Plot
Four London lads decide to join their lifetime savings together, in order to raise the sum of 100,000 British pounds that is required from someone to be able to sit at the same table and gamble with the big boys.
One of these lads is famous for his ability to win anyone at cards, so his friends trust him to make a nice quick profit for all of them to share.
Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned, and as a result, they lose all of their money and end up with a debt of 500,000 pounds that they have to pay back in five days, otherwise badmen will cut their fingers to start with.
Gambling a lifetime’s savings
One has to be utterly optimistic to “invest” a lifetime’s savings in a single gambling game, and believe that they will emerge victorious with flying colors, especially when playing cards with hardened crooks who won’t stop at nothing.
Each one of the four lads puts 25,000 pounds into the game, with the expectation of making a decent profit in the blink of an eye.
As most people can easily understand, this is far from a sound investment.
If 25,000 pounds is considered a big amount of money to spend single-handedly nowadays, you can imagine how much more value it represented back in the 80s and 90s.
It just makes you wonder how easily people can trust mates and part with their hard-earned cash.
These are not mature individuals, but rather kids who have never grown up, and when it comes to money, it is: “easy comes, easy goes” for them.
Before the era of casinos
If this film was shot today, viewers would argue that you no longer have to be in a dubious place to gamble and risk your life playing cards with crooks.
There are online casinos available everywhere on the web, so you can part with your money in the comfort of your couch.
Apparently, the heroes of the movie couldn’t do such a thing back then, because it was before the Internet.
But, they could have visited a brick-and-mortar casino, which they didn’t.
I’m not sure why they preferred to gamble at a boxing gym in a dark back alley.
It might have something to do with the movie script, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many shootings, killings, and crime action.
No cops, just a traffic warden
Another thing that intrigued me in this film is there are no cops in the whole movie, apart from the starting scene, and the scene where the four mates are taken to the police station.
The only police presence is that of a clueless traffic warden who is thrown into the back of a van and beaten up.
There are so many drug, illegal money, shooting, and killing scenes, but not a single police officer, even a minor one.
It’s like police is non-existent, which makes you wonder, again.
Isn’t it strange that there are two patrolling police officers chasing Eddie (Nick Moran) and Bacon (Jason Statham) for illegal street vending, and no police shows up to investigate the criminal activities that take place throughout the film?
Maybe it’s a more serious crime to get a parking ticket than run a huge drug farming unit from home, who knows...
Rating: 69/100
