Man, what is it with all those recent British crime movies, that try to
be all hip and yet realistic at the same time? It isn't really working.
Guess that somewhere hidden deep down, there is still a decent enough movie in this but the problem is that the story gets very poorly handled, making this a bit of a mess and a needlessly confusing movie to watch.
To be frank, I don't even really know what the story was supposed to be all about in the first place. It's apparently based on true events and the movie also seems to assume that everybody who watches it already knows what the story is supposed to be a all about. Well, not me though, since I have absolutely never heard of the Essex boys before and after watching this movie, I still don't really know anything about them.
The movie is really hard to follow and feels all over the place with its storytelling. It doesn't really helps that it doesn't really seem to know who it wants to focus on the most; the criminals or the police team that's trying to take them down. There is never really a good enough balance and it more often feels like you are watching two completely different, unrelated movies. It seems more interest in the criminals but when your movie focuses on a bunch of criminals, you at least need to make them somewhat likable and interesting enough to follow around. Neither is the case with this movie really and it's confusing to see what the movie was actually trying to achieve and ask of its viewers. Are we supposed to cheer or feel for any of the characters, or is it just an objective observation of events that happened in the past? Well, if that would had been the case, the movie should had been a far more realistic and gritty one, to at least get you involved with its story but the movie really doesn't seem to know how to pull that off.
Something that kind of cracked me up was the narration for this movie. The narrator sounds like he's watching and commenting on a very tense and exciting boxing match, which feels totally out of place of course. Seriously, what were they thinking?
Can't really claim this is one of the worst genre movies I have ever seen, it still has some things going for it but the storytelling still makes this movie nearly impossible to watch.
4/10
Guess that somewhere hidden deep down, there is still a decent enough movie in this but the problem is that the story gets very poorly handled, making this a bit of a mess and a needlessly confusing movie to watch.
To be frank, I don't even really know what the story was supposed to be all about in the first place. It's apparently based on true events and the movie also seems to assume that everybody who watches it already knows what the story is supposed to be a all about. Well, not me though, since I have absolutely never heard of the Essex boys before and after watching this movie, I still don't really know anything about them.
The movie is really hard to follow and feels all over the place with its storytelling. It doesn't really helps that it doesn't really seem to know who it wants to focus on the most; the criminals or the police team that's trying to take them down. There is never really a good enough balance and it more often feels like you are watching two completely different, unrelated movies. It seems more interest in the criminals but when your movie focuses on a bunch of criminals, you at least need to make them somewhat likable and interesting enough to follow around. Neither is the case with this movie really and it's confusing to see what the movie was actually trying to achieve and ask of its viewers. Are we supposed to cheer or feel for any of the characters, or is it just an objective observation of events that happened in the past? Well, if that would had been the case, the movie should had been a far more realistic and gritty one, to at least get you involved with its story but the movie really doesn't seem to know how to pull that off.
Something that kind of cracked me up was the narration for this movie. The narrator sounds like he's watching and commenting on a very tense and exciting boxing match, which feels totally out of place of course. Seriously, what were they thinking?
Can't really claim this is one of the worst genre movies I have ever seen, it still has some things going for it but the storytelling still makes this movie nearly impossible to watch.
4/10
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