INTRODUCTION: This crowd pleasing London gangster flick was widely tipped for the audience prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival before being blown away by "Get Real".

SYNOPSIS: Four London wide-boys Tom (Flemyng), Eddy (Moran), Soap (Fletcher) & Bacon (Stratham) find themselves in deep do-do when a rigged card game leave them in dept to local face Hatchett Harry (Moriarty). To save their hides, and the bar belonging to Tom's Father J.D. (Sting), they hatch a plan to rob local hoods Dog (Frank Harper) and Plank (Steve Sweeney) of a grass stash they in turn intend to steal off public school boy grower Winston (Steve Mackintosh) and sell it on to local drugs lord Rory Breaker (Val Blackwood) via black-marketeer Nick The Greek (Stephen Marcus). But things do not run smoothly, this is a 90's heist after all, and our heroes also have to deal with dept collecting father and son team Big Chris (Jones) and Little Chris (Peter McNicholl), Harry's Henchman Barry The Baptist (Lenny McLean) and an increasingly harassed Traffic Warden (Robert Brydon). After this things start getting a little complicated.

REVIEW: Ritchie follows a career in adverts and pop promos with this feature debut and throws his hat into the ring to compete for the much coveted title of Britain's answer to QT. Believable dialogue, stylish visuals, brutal violence and a scattering of witty one-liners put him several steps above the competition and indeed QT himself.

The ensemble cast of familiar faces, in this country at least, lead by "Rob Roy" star Flemyng and including the veteran Moriarty and sometime rock star Sting does wonders with the script, but it is of course football hardman Jones in his acting debut that is garnering the most press attention, proving that his acting abilities aren't limited to feigning injury when tripped in the penalty box, by bringing relish to the performance of the various acts of mindless violence, that would have got him in trouble on the pitch.

Ritchie belies his promo background as the visuals get a little too stylised at times and the story is verging on the ridiculous, but the characters are convincingly larger-than-life and solid enough to carry it, and the film also features the greatest cliff-hanger ending since Caine and co's balancing act at the conclusion of "The Italian Job".

QT meets 70s British farce in a mockney east-end.

Mutt's Rating: ****

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