Mr Nice

Mr Nice tells the story of Howard Marks, one of the top British drug smugglers….or does it? Bernard Rose’s adaptation of Mark’s autobiography is pretty loose, missing out on whole chunks of Marks’ back story and getting various dates muddled up in the film. Marks’ life is a fascinating story, but the film never seems to get going and its cheap look gives the impression that Marks was a standard street supplier instead of a person that allegedly at one point controlled a tenth of the worlds hash supply. Obviously, this is a low budget British film so it can’t be expected to have a budget of millions and look lavish, but that can’t excuse the slow pace of the film. The film is hamstrung from the start though as Rose spends a good amount of time showing us how Marks came across drugs in the first place. Plenty of fancy camera tricks and scenes of stoned people can only be endured for so long before the audience starts to wane. There is the occasional neat little snippet that pops up as the film progresses (I was unaware it’s meant to be pronounced Mr Nice (as in the French city) and Rhys Ifans is pretty good as Marks, plying his trade without recourse to violence and a cheeky grin on his face. Things pick up even more with the arrival of David Thewlis as a bonkers member of the IRA. It can’t save the film though, which just isn’t exciting enough for a person with such stories to tell as Marks. To be fair to Rose, he does show the downside to the lifestyle that Marks’ led, but it would have been better if he had managed to balance the story with a few more thrills.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Read the book, read the book, read the book, read the book….Rating: 4/10.