It was inevitable that Vaughn’s directorial debut, with its gangland murders, double-crosses and reverence for the wisecracking operators of London’s underworld, would be compared with the gangster flicks he produced for Guy Ritchie. Which explains Vaughn’s bristling mien in a DVD Q&A in which he lists his departures from the Ritchie formula.

Vaughn details how he excised much of the comedic element from the source novel by J. J. Connolly, and resolved to photograph London in a more inspiring light than his old mucker ever did. He even takes a sideswipe at Ritchie’s insistence on peopling his films with authentic, but untrained hardmen who could “barely remember their names, let alone their lines”. It’s a good point — respected actors such as Gambon and Whishaw are far more convincing ne’ er-do-wells than Lock Stock’s shambling parade of former footballers and bare-knuckle boxers. Craig, meanwhile, makes an altogether more thoughtful, and layered, protagonist than Lock Stock’s Nick Moran or Snatch’s Alan Ford.

An appropriately criminal selection of deleted scenes and alternative endings suggests that Vaughn is more astute at judging when a sequence doesn’t work. The result is a far more emotionally rich and cinematic film than its forebears, but one whose impact has been lessened, sadly, by its superficial similarity to Richie’s opus. We must wait to see how Mr Madonna responds in this autumn’s Revolver, a portrait of — you guessed it — the London underworld.

DVD extras Commentary with Vaughn and Connolly; deleted scenes and alternative endings; National Film Theatre interview; music videos trailer.

Ed Potton

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