How does McGuigan get actors like this?

I just came back from a premiere of this movie in NYC and it was one step above awful. Barely.

I never saw his other films but I am amazed at the calibre of actors he has gotten. Gangster #1 must have been a fantastic movie otherwise I have no idea why Bettany and Dafoe would have agreed to work with him. The pace and dialog were flatter than a pancake. And the plot points were really misplaced, e.g., the scene with the accused woman in the dungeon happened WAY too late. It was at that point I finally became interested, since there was nothing driving the Bettany plot line after the first 5 min.

And unless you have a large enough budget don't bother doing a medieval piece. The sets were real (he said they built them from scratch during an interview afterwards) but it still "felt" like a soundstage.

Anyway, overall it was poorly edited and fairly dull. Which is surprising given the subject matter and the actors.