The Gentlemen Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

Downs...

4. The Lazy Gay & Racial Jokes

Ritchie has never been one to care much for political correctness, and so it's little surprise that his new film is jam-packed with poetically foul-mouthed dialogue, with liberal use of the "C-word" to boot.

And while much of the chin-wagging is delightfully vulgar, there are certainly many moments where Ritchie's script opts for lazy, low-effort jokes at the expense of gays and non-whites in particular.

Obviously a movie that features homophobic and racist characters doesn't make the movie itself homophobic or racist, but the context of the jokes in this instance treats the dehumanising dialogue as though it's simply cheeky and harmless.

Punching down at groups that are already deeply marginalised just feels like a cynical attempt to pander to the blokey-bloke members of the audience rather than focusing on crafting actually witty chit-chat - which, thankfully, there's also plenty of in this film.

These moments don't ruin the movie by any means, but they do come across as weirdly spiteful and, above all else, totally unnecessary.