Rise of the Footsoldier (2008)

Expected more

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

the best of the "Essex boys" mini genre by far. the violence that keeps getting reviewed as over the top on here is nothing but necessary to the plot. we need to remember the reign of terror went on for many years until it finally concluded in the boys death. this needed to be compressed in to an hour and a half, therefore, it needed to depict how violent these guys were. Craig fairbrass, despite what I keep reading on here, played an amazing pat Tate with natural screen presence and menace. I am not a fan of terry stone usually but thought he to played tucker well, just the odd lapse in good acting. and I enjoyed watching Roland play Craig Rolfe too. very well cast. all in all I think this was one of our best modern day films in this genre to date. I recommend anyone with a taste for violence and crime in their movies to watch this film. you wont regret it

In American gangster movies the protagonist finds himself pursuing the American dream via the American existentialist capitalist nightmare . By this I mean he finds a violent purpose in a meaningless uncaring world , a purpose that usually leads to his destruction either literally or metaphorically . Brtish cinema doesn't have a long tradition of this type of movie and perhaps the closest we have in this country is the football hooligan film . Mindful of this director Julian Gilbey has made a film trying to bridge the gap between the two Is he successful ? Yes and no . Yes to the fact that he's made a dark violent thriller but no judging by the amount of comments along the lines of " I watched this movie thinking it was a biopic on Carlton Leach only to find he disappears halfway through " What the film is not is a biopic but if proof is ever needed that crime does not pay then an audience could do a lot worse than watch RISE OF THE FOOT SOLDIER It's certainly memorable but I mean this in a dubious way . It's certainly not pleasant and Gilbey concentrates on the gore and violence . Perhaps too much so as he introduces conspiracy theories as to why three violent gangsters are executed gangland style . Why does he do this ? Simply to show three criminals get blasted to death in the most graphic way possible . You can't get enough of seeing a naughty boy get shot in the face with a shotgun ? Good because you'll be able to see it happen at least three times from different angles . Gilbey is trying to emulate Scorsese though he's not entirely successful . That said one had hoped he'd be more prolific . After all who wants to watch British art house or period dramas all day ?

Gritty, well-acted, intelligently put together, generally authentic looking and the violence is horrible but that's what's needed to show the viewer just how unpleasant people like this and the violence they mete out is.It's the Hollywood type sanitised violence that should be criticised - one thing this film does is show how unglamourous violent crime is. Problem is a lot of the poor marks given to this film by both the critics and the public are because such people live cosy little middle class lives where luckily for them they've remained firmly insulated from the nasty world portrayed in this film and like to think it doesn't exist.

Football hooligans regularly wielding axes and machetes and looking like frenzied zombies out of '28 days later.' Bouncers stabbing trouble makers in their bums with 9 inch blades. Gorgeous girls instantly bedazzled by a violent moron bar bouncer. You'd think bouncers were the MMA fighters of that era.It gets a 2 for including every single "Violent English gangster hooligan genre" cliché out there.And of course there's the "borrowing" from so many more successful movies. The first 5 minutes reeks of Trainspotting, and a poor attempt at that.