Before 'Casino Royale,' Daniel Craig’s 2004 Suave Criminal Debut Claims a Free Streaming Spot

3 weeks ago 16

Published Mar 8, 2026, 12:40 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

The best Judd Apatow movie that he didn't direct is I Love You Man, the 2009 comedy in which Paul Rudd and Jason Segel play two lonely guys who strike a codependent friendship. Not only did the film feature several actors from the Apatow stable, it hewed close to the style of R-rated comedies about arrested development in men that the filmmaker specialized in. By the same logic, the best Guy Ritchie movie that he didn't direct was a British gangster thriller that featured a young Tom Hardy, plenty of stylized violence set to the tunes of Duran Duran, and Michael Gambon playing a mob boss in the vein of Brick Top from Snatch. The movie in question is about to get a spiritual sequel, which means that it's a great time to check it out at home.

The film was released in 2004 and was headlined by Daniel Craig, whose performance was said to be one of the key reasons for his hiring as James Bond. He debuted as the iconic British spy only a couple of years later in the film Casino Royale. The 2004 movie was directed by Ritchie's former producing partner Matthew Vaughn, who has developed quite a strong directorial resume of his own since then. His film also featured Colm Meaney and Sienna Miller, and starred Craig as an unnamed criminal who operates with suave sophistication in London's underbelly. Although the film earned positive reviews, it didn't do all that well commercially.

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We're talking, of course, about Layer Cake. The movie grossed around $12 million worldwide against a reported budget of $6 million. It holds a "Certified Fresh" 81% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising Vaughn's direction and Craig's central performance. A spiritual sequel will be directed by Ritchie himself. Titled Viva La Madness, the movie reunites Ritchie with his frequent collaborator Jason Statham, and will likely be released next year. Ritchie already has two movies lined up for this year — the dark comedy Wife & Dog and the thriller In the Grey. He recently released his new Prime Video series, Young Sherlock, and will return with the second seasons of MobLand and The Gentlemen soon.