Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Love, Honour and Obey

Play trailer Poster for Love, Honour and Obey R 2000 1h 43m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
33% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 86% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A young man (Jonny Lee Miller) reminisces about how a childhood friend introduced him to the biggest gangster in London.

Critics Reviews

View More
Peter Howell Toronto Star 04/06/2001
Such a complete waste of time it seems appropriate to write a eulogy to the dear departed British crime caper. Go to Full Review
Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter 02/26/2001
A bizarre mixture of brutal violence and whimsical farce. Go to Full Review
Dennis Lim Village Voice 02/14/2001
Superhumanly awful BBC bottom-feeder. Go to Full Review
Ard Vijn ScreenAnarchy 01/11/2020
It still manages to build towards a strong, impressive ending. Go to Full Review
Antonia Quirke Independent on Sunday 11/28/2017
As a self-congratulatory exercise, Love Honour and Obey is perhaps without equal. Go to Full Review
MaryAnn Johanson Flick Filosopher 11/19/2008
[A]n absurdist Mob comedy that's like The Sopranos with an English accent... and karaoke. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Feb 18 A cracking film. Currently reviewed at 33% by critics and 86% by the general public. Proving that critics are a bunch of idiots See more Kev C 09/07/2024 I have no idea how anyone could give a bad review, a great movie, hysterically funny and an absolute masterpiece, ignore the naysayers and indulge yourself See more DanTheMan 2 06/30/2023 I feel like people who overly criticise Love, Honour and Obey have fundamentally missed what the film is even about. Love, Honour and Obey is very much a mock satire of the British gangster film and does so with a huge amount of swagger and intelligence that even when it's a parody of its own genre, that it even lovingly becomes a great film in that genre. Ray runs North London's most powerful criminal gang, and his nephew Jude is a polished and successful member. Jude's boyhood friend Jonny comes to Jude with an idea he wants to pitch to Ray; Jude is reluctant to mix friendship with business (and family), but he does arrange a meeting. Ray takes Jonny on (he uses his job as a courier to steal credit cards), but Jonny soon finds himself bored: the gang is more interested in goofing around and planning Ray's wedding than in fighting, havoc, and mayhem. Jonny wants violence, so he repeatedly tries to start trouble with the South London equivalent of Ray's gang. Will he succeed? If he does, will he find glory in war? First off, the direction. Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis capture that gritty and thoroughly realistic depiction of London fabulously, almost as if the film has been shot like a documentary. The raw 16mm nature of the film means you are left with these lingering close-ups of situations that some may find extremely uncomfortable but not entirely out of place within the genre. How the film is edited with its numerous fade-outs does bother me since it reeks of low budget but that's the exact style this film is aiming for so it's not so much a criticism and more of an observation. The writing is hilarious, perfectly hamming up the dialogue to the point of ridiculousness that I struggle to understand how the cast even managed to keep a straight face for most of it. John Beckett's underscoring does a stand-up job but is not really memorable enough to warrant a sufficient dissection of the material, the real standouts are the use of licensed music including two Gerry Anderson theme tunes that are lovingly sung by the film's cast. The Protector's Theme Avenues and Alleyways forms the basis of part of the film's narrative, being sung during the titles and before the end credits bookending the film with both renditions taking on a different meaning within the narrative. But by far the stand out sequence for me was the performance of the closing titles of Fireball XL5 by the magnificent Sean Pertwee and Trevor Laird. Speaking of the cast, they are all brilliant, Ray Winstone, Jude Law, Jonny Lee Miller and my personal favourite Sean Pertwee. All turn in great performances and their willingness to satire themselves is to be applauded. Sean can be a real bastard when he wants to and I love that. Overall, Love Honour and Obey is a great piece of satire of the rather oversaturated British Crime genre and really warrants multiple viewings... Go give it a watch, it's on YouTube at the moment. See more Stewart I 01/26/2023 What a terrible movie so bad See more 06/26/2022 The reviews on here are nonsense. The reviewers seem to be the type of people that appreciate high brow films which is absolutely fine. However, it doesn't mean this film lacks anything. It is absolutely one of the funniest films ever made. I'm not actually convinced all the reviewers that have given a poor score understand what it's meant to be. It's not a serious film but arguably more true to real life than any other, yes it's about London gangsters but it's not even intended to be completely serious, it's not trying to. It's a film basically making fun of gangsters. It's about not taking yourself too seriously. The point is gangsters are usually portrayed as very serious, very dangerous people that never seem to have fun. This film shows a different side. It shows them as just people. See more KARL O @GalwayK 04/24/2022 I question how unintelligent you would have to be to enjoy this tripe. Not a movie but a set of disjointed, uninteresting, unfunny scraps. You can't help feel the smug creators and cast had a far better time brewing this sewer than any audience could ever have indulging it. Self satisfied rubbish. See more Read all reviews
Love, Honour and Obey

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story 88% 66% Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story Watchlist The Snapper 97% 86% The Snapper Watchlist The Actors 60% 61% The Actors Watchlist High Times' Potluck 0% 44% High Times' Potluck Watchlist Old School 60% 86% Old School Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A young man (Jonny Lee Miller) reminisces about how a childhood friend introduced him to the biggest gangster in London.
Director
Dominic Anciano
Producer
Dominic Anciano, Ray Burdis
Screenwriter
Dominic Anciano
Production Co
BBC, Fugitive Films
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Apr 17, 2001
Box Office (Gross USA)
$1.1K
Runtime
1h 43m
Sound Mix
Surround