Guy Ritchie has been making the same kind of trouble since 1998 and nobody has gone off him yet. Here are six Guy Ritchie movies to stream in Australia right now, plus his two series coming back this month: The Gentlemen on Netflix on 3 September, MobLand on Paramount+ on 18 September.
Six is a mug's errand, and we may as well admit that up front. The record is hit after hit, so six leaves out Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Sherlock Holmes, Operation Fortune, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Aladdin, which took a billion dollars and is still the biggest thing he has done.
Both series land in the middle of the finals
The Gentlemen is back for season two on Thursday 3 September, all eight episodes at once, so nobody has to wait a week between them. Netflix ordered a third season before the second had aired, which is either confidence or nobody paying attention.
MobLand season two starts Friday 18 September on Paramount+: ten episodes weekly, running through to 20 November, per Paramount's announcement for Australia and New Zealand. Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren are all back in it.
So he has the TV for the month, in the weeks the lounge room was already spoken for. AFL finals open in the first week of September, the NRL follow, and the night gets its shape: footy first, something after. His movies are the something after: ninety-odd minutes, no homework, nobody to catch up.
- Never seen either? Start with the 2020 Gentlemen movie on Stan, where the series came from.
- Then The Gentlemen season one on Netflix, eight episodes, before the new lot land.
- Then MobLand season one on Paramount+, the same place season two turns up.
Where are Guy Ritchie's movies streaming in Australia?
Bad news first, and there is no graceful way around it. Across 9Now, 7plus, 10 Play, ABC iview and SBS On Demand, the five free services carry no Guy Ritchie at all. Not one title between them. Stan and Prime Video are doing the heavy lifting: Stan has the 2020 Gentlemen movie and Wrath of Man, Prime Video has his newest, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and Revolver. Netflix has The Gentlemen series, Paramount+ has MobLand. Six things you can put on tonight without paying for anything twice.
The early stuff is the annoying part. Lock, Stock and Snatch sit behind an add-on channel or another sign-up, and RocknRolla is nowhere. Sherlock Holmes is on Stan if you want the crowd-pleaser. Add-on channels are the trap: they look included right up until they ask for a second bill, so nothing here needs one.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Henry Cavill and a squad of official troublemakers blowing up Nazi supply ships, off the back of a real operation that sounds made up. Same crew-of-chancers trick, much bigger budget, no London postcode.
The Gentlemen
Theo James inherits the estate and the enormous weed farm under it. Watch season one now so you are not the one asking questions on 3 September.
MobLand
Tom Hardy cleaning up messes for a London crime family while Helen Mirren quietly runs everything. Season one is on Paramount+ here, same place season two turns up on 18 September.
The Gentlemen
The movie the series came out of. Matthew McConaughey selling up, Hugh Grant narrating like he is being paid per adjective. On Stan, and on Netflix and Prime Video as well, so the house is almost certainly covered.
Wrath of Man
Jason Statham, an armoured truck and absolutely no jokes. The bleakest thing Ritchie has made and the best argument that he can do straight-faced when he wants to.
Revolver
Honourable mention
The one everyone skipped. A con man out of prison, a chess metaphor that gets away from everybody, and a genuinely strange watch. Go in expecting a mess and you will enjoy it.
Why every British crime movie copied Guy Ritchie
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels cost about £800,000 and took $28.4 million worldwide, per The Numbers. Snatch did $83.6 million off $10 million two years later, per Box Office Mojo. The BFI's verdict is that he brought the British gangster movie back from the dead and that most of what copied him was unwatchable. Both halves are true.
The tricks went first: freeze-frames, names stamped on screen as each bloke walks in, a voiceover talking over itself, three crews falling into one plot. It built careers out of nothing: Jason Statham's first film role came off a street market stall, and Vinnie Jones was a footballer with no acting behind him, per MentalFloss and FilmInk. Brad Pitt was already cast on Snatch when the accent would not sit, and per SlashFilm they settled on the unintelligible version the night before shooting. One for the spotters: Ritchie turns up in exactly two of his own films, reading a newspaper in Snatch and running the inn in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, both uncredited, per IMDb.
Then it fell over. Swept Away took five Razzies in 2002, Worst Director included, and Rotten Tomatoes landed on incoherent misfire for Revolver. So he went and got a proper job: Sherlock Holmes did $524 million in 2009, Aladdin cleared $1.054 billion in 2019, per Box Office Mojo. The biggest thing on his record is a Disney musical. He does not appear to mind.
What holds it all together is that everybody in these films is pretending to be across it. The hard men are out of their depth. The plan is going wrong the entire time while somebody explains, at length and with total confidence, why it is not. That gap is the joke, and we are unusually good at spotting it from the couch. He has now taken it to television twice: the Gentlemen movie became the Netflix series, and MobLand was created by Ronan Bennett for Paramount+ with Ritchie directing the opener.
Sorting it out before the first bounce
Six titles across four apps is how a Tuesday night in Geelong turns into forty minutes of scrolling and an early night. The best movie apps for couples piece covers why swiping together beats taking turns, and what to watch tonight in Australia is the shorter read.
Agree on the shape of the night before anyone opens anything. Wrath of Man and the Gentlemen movie are both his and nothing like each other: one is grim and quiet, the other is having a lovely time with itself. Pick the mood and the rest sorts itself out.
Swipe the six separately, see what you both said yes to, put it on. Two minutes, no debate, nobody sitting through someone else's pick with folded arms. That is the honest list of Guy Ritchie movies to stream in Australia right now, rentals excluded. MatchWatch is free to use. Available in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the United States.