Good start, but then it gets ruined

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

After hearing so much about this, I decided to hire the movie and sit back and be entertained.But sadly, the reviews I heard were overblown hype.The movie had terrible acting from most of the crew; the pace of the story was slow and it was a forgettable title.If this was the best of the movies in the "Essex" series, then I won't bother with any of the others.There are a lot better movies you can watch which involve English gangsters (have a look here: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls058232767/).If you want good acting and (fictional) story, see "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" or "The Limey". If you want one based on true events, try "Rise of the Footsoldier."

AS a person who was on both sides of the coin when it came to this film i feel i have a little insight as to how close things were to the truth. In the film i was just a doorman with out a line who had the wondrous job of staying there and looking menacing. Not something I have got a problem with as I spent may years in the security industry prior to this. I had at the time of the murders been in the employ of Pat Tate on the doors of Club UK, Hollywoods Romford mainly. Pat was made out to be a nasty man, but the truth was he was just an average guy with temper and an angle on wanting a better life. The film glamorised the violence, the drugs and the other silly roomers that were always floating around, but then if it was any different they would never had made it

Based on the triple rettondon murders that shocked England in the mid 1990's this retelling takes liberty with some of the facts and changes the names of the people it's based upon (something Bonded by Blood and Rise of the Footsoldier didn't) Jason Locke, a psychotic ex-convict recently released is driven around his old manor by a young cabbie called Billy Reynolds, he finds that in his absence all of his old friends and associates have got rich and successful, he sets about getting back on top with the help of his crew, Billy, and his long suffering wife.As the deranged Locke, Sean Bean rises above an underwritten character and gives a (at times) excellent performance, the script holds him back from really digging anything too deep out of his character but he handles the material well, Tom Wilkinson is used sparingly but to great effect and Alex Kingston is great as the wife whose not all she seems.Direction is straghtforward and doesn't detract, the editing is great and the crisp cinematography captures the seedy underbelly of the Essex underworld to good effect.Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours, 7/10

A good film on several levels. The unflattering comparisons that some critics have made between it and The Usual Suspects are completely misguided as directorial intent and effect in the two pictures are dissimilar. Winsor's film, it seems to me, brilliantly evokes both the drabness and cruelty of the criminal mindset. It does this partly through the choice of dull, flat Essex landscapes with their coastal marshes, grey motorway links, flash nouveau riche mansions and the tawdry glamour of seafront locations. The characters are both repellent and yet curiously mesmerising. This is not a film in which it is easy to lose interest. Nobody can do psycho-thug better than Sean Bean, and Charlie Creed-Miles has created a dangerously weak character as Billy, whom it is almost possible to feel sorry for without actually liking. The film is very well lit, though I did find sound levels a little dodgy at times It's a film that, despite critics' comments, is not a million miles from Get Carter in quality.