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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:14
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: With a fascinating character as its subject, A Very British Gangster makes for entertaining, frightening, and informative viewing.
Theatrical Release:Jul 18, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: The British gangster genre has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years with films like Sexy Beast; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; and Layer Cake (all of which screened at Sundance). However, as... [More]
Director: Donal MacIntyre
A Very British Gangster is a very watchable movie, one that explores an oft-exploited mob milieu and busts some of its fictional bubbles. These are troubling people, to be sure, but MacIntyre makes them human, as well as frightening.
Top Criticblunt, charged
As ever, you sense that MacIntyre is half-seduced by the hard-man lifestyle, flattered to be included and content to peddle excitable gangland tourism in the guise of a criminal expose.
A Very British Gangster plays less like a documentary than an E! exposé of lowlife skulduggery.
Top CriticA deeply unnerving exposé.
It's easy to forget this is a documentary. The central character wouldn't seem out of place in almost any British crime drama--he'd actually liven most of them up.
A fairly inconsistent effort assembled in a slipshod manner that doesn't do much to help one understand where this British gangster is coming from.
If Tony Soprano had a cheekier, less haunted, openly gay British counterpart, it would be Dominic Noonan, the Manchester crime boss profiled in the stylish and compelling A Very British Gangster.
Top CriticThe film is beautifully shot by Mike Turnbull and Nick Manley, including a moody black and white scene in the cemetery and a lovely crane shot looking out at the doomed neighborhood.
Top CriticA Very British Gangster, his portrait of Manchester crime boss Dominic Noonan, raises awkward questions about his methods, as well as the question of whether "documentary" is even the right word.
At times, MacIntyre’s narrative abilities in making the Manchester gangster life-style appear glamorous makes you question how much of the film is real, but when you get down to it, the reality here is between the lines.
A Very British Gangster proves yet again that one great asset of film is vicarious participation in crime.
Top CriticMore Hot Fuzz than Reservoir Dogs.
It's all eminently watchable, but feels more like the run up to a larky crime picture like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels than a serious documentary.
Though hard to swallow much of this slanted overview, it goes down easy due to Noonan's charismatic force of personality, however unpleasant. But it's less about insight into the gangsta life, than a glimpse into a thug's action hero fantasy world.
MacIntyre's heavy, heavy hand fudges it.
Investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre's film is fairly standard British TV product, closer to a glorified 60 Minutes segment then to cinematic art. But never mind -- its subject is, as he might say, feckin' amazing.
Top CriticA fascinating portrayal of a surprisingly complex individual and the major part loyalty and family play in his life.
It would have been nice to hear a small something about Noonan's very British victims.
Top Critic'Manchester is where I was born, where I live, and where I'll die,' announces Dominic Noonan at the start of Donal MacIntyre's gripping documentary.
Top Critic
August 30, 2008:
Iconoclast.com: Though hard to swallow this slanted overview, it goes down easy due to Noonan's charismatic force of personality, however unpleasant. But it's less about insight into gangsta life, than a glimpse into a thug's action hero fantasy world. 
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August 26, 2008:
AnywhereRoad.com: Though hard to swallow this slanted overview, it goes down easy due to Noonan's charismatic force of personality, however unpleasant. But it's less about insight into gangsta life, than a glimpse into a thug's action hero fantasy world.
More...
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