Triggermen

Triggermen is a 2002 crime comedy film written by Tony Johnston and Mark Thomas and directed by John Bradshaw for First Look International. Starring Pete Postlethwaite, Neil Morrissey, Adrian Dunbar, and Donnie Wahlberg, the film had festival and video screenings in 2002 and 2003 before its DVD premiere in 2004 and television releases in 2007 and 2008. Set in Chicago, the film was shot in Toronto.

The Daily Telegraph wrote that despite its billing as a comedy thriller, the film was neither noticeably comic nor remotely thrilling. After its US premiere at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Variety made note of the film seeming to borrow heavily from Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and called it a late, lame entry in the comic assassin genre. They offered that while the cast choices were fine, they were generally wasted and that the film, lacking equally in humor and action, looks headed directly to home vid and cable. In agreement, Film4 wrote that the cast choices were reasonable, but the film might have been better if in other directorial hands. They considered its soundtrack inappropriate and the directors use of slow motion or highspeed for certain scenes as an unsuccessful lending of style, making it look ridiculous and cheap, like a poor mans Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels. They wrote A comedythriller short on laughs and thrills, Triggermen is a rather misjudged film that used a Ridiculous plot, secondrate acting and the stylisation of The Benny Hill Show. The Tribune made note that as the films writer and director were both Canadian, they did a poor job persuading us that Postlethwaite is a key player on the South Side. Sunday Mercury also panned the film, calling it a weak farce with an intrusive soundtrack, but unlike Variety and Film 4, they offered that it was beautifully framed and shot, while speaking well toward Neil Morrissey lead role, but they opined that he had little hope of saving this unconvincing, dull, limp, flat, laughterfree comedy caper. Entertainment.ie also noted weak comparisons of the film to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Pulp Fiction, and offered that such was probably affording Triggermen too much respect. They called the plot a distressingly inane story and one of those hopeless juvenile, depressingly formulaic Brit comedies which owes its very existence to Guy R

Source: Wikipedia