THE GENTLEMEN was 2019’s 12th most-attended release in North America ($36,500,000), 10th worldwide ($115,200,000). Collected, that put paid the $22,000,000 budget and $25,000,000 for promoting the slick action-comedy/c-fight written, directed & co-produced by Guy Ritchie. The blokes are back in London town, living high, packing heat, swearing more than their American counterparts in a Quentin Tarantino movie, upping the f-word ante with volley-fire of the dreaded ‘c-name’, so beloved by erudite cousins across the pond.

American import ‘Mickey Pearson’ (Matthew McConaughey) was smart enough to make it into Oxford, and was clever enough to bag higher education for high’s-powered wealth, becoming a kingpin pot grower and dealer in Britain. When he decides to unload his empire and go legit he is faced with hostile takeovers from competing ends of the bong pool. Aided by his nail-hard wife ‘Rosalind’ (Michelle Dockery) and calm right-hand mate ‘Raymond’ (Charlie Hunnam), Mickey faces off against an ethnic check-list of hoods and media figures eager for a piece of the wide world of weed. Buncha  —ts!

The mellow with yellow Mr. McConaughey (for US box office insurance and cuz he’s down with it) and Jeremy Strong (as a fey tech billionaire) are the token Yankee upstarts in Cockney-fueled Ritchieland (let us recall–and praise–Brad Pitt in Snatch) matched against the home team headed by Hugh Grant & Colin Farrell, Hunnam & Dockery, Henry Golding & Eddie Marsan. They all appear to be having a high time in the posh settings, byzantine plot twists, cool duds, comic book violence and expletives-on-command dialog. Grant gets the by far juiciest role, making tasty morsels of cheery malice out of every line he’s given. Slick and bemusing, and so light in depth that a day later you’ll forget you’ve watched it.

In the don’t say it C-zone:  Tom Wu, Bugzy Malone, Jason Wong, Brittany Ashworth, Eliot Sumner, scads of new blokes. More than a little impressed with itself, this buffet of Brit bitters really does go on at a -—ting 113 minutes.