Guy Ritchie
301 connections found
Filmography
RocknRolla 2008 
Sherlock Holmes 2009 
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 2015 
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 2011 
Wrath of Man 2021 
Fountain of Youth 2025 
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword 2017 
Aladdin 2019 
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare 2024 
Revolver 2005 
Swept Away 2002 
The Gentlemen 2020 
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 
Snatch 2000 
Star 2001 
Guy Ritchie's The Covenant 2023 View:
Connections, in both directions
The Long Good Friday (1980)
Directed by John Mackenzie
influenced The Gentlemen (2020), Wrath of Man (2021), RocknRolla (2008), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000)
Visuals Themes
Ford, who also was in "Lock, Stock" and the great British gangster film "The Long Good Friday," keeps his hammy role lively - at least until Brick Top wears out his welcome.
Running with the conceit that Fletcher is pitching this entire story as a movie script, the screenplay is also loaded with self-referential film jokes, including allusions to Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation and John Mackenzie's cult 1980 London gangster classic, The Long Good Friday .
Beyond regressive windbaggery, nothing justifies the two-hour running time: not the archaic soundtrack cues, nor the lame imitations of viral gang videos, nor the clanging late homage to 1980’s seminal Britflick “The Long Good Friday,” unfit to inhabit the same planet as its inspiration, let alone lace its boots.
A devoted fan of the crime genre, Ritchie peppers his script with a hefty dose of self-referential gags including a reference to Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, which Fletcher decrees as “a bit boring,” and John Mackenzie’s seminal 80s London gangster flick The Long Good Friday , which Ritchie has consistently taken heavy inspiration from.
This germ of an idea is that, whilst simultaneously being a homage to Ritchie’s own role in British film history, this is ultimately an ode to another crime classic; The Long Good Friday .
Asians, African-Americans, Jews and more are set up to be targets and punchlines and what is worse is that not only are the gags stretched to breaking point — a gag involving someone being called a “black bastard” and whether or not that is racist — but they are stolen from other projects i.e. the gag with the name Phuc is a gag from the teen comedy Superbad , the particular use of a pig is from the anthology TV series Black Mirror and of course, Ritchie’s insistent cribbing of the classic British crime flick The Long Good Friday (including the ending!) — which thankfully is not as blatant as it was in Rocknrolla.
In another instance he even talks about how much he finds Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation boring.
Running with the conceit that Fletcher is pitching this entire story as a movie script, the screenplay is also loaded with self-referential film jokes, including allusions to Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation and John Mackenzie's cult 1980 London gangster classic, The Long Good Friday .
Oh, and while he is at it, he should also learn that if you are going to make a joke about how boring Francis Coppola’s “The Conversation” is, as the Grant character does at one point, you should not do so in the context of a film that offers less entertainment than waiting for two solid hours for an actual screening of “The Conversation” to commence.
“Every movie needs a bit of action,” Fletcher notes, after narrating yet another dust-up; his throwaway diss of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” (“wasn’t for me – a bit boring”) leads one to consider the extent to which he speaks for Ritchie himself.
Ritchie ladles on the meta-layers by allowing Fletcher to lay out his plan to extort Pearson like an elaborate film treatment, complete with insider-jokes about “35mm anamorphic”, blackout cuts and an aside about Francis Coppola’s classic eavesdropping movie, The Conversation .
Naturally, “Wrath of Man,” with its heists on the streets of LA, will be compared to Michael Mann’s terrific (and terrifically long) 1995 movie “Heat.”
In “Wrath of Man,” the action is more grounded, recalling the work of Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1996) or Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” (2008).
It’s a Heat rip-off, but not a gonzo one like Den of Thieves, which was anchored by the uncontainable charisma of Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, and the sneakily effective O’Shea Jackson Jr.
Guy Ritchie’s new film “ Wrath of Man” opens a lot like Christopher Nolan’s “ The Dark Knight” which was inspired by Michael Mann’s “ Heat” .
Think of Christian Gudegast’s delightfully scuzzy Den of Thieves crossed with the epic L.A. grandeur of Michael Mann’s Heat, peppered just a touch of the nihilism found in S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete and you’re mostly there.
Ritchie appears torn between remaking “Death Wish” and Michael Mann’s “Heat.”
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Directed by Brian De Palma
influenced The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Plot Characters
He revels in the period detail (split-screen, Nina Simone on the soundtrack), and it's a canny move to locate U.N.C.L.E. in the same period as the original show, setting it apart from franchises like Bourne , Mission: Impossible and even contemporary Bond.
Unlike “Mission: Impossible,” another rebooted ’60s title now on screens, “U.N.C.L.E” had no catchy theme and no lasting cultural impact.
A movie version has been kicking around for development hell for decades -- George Clooney and Tom Cruise were rumored at various times to play dashing spy Napoleon Solo -- but unlike "Mission: Impossible" or the James Bond movies, there's no attempt at an update and no firm decision on whether to play it straight or camp it up and go all self-referential.
As the show no longer has much cultural currency, Ritchie doesn’t feel the need to pay due deference (no big deal in itself; neither did Tom Cruise with Mission: Impossible ), but he doesn’t establish the significance of the film’s acronymic title in a way that either justifies the ending or Hugh Grant’s casting as this secret organisation’s head.
The Holmes in Shadows , played by Robert Downey Jr., isn’t so much a detective as a globetrotting action hero, the 19th-century version of Jason Bourne or Mission: Impossible ’s Ethan Hunt.
Which is somehow a good thing: Rather than a bone dry, boring version of King Arthur, we get this rock and roll version, which has elements of “300,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Clash of the Titans” baked into its DNA.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
influenced Snatch (2000), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), The Gentlemen (2020), Wrath of Man (2021), RocknRolla (2008), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Visuals Themes Plot Dialogue
A hip-trip joyride with a handful of cinema-cool Cockney roughnecks, "Snatch" is directed by Guy Ritchie, who has a flair for creating something stylish, imaginative and droll out of elements aped from recently influential genre staples like "Pulp Fiction," "Trainspotting" and "The Usual Suspects."
Another in the "Coarse Comedy" genre made popular by Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction."
Like the Pulp Fiction auteur, Mr. Ritchie revels in plumbing the minds as well as the bloodthirsty ways of his low-life, and mostly short-lived, bad guys.
The non-linear structure, adding a poetic edge to something so disposable, led directly to films like Boogie Nights, Go and Snatch in the following years.
…i.e. before “Pulp Fiction”, one of the movies it shamelessly rips off (along with “Get Shorty”, “Trainspotting” and Guy Ritchie’s own “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”).
Sure, there's an 86-carat diamond involved, an attempt to rig a bare-knuckles fight, all kinds of shooting and plenty of double-crosses, but where "Pulp Fiction" put its finger on a few funny lines coming from a funny character's mouth, "Snatch" offers the biggest, baddest-ass handful you can grab.
Frustratingly, certain elements are there. Another inspiration was Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy films, in terms of the two leads. You could entirely imagine Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz as Luke and Charlotte in another space and time, albeit with the tweak of being siblings rather than a romantic pairing.
Without giving anything away, González’s Esme reminds me of The Mummy’s Ardeth Bay, played by Oded Fehr.
Guy Ritchie's Fountain Of Youth consciously tries to muscle in on Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Stephen Sommers' The Mummy and Uncharted (the games).
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced Fountain of Youth (2025), Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Plot Themes
More recently, Ritchie turned his talents toward Fountain of Youth, an earnest rip-off of Raiders of the Lost Ark that wears its Spielberg inspirations on its sleeve. On one hand, the film exhaustively mimics the rapid pacing and globe-trotting thrills of its model, yet on the other, it marches forward without a single wink of humor, self-awareness, or playful irony. Consequently, the adventure unfolds in a safe and overly predictable pattern, striving to recapture that lighthearted caper tone but only igniting fitful sparks of excitement.
Ritchie and writer James Vanderbilt got the memo, clearly, with a beginning and end that lift pretty directly from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, respectively. Spielberg's adventure franchise has seen plenty of knockoffs over the decades, but few feel as transparently shallow as this.
The present case owes more to “Harry Potter” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” than Doyle.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Directed by Terry Jones
influenced King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Plot Dialogue Themes
I know I said “dramatic possibilities,” but it would be personally disingenuous of me to pretend that I’ve seen a greater Arthurian movie than “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
The brash British director has thrown out nearly all preexisting Athurian notions and come up with a smoking new riff on the famous sword-in-the-stone tale that makes “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” look like a work of rigorous historical scholarship by comparison.
Co-written by Ritchie, his screenwriting partner Lionel Wigram and Joby Harold (the upcoming “Robin Hood” revival), “Legend of the Sword” may be the most entertaining Arthurian movie since “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” — not that they’re in any way similar.
It’s a story that’s been told before, in cartoon form and in live action, on TV and in film, from the glorious absurdity of Monty Python and the Holy Grail to the dreadful 2004 King Arthur which wasted a perfectly good actor in Clive Owen.
To borrow a Monty Python and the Holy Grail tagline, Ritchie’s King Arthur is “another film completely different from some of the other films which aren’t quite the same as this one is.”
Ritchie has been getting a lot of grief for this, but while his movie doesn’t really work, he hasn’t committed sacrilege – Monty Python and the Holy Grail showed that audiences were ready to laugh at the forests-and-fog fustiness of classic versions, and Antoine Fuqua had no lock with his straight-faced King Arthur.
…out of Swept Away (October 7/02) Based on Lina Wertmüller's 1974 movie of the same name, Swept Away follows spoiled socialite Amber (Madonna) as she embarks on a yacht trip with her husband (Bruce Greenwood's Tony) and four friends - with problems ensuing as Amber finds herself forced to become brutish deckhand Giuseppe's (Adriano Giannini) slave after the two characters are shipwrecked on a deserted island.
(CNN) -- Undoubtedly Guy Ritchie's version of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 Italian-language classic "Swept Away" will be compared ad nauseam to the original by high-minded pundits from coast to coast -- many of whom probably never saw the original.
…out of Swept Away (October 7/02) Based on Lina Wertmüller's 1974 movie of the same name, Swept Away follows spoiled socialite Amber (Madonna) as she embarks on a yacht trip with her husband (Bruce Greenwood's Tony) and four friends - with problems ensuing as Amber finds herself forced to become brutish deckhand Giuseppe's (Adriano Giannini) slave after the two characters are shipwrecked on a deserted island.
Some might go to Guy Ritchie’s misbegotten remake of Lina Wertmüller’s distressing and hilarious 1974 masterpiece, Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto ("Swept Away . . .
It fares the worst when contrasted with the original Swept Away, the controversial 1974 effort that earned writer/director Lina Wertmuller a Best Director Oscar Nomination.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Directed by Kevin Reynolds
influenced King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Characters Visuals
It strikes me, too, that this is the film I'd hoped Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was going to be almost thirty years ago.
The closest thing to a fun performance—and it is still a very long distance from actually being that—is the one turned in by Jude Law, who takes a blatantly campy approach to his performance as Vortigern that is basically a ripoff of Alan Rickman’s memorable turn in the otherwise unmemorable “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” that does inspire a laugh or two.
Despite some striking visuals (including sweeping use of Welsh and Scottish locations) and the occasional evocation of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, this newfangled Arthur comes up short on grandeur or even old-fashioned matinee adventure, trading them in for cosmetic Game of Thrones grot.
This is more of a Death Wish homage by way of Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey, an ode to the ’70s “wounded guy, big gun” aesthetic.
The obvious comparison is Michael Mann’s Heat — the less obvious one is Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey , which is also about an Englishman in L.A. trying to avenge a murdered child.
It’s no Heat , or The Limey , or Destroyer , but it’s not too far from Den Of Thieves in terms of its cheap, muscular thrills: a dual track of Statham’s solo investigations and a rag-tag team planning a heist.
Trainspotting (1996)
Directed by Danny Boyle
influenced Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Visuals Themes
One can also readily assume that Trainspotting figured into the mix (several scenes and photographic tricks are lifted almost verbatim), and the combination of humor and bloodshed recalls Elmore Leonard's approach (see, in particular, Out of Sight).
A dark comic crime thriller from talented newcomer Guy Ritchie, the movie could be the bastard child of "Pulp Fiction" and "Trainspotting," though it's definitely too original and entertaining to be merely an homage to either.
A giddy compendium of every hipster noir cliche of the past 10 years, Guy Ritchie's "Trainspotting"-meets-"Reservoir Dogs" caper comedy proves that anyone who believes young filmmakers have outgrown the cycle of slapstick violence initiated by the rise of Quentin Tarantino back in 1992 has another think coming.
With a plot as convoluted as the East-Ender accents that pepper the production (as in Trainspotting, subtitles are sporadically necessary here), Ritchie and a spot-on cast of mostly newcomers steamroll through the proceedings at a cool 210 kilometers per second.
Attempting to marry Oliver Twist with Trainspotting, this ends up more like a bloody episode of TV's Minder.
Writer/director Guy Ritchie has slammed one out of the park with a film that should have all the impact of "Trainspotting".
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
influenced Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
For those critics who complain that Ritchie's depiction of Holmes is not accurate to Doyle's accounts, I can only remind them that after Twentieth Century Fox made the second of their popular Basil Rathbone Holmes movies, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," in 1939, the studio changed the time setting thereafter to World War II and beyond, a far bigger revision of Doyle's original concept than anything in Ritchie's world.
Enola Holmes (2020)
Directed by Harry Bradbeer
influenced by Sherlock Holmes (2009), King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Visuals Characters
Enola Holmes is not a carbon copy of Guy Ritchie’s big screen Sherlock Holmes films, but it boasts the same pithy, modernized light step.
Based on the series of novels of the same name by Nancy Springer, Enola Holmes puts the spotlight on Sherlock Holmes' little sister, a young woman every bit as clever and daring as the famous detective.
There is a lively and jaunty score provided by Daniel Pemberton (who incidentally provided the scores for Ritchie’s Man From UNCLE and King Arthur films).
It’s a Heat rip-off, but not a gonzo one like Den of Thieves, which was anchored by the uncontainable charisma of Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, and the sneakily effective O’Shea Jackson Jr.
At under two hours, however, the pulpy entertainment is welcome, including a bevy of twists that recall the recent (and slightly better) Den of Thieves .
They decide to use their skills to take down scores, giving this a Heat vibe at times, although thematically it's probably closer to Den of Thieves - albeit better.
Think of Christian Gudegast’s delightfully scuzzy Den of Thieves crossed with the epic L.A. grandeur of Michael Mann’s Heat, peppered just a touch of the nihilism found in S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete and you’re mostly there.
Wrath of Man might not end up with a reputation like Heat, but it’s likely to have a fate more like that of Den of Thieves, the 2018 L.A.-based cops-and-bank-robbers film that emerged as a cable and later a Netflix staple.
It’s no Heat , or The Limey , or Destroyer , but it’s not too far from Den Of Thieves in terms of its cheap, muscular thrills: a dual track of Statham’s solo investigations and a rag-tag team planning a heist.
Rather, he comes across as an aging rebel worried about being judged un-hip, clearly over-compensating in order to remain one step ahead of fellow stylists Zack Snyder (“300”), Tarsem Singh (“Mirror Mirror”), and Alex Proyas (“Gods of Egypt”) — all of whose genuinely outrageous, inadvertently awful work appears to be a source of inspiration here.
Which is somehow a good thing: Rather than a bone dry, boring version of King Arthur, we get this rock and roll version, which has elements of “300,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Clash of the Titans” baked into its DNA.
Está bien que un cineasta quiera hacer escenas al estilo de “300”, pero hay que usarlas en la medida justa, especialmente si los efectos digitales no acompañan y se ven falsos.
The battles involve ’roided-up, muscular warriors leaping through the air in slow motion, 300 -style.
This time out he reaches back even farther to the legend of King Arthur, a story he once again feels the need to tamper with until it resembles a "300" styled comic book super hero origin story of the old tale.
From Russia with Love (1963)
Directed by Terence Young
influenced The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Visuals Characters
Guy Ritchie’s feature film version doesn’t so much capture the exact way the TV show was (at all, really), but it does offer the most stylish movie depiction of 1960s spies in a mixture akin to From Russia with Love and In Like Flint.
(He’d have looked great with the plutonium hues of Robert Shaw in From Russia With Love.)
This despite orders from both of their superiors to eliminate one another if necessary, passing up an incredible opportunity later in the film for a “From Russia With Love”-like fight scene (that film’s epic train tussle comes to mind) — or a more overt display of whatever physical urge these two metrosexual men from U.N.C.L.E.
Their escape is almost foiled by a Soviet agent (Armie Hammer), who with his slow-burn, hulking presence and almost superhuman strength seems a close relation to Robert Shaw’s assassin in “From Russia With Love.”
Noomi Rapace, the striking heroine from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, stalks mysteriously through the picture as a fortune teller as if she'd been told to think she's appearing in the gypsy encampment sequence in From Russia With Love.
As revealed in the trailers, the civilian in question has a special connection to H, but even having that knowledge going in doesn’t affect your experience in the slightest because Wrath of Man is no complex murder mystery; it’s a straight-up revenge thriller in the same vein as John Wick .
The only one of any real lasting power is the decision to cast Statham as a surprise badass, when something like that only really works with actors like Bob Odenkirk in Nobody or to some extent, Keanu Reeves in John Wick .
With films like Nobody (2021) or the John Wick films, audiences are tuned to a certain style of violence.
This isn’t like the John Wick franchise, which has a phenomenally high body count but always seems to treat guns, daggers, or other weapons as extensions of the human form—true tools that we wield in ferocious dances with our foes and fates.
There is a real embrace of gloom, from the wardrobe, the lighting, even the silence, this is where “ Wrath of Man” moves into John Wick territory.
Nobody else goes full John Wick their first day on the job.
Fight Club (1999)
Directed by David Fincher
influenced Sherlock Holmes (2009), The Gentlemen (2020)
Plot Characters Visuals
The conflicted genius is a keen boxer who battles in “Fight Club”-like matches but also adores the opera.As in all Holmes tales, the case to be solved is the thing and init is complicated business, fashioned by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg from Johnson and Lionel Wigram’s screen story.
His Holmes combines the qualities of a highly cerebral and neurotic sleuth like Monk with the derring-do and masochistic physicality of an urban brawler in Fight Club .
I don’t know how well this film would have worked were it not for Robert Downey Jr. in the role – but with him in it, we have in this movie one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen on screen since Brad Pitt played Tyler Durden in Fight Club.
When not slumming in the streets, he’s duking it out in the squalid East End as a bare-chested combatant in scenes resembling outtakes from “Fight Club.”
The plot is perfervid hokum pumped up to justify the movie’s portentous look, and, for extra juice, it has squeezed pop elements from martial-arts movies, “Fight Club,” and “The Da Vinci Code.”
Taking the Fight Club route, the scene ends shockingly, leading up to the opening credits; which clearly signals that The Gentlemen is an unashamed Guy Ritchie joint.
In “Wrath of Man,” the action is more grounded, recalling the work of Michael Mann’s “Heat” (1996) or Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” (2008).
Guy Ritchie’s new film “ Wrath of Man” opens a lot like Christopher Nolan’s “ The Dark Knight” which was inspired by Michael Mann’s “ Heat” .
While Statham plays off the stoical tough-guy persona he’s developed in the interim, Ritchie settles into the tense but relatively restrained mode of Christopher Nolan — specifically, “The Dark Knight,” easily the most influential action movie since “The Matrix.”