Mr. Nice

I don’t know whether it was deliberate or not, but I found the picture quality very poor. It may have been to make it look more like a period piece, but more likely it was the best the budget would allow. I thought Rhys Ifans did an excellent job, although he never seems to age all through the film! I loved the small part David Thewlis played; the mad-cap Irishman was just brilliant. As to the plot; well I found it far too sympathetic to Marks; not surprising since it was based on his book I hear you say. But I would have thought the filmmakers would have put a little balance in there; what effect did all the drugs he sold all over the world have? How many innocent lives were affected? All this seemed inconsequential and probably explains why, despite some excellent performances, the film didn’t perform very well both at the box office and also critically. For me, whilst I enjoyed the performances, I found it a little too self-indulgent. SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED (…Just) My score: 5.8/10.

Mr. Nice starts out with a bang. Howard's (Rhys Ifans) journey from scrappy student, to Cambridge outsider, to the drug trade is touching, hilarious, and exciting. Elsa Pataky (the local cop in "Fast Five"), by the way, is terrific - she needs to be in more starring roles. But the downward spiral from about halfway through to the end of the film is FAR too strung out. It needed to be edited way down. So yes, it's worth seeing, but it's a little too bloated for my taste.