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Dir: Guy Ritchie (12A, 126 mins)
Guy Ritchie brings his brand of slo-mo, speedy-up mockney swagger to the Arthurian legend in this mash-up of Lock, Stock and Excalibur. After the successes of the style over substance Sherlock Holmes films with an indestructible Robert Downey Jnr, Ritchie has embarked on a proposed six film odyssey of kingly japes. Charlie Hunnam plays the titular king, in this version from the streets, raised in a brothel and robbed of his birthright by dastardly Jude Law’s Vortigen who now rules in his place. Soon he finds out that there is a contender to the throne and Vortigen wants his rival dead. Cue lots of homo-erotic topless fisticuffs, hefty CGI (huge elephants, snakes, castles) and bants. Ritchie’s brash style papers over any real characterisation with another loud, noisy and in-your-face, smugly masculine romp.
Opens May 19