I went to see the film yesterday.
The opening credits ended and the film began, the first thing that I noticed was that it was shot on video, the wide shots look very poor as video cannot handle the detail, particularly wide shots. Then the camera began to shake, like the beginnings of a repressed epileptic fit, I found this mildly annoying but continued to watch.
And pleasantly I have to admit that I was actually really enjoying the first 20 minutes of the film. The characters were established quietly and slowly, and I was involved with their lives, I wanted to see what would happen to these characters, the actor who played the CCTV expert was especially good, very scary and believable.
But then everything fell apart from the time they all get into a pub fight and do some male bonding. As soon as there was any action the camera would have an epileptic fit of astronomic proportions, then when the action ceased, the camera would rest. Very annoying, it shows that Nick Love cannot handle action sequences, instead relying on pointless gimmicks to hide his weaknesses.
Bean supposedly trains them, and for some reason when you want to train a group of vigilantes you hire an entire sports hall to do it, very discreet, although he never trains them, they never train to do anything, they just stand around in their tracksuits while Sean Bean rants at them. One of the most perplexing and unintentionally funny lines Sean bean states is something like this " if you get aids or blow up a bus with a rucksack the government gives you things..." HUH?? Aids victims and suicide bombers, whats the link here please??
They fail to go ahead with their plans and inexplicably Sean bean tells them to disband but in the meantime in another inexplicable moment in the film (the film has many of these) Sean bean kills or seriously injures, not sure which, the CCTV guy because they have a row about methods?? Its like Hitler and Goerring discussing whether they should have black or blue uniforms!!!
So the gang of pathetic outlaws disband, we are then shown that most of their problems of fighting back have been solved, Danny dyer punches an office bully, while Rupert friend, who does absolutely nothing for the entire film apart from stand in the background, suddenly becomes more confident and girls begin to smile at him and not notice his scarred face. The gang then reforms a few minutes later, by which time Sean bean who is being hunted by the authorities and whose face is on many TV screens being described as a dangerous army veteran, is seen sitting in a busy pub in an army jacket??? Very undercover.
Bob hoskins was only on this film for a few days as he is ina handful of scenes and the majority of them he is in his tiny office not he telephone spouting out clichés like a constipated parrot. I think bob collected the cheque and ran away as fast as he could. Its been years since Mona Lisa ey Bob, how the mighty have fallen?
It all ends in shoot out in a country mansion, which we are shown is surrounded by the police, but then miraculously we cut to them in a forest and they have gotten away, HOW DID THEY GET AWAY? by this point I didn't really care anymore, they then talk to each and laugh about how Lennie James's character swore at the police, yeah hilarious, they are bonding again, they then all get shot, but again miraculously Danny Dyer rises up like a monkey who has been chewing on amphetamines and runs away making his escape.
We then find the head of the crime syndicate, the target of the gangs raid not he mansion, PERSONALLY making a payment to dyers workmate who set dyer and th gang up, this is one of the many ridiculous and contrived bits of the plot, of which there are many, when would a godfather go in a car to pay off some little underling PERSONALLY?? I'll tell you when, when Nick Love needs to have Danny Dyers character miraculously show up in the underground car park and shoot him, so he can end the film quickly.
I really have to say Nick love is not a writer or a director of much skill, he doesn't know where is going with the film and he does not have the technical skill to make action sequences riveting. But he also does not have the intelligence to say something with such an intriguing topic. You can imitate Michael Mann as much as you want Nick, you can have muted colours, you can have helicopter shots of London littered throughout the film, you can have your characters spout monosyllabic lines, but the difference is that Micahel Mann knows his characters and knows what he wants to do with them, Nick Love has no idea, he simply wants to imitate the surface value of Mann, without understanding what he is imitating.
Its a shame as we need strong British directors working in the industry today, and as I said the film begins with a lot of promise but then just dive bombs into a great big contrived mess.
The opening credits ended and the film began, the first thing that I noticed was that it was shot on video, the wide shots look very poor as video cannot handle the detail, particularly wide shots. Then the camera began to shake, like the beginnings of a repressed epileptic fit, I found this mildly annoying but continued to watch.
And pleasantly I have to admit that I was actually really enjoying the first 20 minutes of the film. The characters were established quietly and slowly, and I was involved with their lives, I wanted to see what would happen to these characters, the actor who played the CCTV expert was especially good, very scary and believable.
But then everything fell apart from the time they all get into a pub fight and do some male bonding. As soon as there was any action the camera would have an epileptic fit of astronomic proportions, then when the action ceased, the camera would rest. Very annoying, it shows that Nick Love cannot handle action sequences, instead relying on pointless gimmicks to hide his weaknesses.
Bean supposedly trains them, and for some reason when you want to train a group of vigilantes you hire an entire sports hall to do it, very discreet, although he never trains them, they never train to do anything, they just stand around in their tracksuits while Sean Bean rants at them. One of the most perplexing and unintentionally funny lines Sean bean states is something like this " if you get aids or blow up a bus with a rucksack the government gives you things..." HUH?? Aids victims and suicide bombers, whats the link here please??
They fail to go ahead with their plans and inexplicably Sean bean tells them to disband but in the meantime in another inexplicable moment in the film (the film has many of these) Sean bean kills or seriously injures, not sure which, the CCTV guy because they have a row about methods?? Its like Hitler and Goerring discussing whether they should have black or blue uniforms!!!
So the gang of pathetic outlaws disband, we are then shown that most of their problems of fighting back have been solved, Danny dyer punches an office bully, while Rupert friend, who does absolutely nothing for the entire film apart from stand in the background, suddenly becomes more confident and girls begin to smile at him and not notice his scarred face. The gang then reforms a few minutes later, by which time Sean bean who is being hunted by the authorities and whose face is on many TV screens being described as a dangerous army veteran, is seen sitting in a busy pub in an army jacket??? Very undercover.
Bob hoskins was only on this film for a few days as he is ina handful of scenes and the majority of them he is in his tiny office not he telephone spouting out clichés like a constipated parrot. I think bob collected the cheque and ran away as fast as he could. Its been years since Mona Lisa ey Bob, how the mighty have fallen?
It all ends in shoot out in a country mansion, which we are shown is surrounded by the police, but then miraculously we cut to them in a forest and they have gotten away, HOW DID THEY GET AWAY? by this point I didn't really care anymore, they then talk to each and laugh about how Lennie James's character swore at the police, yeah hilarious, they are bonding again, they then all get shot, but again miraculously Danny Dyer rises up like a monkey who has been chewing on amphetamines and runs away making his escape.
We then find the head of the crime syndicate, the target of the gangs raid not he mansion, PERSONALLY making a payment to dyers workmate who set dyer and th gang up, this is one of the many ridiculous and contrived bits of the plot, of which there are many, when would a godfather go in a car to pay off some little underling PERSONALLY?? I'll tell you when, when Nick Love needs to have Danny Dyers character miraculously show up in the underground car park and shoot him, so he can end the film quickly.
I really have to say Nick love is not a writer or a director of much skill, he doesn't know where is going with the film and he does not have the technical skill to make action sequences riveting. But he also does not have the intelligence to say something with such an intriguing topic. You can imitate Michael Mann as much as you want Nick, you can have muted colours, you can have helicopter shots of London littered throughout the film, you can have your characters spout monosyllabic lines, but the difference is that Micahel Mann knows his characters and knows what he wants to do with them, Nick Love has no idea, he simply wants to imitate the surface value of Mann, without understanding what he is imitating.
Its a shame as we need strong British directors working in the industry today, and as I said the film begins with a lot of promise but then just dive bombs into a great big contrived mess.