If you enjoyed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, then you must not miss this, the next hilarious offering in the series from Guy Ritchie, co-produced by Barry Skolnick. Mean Machine follows closely the 1974 film The Longest Yard (starring Burt Reynolds), and as many of the cast are snatched from Ritchie�s previous smash hits, it all makes for a really funny film, from which you can�t wait to start discussing your �favourite bits�.
Hard man Vinnie Jones plays Danny Meehan, a former England captain disgraced by being banned from the game for fixing results, who gets locked up for three years for drunk-driving and assaulting a police officer (which happens to be the opening sequence to the film - great!). The Governor of the prison, obsessed with football and in debt to loan sharks for gambling losses, attempts to compensate for his deficits by having Meehan fix another game, a classic clich� showdown of the Cons vs Guards, for which he has money riding on with the deal that Meehan will throw the match if he is to make early parole.
Danny has to pick a team from a bunch of half-witted house-breakers, rumbled robbers and a violent psychopath (played brilliantly by Jason Statham). The result is a game full of dirty play, ref-cursing and extreme violence in which Meehan must decide where his loyalties lie.
The cinematic version of this film is what secures its success with me, however when I tried to recreate the hilarity by hiring the DVD, I was heavily disappointed to discover that a lot of the really funny scenes had been omitted (due to them centring around violence). I trust that the version released to the public to buy in December is uncut, otherwise this film will only appear to be of mediocre entertainment. |
