hill,” Mr. “Love Actually,” Mr. “Bridget Jones’s Diary” is masked with a scruffy goatee.
He also dead-on channels the voice of fellow Brit Michael Caine.
It’s disconcerting, to say the least.
So is the rest of the trailer, which lays out an action-comedy crime caper having something to do with a marijuana empire and dueling attractive criminals and their less-attractive henchmen.
There is a lot of violence and a lot of looming violence. Many guns. Someone gets run over by a train? It is, after all, written and directed by Guy Ritchie, of “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch” fame. (Also of “Aladdin” and once-married-to-Madonna fame, but those don’t really count in the comedic-violence department.)
“It’s clumsy, but in a charming way,” a palace servant declares about halfway through “Aladdin,” and I’m inclined to agree.
The movie stars an ensemble featuring Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding and Michelle Dockery, whose character apparently wears Christian Louboutins. The red-soled shoes get their glamour shot before the “Downton Abbey” alum gets hers; later, she gets hurled over a desk.
According to distributor STX Entertainment, in “The Gentlemen,” the American played by McConaughey has built a weed empire in London, as Americans do.
“When word gets out that he’s looking to cash out of the business forever,” STX says, “it triggers plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him.”
Those wishing to unravel the mysteries of “The Gentlemen” can expect the movie’s release in 2020.
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