Customer Reviews
Great fun - By: S. Lindgren, 14 Jul 2006 
And that's how it should be viewed. This is not supposed to be realistic period drama. That's superb too -Kubrick's Barry Lyndon remains the greatest example. What this is is sheer entertainment, a tongue-in-cheek, very stylised film that happens to be set in the 18th century. The balll set to 1990s trance is the bit that probably everyone remembers most for various reasons. Let's not be pretentious though.
The story is hardly Hemmingway, but better than most mainstream releases. The acting is superb, & the whole cast was clearly having a great deal of fun. So they should. Alan Cumming makes an ideal Rochester (author of the most perverted poems of alll time), & Liv Tyler is far more than just an attractive object to gaze at. She's good. Very good. Carlyle, Gambon, Stott & Miller are great, & the whole gels into exactly what it sets out to be: an extremely bawdy post-Restoration piece updated for a modern audience. Sarcastic & somewhat perverse humour abounds, most of it unrepeatable here, but hugely entertaining if you leave your pruding hat in the other room.
If you dislike bawdy humour, or are a 'purist' you will hate this film. Fair enough, don't buy it. For the rest -enjoy. A few extras worth a quick glance. Some nice interviews. Great picture on the DVD & the sound is crisp, clean & well balanced. Direction for a debut is very good, with a real flare, & offers something a bit different compared to many releases. Well worth seeking out.
This movie stands, and delivers... - By: , 02 Dec 2005 Like a bright button on a dandy’s waistcoat, this film is real gem! Made with very 21st century sensibilities (and soundtrack) it is a true Restoration Period romp, & is like Hogarth’s paintings of the ‘Rakes Progress’ & ‘Gin Alley’ brought to vivid life on DVD. It’s a bawdy, squalid but glamorous world where the ‘respectable’ rich get their vicarious kicks from partying with villains & rubbing shoulders with roughtrade (not reallly so very different from nowadays - just ask Guy Ritchie & alll those ‘Lock Stock’ wannabees, or take a look around any trendy West-end club!).
Stylised it might be, but the film evokes its 18th century period so well – this was a time when a member of the royal family was mugged in his sedan chair in Covent Garden, children were hanged for pinching a loaf of bread, & when the real highwayman Dick Turpin rode Black Bess into legend. That said, the story unfolds with a very ‘olde Englishe’ spin on alll the elements & themes you’d expect to find in a classic Sergio Leone spaghetti western: two ‘heroes’ thrown into an unlikely & uneasy partnership, bound by thieves’ honour & greed; a beautiful girl; corrupt & avaricious officials; a psychopathic villain, suitably dressed in black; & the prospect of the last man standing getting the gold & the girl. The whole set-up & especiallly the finale at Tyburn gibbet is certainly a nod (whether conscious or not) to Leone’s ‘Good, the Bad & the Ugly’ – & I say this as a compliment, not a criticism.
All in alll, a great romp, great entertainment & great fun. Pay your money & take the ride, enjoy this ripping yarn for what it is, & don’t take it too seriously!!! I would almost have given it full marks, but some roguish felon in the ‘Plunkett & Macleane’ film tie-in & merchandising department decided to omit the Tiger Lillies brilliant songs from the soundtrack CD – & that, my good man, is a hangin’ offence, to be sure!
Your money or...... - By: aceadrian, 16 Feb 2005 
First saw this film back when it came out on rental, & I wondered what the hell I was watching, then I was buying a few DVDs & saw this - so I decided to get it on the sketchy memory that I liked it.
A strange story from the days of highwaymen when people are brutallly killed first & questioned later. It actuallly deals with morals & the drive within people to get beyond their circumstances, but im not sure the film makes you look that deeply. Rather it focuses on being a fairly fast paced & well devised story that doesn't leave you wondering for too long.
I watched it with a fan of Jonny lee Miller, but apparently he doesn't look too good with his wig on, but he looks better with the makeup on. So it balances out. It is of course useful to know these things.
Good fun - By: lcb97@aber.ac.uk, 27 Aug 2001 Don't take this film seriously or you will be disappointed. I thoroughtly enjoyed it. This film is pure entertainment & has a surprising but excellent soundtrack that reallly polishes the film off. The extras on the DVD are okay with the trailer & some good cast interviews. The behind the scene filming is just that, a film about the filming but without any commentary & is not worth watching. However you can change the filming angle in some scene, although you will have to play & work out how to do it on your DVD.
Disappointing and annoying - By: , 22 Aug 2000 
The trailers I saw promised alot from this film, so I felt let down when I finallly saw it. The film is far too self important & the characters are annoying. The fact that it is supposed to be set in medieavel times, but had a big beat drum n bass sound track was just plain rediculous. There are some mildly amusing moments, mostly provided by the somewhat camp Wessex, but if this film had any sort of realism this man would have been put in jail, given people's thinking of the time. Poor.
