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Film:  London Boulevard

The weird thing is -- Bill Monahan is one of the most widely revered screenwriters in Hollywood.  It goes beyond the Oscar for The Departed -- he is one of those guys people speak of in nearly mystical terms.  Leo DiCaprio once said he'd be in any movie written by Bill Monahan, I think.  Studios will option books if he is vaguely interested in adapting them.  I'm not a huge Departed fan, but I have read the screenplay and the guy can write, for sure.  But I had also see Edge of Darkness on a plane -- and that is a terrible movie -- and I mistakenly thought he had directed it and so I figured, eh, another one of those overhyped dudes.

In any case, I was in no hurry to see London Boulevard, but it finally came up in my netflix que and it's fine.  It gets to be a decent movie towards the end.  It isn't embarrassing.  But this our gold standard?  Honestly?  This is our "best"?  This ought to be our average or below average.  I almost couldn't believe the lack of originality.  We start with a crook getting out of prison?  Really?  Then he gets a job as a bodyguard for a famous actress and (spoiler alert) they fall in love.  Basically, it's Straight Time meets The Bodyguard set in London.

I was incredibly surprised by the mediocrity.  And then I look up this guy's credits besides The Departed, the Internal Affairs remake.  Kingdom of Heaven, Edge of Darkness, London Boulevard, and Body of Lies.  Yikes.  This is below average studio fair -- am I wrong?  Edge of Darkness is the worst of all the annoying Baston tough guy nonsense (and to be fair, The Departed is the best).  Body of Lies could be categorized along with Syriana as total mideast nonsense.  I didn't see Kingdom of Heaven, but it's gotta be considered in the lowest tier of Ridley Scott's ouvre and then London Boulevard, basically a below average British gangster flick?

I don't want to shit on a screenwriter too much -- I mean it's hard to write a good movie.  But our best ought to be a lot better, methinks.