Rating of
2.5/4
"The Long Good Friday" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 11/04/12
The head of a London crime syndicate has a cross Atlantic deal with the Mafia threatened when he comes under attack on his own territory. The Long Good Friday is very much a product of Britain of the 1970's, populated as it is with cockney lags and bent coppers dressed in kipper ties and velvet suits and flares. The problem is that it all feels so very much like a feature length episode of The Sweeney or its like; Bob Hoskins brings the only semblance of truly cinematic quality to the table, the performances of the supporting cast mostly amateurish to the point of actually fluffing their lines from time to time. The dialogue is actually quite inconsistent in itself, being occasionally cringeworthy but sometimes genuinely funny - usually in the form of Hoskins' gruff sarcasm. The plotting is also decent if a little predictable and clearly had a big influence on the film makers of Hong Kong in the 1980's who added their own brand of acrobatic gun play to the formula which helped immensely; the direction and cinematography here feels TV standard and what little action there is lacks any kind of visual flair.
As a whole, fans of the aforementioned TV cop shows will probably enjoy it as it is essentially more of the same, but most will find The Long Good Friday a little too cheap and dated.
