That was an excellent one.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Sgt. Danny Bryant comes home from a tour of duty in Iraq to find that things aren't what they once were. A gang of thugs has moved into the neighbourhood, and his wife is with another man. Gene Dekker, is beaten up by thugs, and he sets out to get revenge on the men. Terence Manning, a gangster of London's underworld, is currently on trial, with lawyer Cedric Munroe heading the prosecution's legal team. Manning's men attack both Munroe's wife, and persuade Munroe's bodyguard Walter not to intervene. The men from an alliance, and set out to even the score against those who wronged them, though their contempt for the law puts them outside the lines of conventional justice.....Yes, it's a trashy, exploitative movie, but its one of my all time favourite guilty pleasures. And it's because its starts off silly, goes a little cuckoo in the middle, and then, the third act is just beyond, beyond bonkers.But Love is one of this directors that doesn't really do anything other than over the top British bulldog B-movies. And they are all full of another word beginning with B, but with his films, you can just switch off, and forget everything else for ninety or so minutes.The cast are all fine, and do what you would expect them all to do in films like this. Bean meets all the rest of the group whilst really angry, and this anger makes them angry, and Bob Hoskins is there to overlook everything.Imagine The Avengers after fifteen pints of strong Lager, and Pie and Chips?, then this is your movie.It's pretty visceral stuff, the camera work tries to make it look realistic, but it looks like it must have been cold on the day.To say the third act is beyond ridiculous is an understatement, but by the time it arrives, you couldn't care less.If you like this type of film, its a riot,if you don't, fair enough.

When I first heard that Danny Dyer and Sean Bean were appearing in a film together, i thought it was going to be legendary. Before I saw this at the cinema it had received several slatings by film critics. There are some holes in the story, but it is a gripping film, with some violent and traumatic scenes (yes I thought these were good), and the cast and acting was very good on the whole: Sean Harris (aka the Kestrel) plays the part so well, Danny Dyer is always good in my opinion, and with the gravitas of Sean Bean and Bob Hoskins its almost faultless. Film-making was good, but it does seem like the story line was adjusted to fit the film as its not always logical. P.s. If this was a DVD rating id give it 9 because of the film commentary by Nick Love and Danny Dyer. That is what would make me watch the film again.

Right from the start, this movie goes straight for the underbelly of society. I found it gave me a knot of stress in the stomach from the get-go, not least of all because the street "yoof" scum-bags it portrays are sadly all to real.I was looking forward to our protagonists, led by Sean Bean, taking up arms and dishing out some righteous punishment, even if only as a catharsis for the tension and antipathy produced by the aforementioned street slime.And here was the source of my frustration. As a vigilante group, these guys are a complete bunch of muppets! Their clumsy, inept approach to dealing with their "targets" is probably very realistic, as pretty much any regular Joe Public would be equally clueless, conflicted and feeble. But hell, I wanted to see some arse-kicking going on! :)For all this, it was strangely compelling viewing but at the end of it, I definitely did not feel comfortably satisfied. Worth watching, certainly, but its not light entertainment by any means.

Recap: A few honest men that feel betrayed by society form a loose group that is out for revenge. Fed information by a disgruntled old police officer that is fed up with corrupt officers that is promoted before him their target becomes those criminals that the has escaped too easy from the law. Their prime target is Manning, a known crime lord. The men is led by an old army ranger, Bryant, but the rest is ordinary men. Dekker and Mardell wants revenge from beatings, Munroe wants revenge after two hit men murdered his pregnant wife, and Hillier is just longing for violence. The brutal ways of the group tear at them and soon they find themselves under attack, both from within, from Manning and from the police.Comments: A decent action movie with a little different set up. It is pretty brutal and honest and doesn't use any typical action movie tricks. There is no extra explosions or glorified violence. Instead it tries to show the ugly truth. So, unlike other action movies, the action scenes is nothing you really enjoy, and I suppose you are not supposed to.What is interesting is that there is really no difference in the criminals hits and Bryant's group's revenge. Both play equally dirty and their violence is equally summarily and brutally distributed. And that may be the movies biggest trouble. As realistic that may be, and even if that might be director Love's intention to show that violence is violence irrespective of the perpetrators intentions, this might be the biggest fault. Because I had big problems to feel any connection or any sympathy for or with any of the characters. I certainly didn't feel for the criminals but couldn't find any reason to feel for or root for the avengers either. There was just two groups that fought it out between them and the one wasn't better than the other.And when there is no real interest in any of the characters there is hard to get that real interest in the movie. I didn't find it anyway. It's a good idea but might have been done better if done differently. Or it is a message that need to be shown in a world that feels like it grows increasingly violent world, but it wasn't that funny to watch.5/10