Normally I don’t do the movie titles in caps (that’s reserved for José) but it’s part of this title’s presentation, mainly to catch that four in place of an ‘a.’
Don’t let the plug about the director’s involvement in Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels films scare you. Those are movies by Madonna’s current husband, Guy Ritchie, who suffers from sexually transmitted fame. He has nothing to do with this one, which is why it’s not so hyper and trendy smelling. This puts the UK/EU’s organized crime into its proper place: ugly, dangerous, violent, murderous and filled with treachery.
The story is about an unnamed drug dealer (XXXX) who has made all the right moves without having to be involved in the unsavory parts (see the last sentence of the previous paragraph). Now that he has made his fortune, he plans to walk away. HA! As the British say, “in for a penny, in for a pound,” because the ruling Mob bosses decide when one is through. I feel it’s a dig at the more rational people (myself included) who think drugs are easy money and one can extricate himself later on, as if the narcotics trade were stock options. It could be if there weren’t psychopathic killers involved. Then again, the profit wouldn’t exist neither.
So the protagonist is on the verge of retirement when the man above him (thus the title of the film) calls in a favor which has to be honored. Then the wheels-within-wheels plot gets going as he has to juggle finding a runaway daughter, peddle a million hits of ecstacy and avoid former Serbian soldiers wanted by Interpol.
I feel that director Matthew Vaughn does an adequate job making this all credible, even when the story takes deviations, much like real life. But most people will probably be turned off or puzzled by all the subplots taking place alongside the primary three objectives. Plus the only recognizable actor (to Americans) in this is Colm Meany from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine who plays an Irish enforcer. I think he has a contract which gives him first dibs on any Irish characters in Irish, Welsh, English, Canadian and American films.
Rent this if you liked LA Confidential or crime movies with true anti-heroes. If you’re bigger on Carl Hiassen, Dave Barry or Elmore Leonard’s stories (Get Shorty), I give it 50-50. If you don’t like either or you think Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie rock at this, then you’ll be disappointed.