Films about "ultraviolence" can be harrowing and realistic, or stylish and humourous - Malcolm MacDowell starred in 'A Clockwork Orange', an early example of the latter genre. But 'Gangster No. 1', in which he also stars, is a peculiar hybrid of the two genres that is consistently unpleasant without offering any compensation in the way of insight or laughs. Paul Bettaney looks quite like the younger MacDowell (whose younger self he plays), and the film also has the talented David Thewlis on its cast list, but the net result is tiresome and thin, while the potentially interesting plot ends without subtlety or satisfaction. A film that doesn't know what it wants to be, and ends up not being anything but horrid.