SnoopyStyle Howard Marks (Rhys Ifans) comes from Garw in Wales. He was the smartest kid in the coal mining region and gets beaten up for it. He gets into Oxford. One night, Ilze Kadegis (Elsa Pataky) crawls through his window and he follows her to a life of drugs. They get married and become teachers. The straight life doesn't last long. Ilze divorces him and he falls for Judy (Chloë Sevigny). When his friend Graham Plinson (Jack Huston) gets arrested in Germany, he goes over and helps transport a car filled with hashish. It's the start of a life of crime as he smuggles drugs from Afghanistan to Britain. He gets involved with IRA member Jim McCann (David Thewlis), arrested trying to smuggle into America, does a deal with the British government, and then escape.This is one biopic that is definitely less exciting than the real story. It's more of a long rambling list of crazy life. It's not done in the most exciting ways. He is simply a Nice guy with loving relationships who falls into a life of crime of a delivery guy. There is a lack of intensity or drama. It's a lot of wacky and outrageous. The danger doesn't feel visceral. It's definitely a crazy life and I can see the difficulty of distilling the random craziness into a cohesive story.

Vultural ~ Biopic of Welsh hash smuggler, Howard Marks. Lightweight, by the numbers approach as young Marks goes to Oxford, straight as an arrow, discovers reefer, begins the transformation. Next thing, he's collaborating with IRA patriots to smuggle Afghan hash. Money for lifestyle or guns. Several funny anecdotal scenes, yet nowhere does this dig for substance. Big deals in the US skitter by, swimming pool styling in Mallorca added to show - I suppose - how boring the clean life was. Some of the cinematography intrigues as they have characters drive or walk in front of obvious rear projection of 60s or 70s exteriors. Too long at two hours, and still seemed shallow. Rhys Myers (as Howard) distracted by reminding me of singer Liam Gallagher (Oasis).

Rich Wright I think I've seen enough films glamourising the life of drug dealers on a large scale. Yes, I understand it can be a harmless recreational activity... but for some families the effects of addiction and the consequences afterwards can be absolutely devastating. Not to mention, the illegal acts the users partake in to AFFORD this stuff. So seeing Rhys Ifans and his wife and three daughters have a tearful reunion towards the end of his well-deserved stint in prison (though, I think the movie disagrees) in the final reel did not cause me to shed a tear. Rather, it made me reflect on all the mothers and fathers that would never see their children again... as a result of this idiot's life choices. He gets to go home with his girls. Shame a lot of those who were foolish enough to make him a multi-millionaire aren't so lucky.Aside from the dubious moral ground this plot finds itself on, there are a multitude of other flaws too. Like: Ifans never visibly aging, even though the movie spans at least 30 years. Paper-thin characters, who are more comedy props than living, breathing individuals. Especially the females. Speaking of which, Chloe Sevigny's role... despite being billed second, she does NOTHING, and as a result, leaves no impression. The use of archive footage which Ifans & Co are inserted into... it occasionally works, but is more clumsy than anything. We're not talking Forrest Gump standard special effects here.The most serious problem of all here though, is that the life of this supposed 'multi national drug smuggler' is rather boring. The excerpts from his life we see here, from his time in Oxford as a student, to meeting the IRA and setting up his worldwide narcotics empire are handled in the most dull way possible and as a result fail to engage the viewer. Mr Nice as played by Ifans is not very likable in the first place, and surrounding him with a one-note supporting cast of potheads and inept police just compounds the issue that there's no-one to care about here.And when it gets all maudlin, as Ifans is 'turned in' by those he thought he could trust, We are presumably meant to feel sorry for this long haired loser. Not a chance. His last line proves he didn't learn a thing from his time inside, and his early release looks like a serious error. As did this entire production. Mr Nice? Mr ZZZ more like... 4/10

l_rawjalaurence Howard Marks (Rhys Ifans) grew up in a Welsh village, went to Oxford a relative innocent, and emerged from university as a fully-fledged drug smuggler. He subsequently went on to become one of Britain's most celebrated (notorious?) drug barons, leading an exuberant lifestyle while successfully evading most attempts at capture. Bernard Rose's biopic encourages us to admire Rose's chutzpah, as he encounters a variety of shady characters, including practicing IRA member Jim McCann (David Thewlis, speaking in an eccentric Irish accent), and American cartel owner Ernie Combs (Crispin Glover). The film's tone remains lighthearted throughout, and there are some convincing scenes where modern-day actors are inserted into authentically Seventies archive scenes (complete with washed-out colors). But in truth MR. NICE does not have that much to say, either about the ethics - if there can be such a thing - of drug-smuggling, nor about the lengths to which people will go to try and evade customs-officers of various countries. It remains a rather slight crime-caper, distinguished mostly by Ifans' jaunty performance as Howard Marks.