Johnny Was is a gritty gangster drama set in the tough city of Brixton, London. Johnny (Vinnie Jones) is trying to escape his violent past by living a simple "quiet life".

Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland to lie low in London, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of Brixton Prison, hell-bent on derailing the Irish peace process with a few well-placed bombs. Unable to escape Brixton, they are trapped together in Johnny's anything-but-safe safe house, sandwiched between a Rastafarian reggae pirate-radio station upstairs and a West-Indian 'Yardie' crack-dealing gangster, Julius, downstairs. As the charismatic Flynn finds common ground with the Yardies, Johnny fights to realize a peace process of his own, but makes the mistake of falling for Julius' girlfriend Rita, causing all-out war. A thriller in the vein of 'Lock Stock' and 'The Long Good Friday,' in which questions of race, morality, identity, and loyalty play out against a great sound-track of reggae, rock, new wave, and soul.—Anon

Trying to escape a violent past in Ireland, Johnny Doyle hides out in Brixton, London's toughest West-Indian neighborhood but when his sociopathic former comrade and mentor Flynn escapes from Brixton prison determined to derail the Irish peace process, Johnny faces not only being dragged back into violence and away from his new love, but also igniting a simmering feud with his 'Yardie' (West-Indian drug gang) neighbor. Questions of race, morality and loyalty play out against a great soundtrack of reggae, rock, and soul.—Liam McDowell