Let's be realistic.

Brilliant and touching

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Witty, charming and a tad cheeky. All characters well portrayed with tons of quotable lines. Excellent score from Craig Armstrong, recycled countless times in TV and adverts. Can't figure out the low score. Takes liberties with historical accuracy, but what good yarn doesn't? Watched over and over again since it became available. Now where's the bluray, huh!?

in this case, seductive could be the right word. for the nice story, who escapes from old clichés, for performances and for a fresh air who transforms, with subtle art, a predictable show in touching, realistic and interesting, almost fascinating entertainment. this is the fundamental virtue of film. to give the right recipe for a great story in each of its nuances.

Will Plunkett (Robert Carlyle) And Captain James Macleane (Johnny lee Miller) are two thieves in eighteenth century Britain. The characters are based on two genuine highwaymen of the eighteenth century."Plunkett And Macleane" was filmed at the height of the early popularity of Carlyle he'd made an impression as Begbie in "Trainspotting" and followed that with the hit movie "The Full Monty". Lee Miller hadn't followed up his role as Sick Boy in "Trainspotting" with such roles, but for some reason he was still popular. So re teaming probably seemed like a good idea. Sadly some parts of "Plunkett And Macleane" are so ludicrous I wondered whether it was originally conceived as a spoof comedy, much like the Carry On movie "Don't Lose Your Head" staring Sid James. Alan Cummings certainly seems like he stepped straight out of that movie. Of the two lead actors Carlyle is by far the best actor of the two, and his roguish character Plunkett is the more likable of the two. He gets the best lines and scenes (including a duel) As for Lee Miller's Macleane I'm not sure his character is meant to be as funny as he seems. What makes it more amazing is the dapper dan thief, who fancied himself as a gentleman is based on a real life person. Liv Tyler turns up as a love interest for Lee Miller and to put it bluntly she is a waste of a corset! She is dull bland and lifeless. There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes, but I doubt I'll ever feel the need to revisit this.

This is in a sense a buddy-movie. Two ill-matched young men, one a cash-strapped aristo, the other a street-wise low-life thief. Their meeting is surreal in its oddity where-after their common quest to avoid a gruesome fate and become rich, creates at first a bond of extreme necessity, mired in almost unimaginable filth which later, mirroring their improving luck, lightens up as necessity gives way to the pursuit of stylish pleasures - and stylish crime. The noose as always awaits but far far better to be hanged dressed in the best finery, to the tears of young women of class and to be ready and able to exit with a memorable quip. In short to die, if it absolutely could not be avoided, stylishly and like gentlemen, not common felons.The extreme harshness of the law, the filth and squalor, the highest of fashion, shopping and vaunting ambition to enjoy the high life is a combination which existed in the 18th Century but disappeared in the Victorian era as legal reforms blunted the harshness and worthiness replaced swagger. Life became safer, fairer - and duller.