It's incredible that a man of William Monahan's (THE DEPARTED, EDGE OF DARKNESS) talents could consider this viable material for a feature film. It's an entirely superfluous and predictable London gangster movie of the kind that were doing the rounds 15 years or so ago, and yet it pretends and acts like it's a unique, fresh and contemporary take on the gangster genre. It's not, and nothing that happens here is a surprise.

The main problem I have with Colin Farrell is a leading man is his inability to craft sympathetic characters, and his one here is no different. I actively disliked the guy from the very start, from when he stepped out of prison, and he does nothing to engage the viewer's empathy as the story progresses. His facile romance with a stiff Keira Knightley does nothing for him, either.

It doesn't help that Monahan's script is chock-full of brain-dead profanity that quickly becomes irritating. It takes a certain calibre of writer to make profanity work - Tarantino finds a natural rhythm in it, for example - but here it's just grating in the extreme. The talents of numerous actors are also wasted in nothing roles; you wonder why Stephen Graham, Lee Boardman, Jamie Campbell Bower and Eddie Marsan even bothered turning up. Ben Chaplin and David Thewlis get more to do in support, but neither are at their best here. Thewlis is on autopilot while Chaplin is slightly uncomfortable and miscast. Ray Winstone is wasted in the most clichéd and predictable gangster imaginable, although Anna Friel is very sexy, I'll give her that.

London BOULEVARD isn't all bad - it's fast-paced and has lots of twists and turns to keep you watching, of course - but at the end of the day it offended me with its glib attitude and refusal to provide originality in any way, shape or form. It even rips off part of CARLITO'S WAY with a certain bare-faced cheek.