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1577270cookie-checkThe Gentlemen Trailer Has Matthew McConaughey Fighting Off Chinese Gangsters
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2019/10

The Gentlemen Trailer Has Matthew McConaughey Fighting Off Chinese Gangsters

Stx Films, Miramix Entertainment, and Tuff Guy Productions released the latest trailer from Guy Ritchie’s latest film called The Gentlemen. It’s a white-knuckle crime-drama with what looks like plenty of shooting, lots of fisticuffs, and a bevy of men acting like men, which is a rarity in most major studio productions these days.

Matthew McConaughey stars as a crime boss who ends up getting muscled in on by a Chinese drug dealer – played by Henry Golding – trying to take over the territories. When one of his production houses gets worked over by the Chinese, McConaughey has his right hand man, played by Charlie Hunnam, to track down the snitch and plug the leak. This results in a bunch of people getting killed, some car chases, some dead bodies, and a lot of well-dressed gangsters going to war.

You can check out the trailer for the film below, courtesy of Movieclips Trailers.

Beyond the basic premise of McConaughey being at war with the Chinese while seemingly dealing with a rat amongst his ranks, there doesn’t seem to be much else going on plot wise. A lot of the movie seems to be about the criminal hijinks involving McConaughey’s moderate criminal enterprise and the people trying to usurp it out from underneath him.

In a way it reminds me a lot of Matthew Vaughn’s 2005 flick, Layer Cake, which had a very similar premise.

There definitely appears to be a lot more machismo on display in The Gentlemen along with a lot more gunplay.

The Gentlemen - Interrogation

McConaughey definitely looks at home being a laid back, but threateningly violent criminal boss trying to fight to keep his slice of the pie.

Also, I have to say that I’m impressed that Ritchie was able to portray the Chinese as the villains in the film. As many of you know, in today’s era there’s this trend in Hollywood where they’re trying to destigmatize certain racial group stereotypes by not making them the villains, especially when it comes to blacks and Chinese. Guy Ritchie doesn’t seem to care about Hollywood’s trend and has the Chinese as the traditional antagonists like a proper filmmaker would.

The only potential downside to this is if he chickens out and makes it where the Chinese end up taking over and killing McConaughey’s character. That’s still a possibility; making the smart, straight white lead a business cuckold to undermine his credibility and worth. We’ve seen something similar happen a few times in some recent films, like A Quiet Place, Silence, John Wick 3, Incredibles 2 and Pacific Rim: Uprising.

We’ll see if Ritchie sticks to his guns like his classic crime-dramas or if he tries to adopt more [current year] trends when The Gentlemen lands in theaters “soon”.

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