It was appropriate, I suppose, to cast two aging emblems of the 60s cinema counter-culture in what is essentially Soderbergh's take on the revenge thriller in the style of Point Blank, John Boorman's ultra-hardnosed classic of the genre from 1967, in which Lee Marvin bludgeons his way through to remorseless retribution. Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda clearly enjoy hamming up their respective typecasting as a rough East End lifer and a millionaire Hollywood hippie, which is regrettable as both parts are so thinly written. Stamp quite bizarrely reveals himself unable to do an actual cockney accent or bother with his script enough to weed out its Americanisms. Fonda, meanwhile, seems to be recycling his Easy Rider layabout.
Any Soderbergh film will always contain at least a smattering of choice dialogue and punchy editing. Certainly, the comedy angle of the film, with Stamp spouting rhyming slang to the bewilderment of all and sundry, works far more effectively than the fragmented flashbacks advancing the actual plot, aiming rather uncertainly for an elegiac tone and missing the mark in the end.
5/10
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