Love, Honour and Obey (2000)

Disturbing yet enthralling

Absolutely amazing

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I just love that this movie uses the real names of the actors, Jude, Ray, Johnny etc, so it's very cool. The main source of the humour comes from the the two bodyguards, one old and one young - mainly around the young guy trying sort out the old guys love life with his wife Kathy Burke. She then gets subjected to some of these suggestions which makes for great comedy.The violence stems from rival gangs and the characters in Ray's gang who are quite uncompromising. Ray asks one of them, who is in hospital, how he's doing - he says I've been stabbed by my own mate for a joke, burnt and force feed dog food - how do you think I feel?This is a movie to see and stack on the DVD shelf ahead of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels for a repeat viewing.

I first watched 'Love, Honour and Obey' back when it was released in 2000. Seeing as I've always been reasonably into British gangster films, in short, I thought it was pretty cool. However, I never had it on DVD and have only just got round to re-watching it a good fifteen years later. Despite my good memories of the film, I begrudgingly have to admit that it hasn't aged all that well.Perhaps I was so into Guy Ritchie's style of cockney gangster flick of the late nineties/early 2000s that I somehow lumped this into the same nostalgically-good category. I don't want to be too harsh on it, because there are definitely some good points and I didn't totally hate it – it just let me down on a repeat viewing. We meet Johnny Lee Miller's character who is pretty much a London nobody and dreams of working his way into 'the mob' who it just so happens that his childhood friend, Jude Law, is already related to.The overall impression I got after the credits rolled was that it felt more like a 'made-for-TV' movie. And, upon looking into it, I did find that it was originally shown on the BBC before its release on DVD (or VHS in those days!). It's rare that I notice the 'direction' of a film so much. Normally, a film is cut together so smoothly that you can follow the story at all times. However, here scenes just sort of end as if the film cut out mid-dialogue. It really is a bit jarring after a while. Plus there are some scenes that don't really go anywhere and feel a little out of place in the scheme of things. And, while we're on the topic of odd scenes, this film does struggle to know what it wants to be. At first glance it's a gangster film, but it's never really dark and gritty enough to be that nasty. It throws weird comedic scenes and plot-lines in there which wouldn't be out of place in an American Pie film. However, again, it's not funny enough to be a comedy and, like the editing, it bounces all over the place.But, like I say, even now I didn't feel I totally wasted my time watching it. For a start it contains a stellar cast, headed by Ray Winstone, Johnny Lee Miller and Jude Law (the less said about Sadie Frost's performance the better). However, the stand-out performance comes from a truly menacing Rhys Ifans for his rival villain. For some reason they're all called by their actors' first names – weird, but interesting. Then you have the karaoke scenes which really are quite fun (not to mention catchy!).There was still just about enough nostalgia here to entertain me and, if you're a major fan of any of the leads, you'll probably find enjoyment during its hour and a half run-time. However, I can't see it being regarded as much of a classic in the long run. It was kind of trying to ride the coattails of Lock, Stock and hope no one really noticed. I did at the time, but it doesn't now.

In 1998 Guy Ritchie made a little British comedy gangster film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This film mixed comedy with a crime film and had a number of story lines going at the same time. Whether by accident or by design Love, Honour and Obey came out soon afterwards.Jonny (Jonny Lee Miller) is a courier who gets his long-time friend, Jude (Jude Law), to introduce him to his uncle, gangster Ray Kreed (Ray Winstone). Jonny comes up with a good scheme to steal credit cards but slowly he gets bored with the gangsters. When the North London firm run into conflict with a South London gang run by Sean (Sean Pertwee), Jonny ends up disliking one of his henchmen, Matthew (Rhys Ifan). Jonny with Jude starts to secretly steal from Sean's gang so they can cause a war between the two gangs.Love, Honour and Obey is a strangle film, mixing comedy with direction that at times is gritty scenes, with realistic violence. Some of the comedy can raise a smile, but others are forced and drawn out, like when the North London gang dress up as Middle-Eastern shrieks and have large erections after taking Viagra. Like Ritchie's gangster films there are a number of sub-plots, like Ray's relationship and up-coming marriage to actress Sadie (Sadie Frost) and Ray the bodyguard's (Ray Burdis) impotence and troubled sex life with his wife (Kathy Burke). But whilst with Ritchie films the subplots do interlink, in Love, Honour and Obey it more a way to stretch the plot.The direction by Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis is very disjoined. They use a hand-held style with few cuts, giving the film a edgy feel and attempt to make the surroundings and violence realistic: but this is put next to comic scenes like Ray the bodyguard experimenting with sex toys. There is also a surreal sequence when Jonny comes up in to explain events that happened dressed as a clown (which is explained at the end). That sequence itself reminded me of Bronson (a film released 9 years later), but it was more fitting in Bronson. The film cuts quickly between scenes, not willing to focus on one element for very long, audiences need a little build up. The film also shows to have a limited budget, with some actions being done off scene and others being explained. There is a good action scene which is a gunfight at a building site, but seeing that had men with shotguns and AK-47s and one of the men is meant to be a former soldier, it is remarkable no one was killed. It did not help the film when there are people being beating up and the sound effects are stupidly over the top and the LSD experience one of the characters has is one of the worst put to screen: it was like the directors could not be bothered.The acting in the film is fine: Ray Winstone is basically a thug for hire. No one was bad but it was only Rhys Ifans who really stood out in the film and you properly end up routing for him more then Jonny because Jonny is unlikable little toad. One think that annoyed me was almost all the characters use their own names and I wonder what's the point. I bet the writers/directors would argue they did it to give the film a more real/documentary feel, but I believe the real reason is that they were too lazy to do basics like develop characters when writing the script.I think there were basic elements that could have worked in a better film, like a young man who has a good idea for a scheme joins a group of gangsters and ends up going in over his head when violence and more messy crimes start to happen. Or they could be a story about a low level gangster secretly starting a war with another gang because he was bored or did not like a rival gangster or killing a man he simply did not like starts to escalates matters. Or even a more simply a violent psychopath joins a major gang/crime firm. Some of these idea are similar to A Fistful of Dollars and Yojimbo but they could work in a modern context. I also thought that the gang itself was going to be a family affair, like the Mafia, which would have been an interest dynamic for a British gangster film.Overall. Love, Honour and Obey is a typical mediocre British gangster that the low budget companies often produced. These films tend to overly violence with a rudimentary plot, set out to either cash in on a big fan base or simply a stepping stone for an actor or director.

This film is about a man in London getting involved with a group of gangsters.This film, although is a gangster film, is in fact very funny. There are many subtle jokes and one liners in the film, which does make people laugh. The sets in the film are often simple, but it still looks thoughtfully created. The dialogs are very British, which could be an impediment for it to have appeal in the United States.Jude Law is a gem in the film, his character is memorable and remarkable.Another notable thing in this film is that, despite being a gangster film, it is not violent or gory. This is a big plus for non gore fans!