Villain

I like gangster films. I thought this was an ok gangster film. If you have seen Carlitos Way then you have pretty much seen this film, albeit in a more glossy American setting.

I don't write many reviews, but I watch a lot of films. This is a solid film, from start to finish. Have crime tragedies been done before? Of course, but this one is good. Fairbrass is moving as the strong, regretful criminal getting long in the tooth. I won't give it all away, but it's worthy of your time, for get the low rating.

There are so many British crime films and many of them are quite poor, bad acting, violence for the sake of violence with little plot or character investment

Villain is a bit of surprise, the acting from everyone here is really strong, in fact this film may have discovered a couple of stars. Craig Fairbass' character is not just a straight forward "villain", he carries some real leverage with him, you get invested, he wants to make amends for his mistakes, he wants to be there for his family and is dragged back into violence against his better judgment.

Yes there is some silly and unrealistic violence but all in all this was a really pleasant surprise, I tend to watch tv series as you have more time to invest in plot & characters, I would've been happy to watch a series on these characters.

Also the actress that plays chloe could be a star.

We've seem it before but this one has a little more emotion around family values, bad life decisions and the darkside of the culture.

It's not dressed up as badass look at me leading role but more of a man that genuinely wants out of the game but just can't.

The name Philip Barantini means squat to me: I do not recall watching anything directed by him before. In VILLAIN, Barantini extracts high grade performances from the entire cast, right down to the smaller parts, with older sibling Craig Fairbrass and George Russo playing the shady Franks brothers. Set in the UK, the former is completing his jail term, the latter has been left to take care of the pub owned by the two, but he is a sniffer and a suspected grasser with the town's heavies supplying and then stealing a drug consignment, for which they want immediate payment on pain of death... and they do a Russian roulette demo to drive their point home.

Of course, the ex-jailbird knows the UK crime scene backwards and he picks up very quickly that his brother has received a beating, that his estranged daughter's boyfriend has given her a fat lip, and that the baddies want the pub in lieu of payment. The older Franks gets so miffed over that demand that he proceeds to ice the baddies, and dispose of them with fire after some less than tidy quartering with his retching brother's disgusted help.

In the best moralistic film noir vein, the older Franks sibling must not expect to come out on top...

Good cinematography by Matthew Lewis, gripping dialogue from George Russo and Greg Hall. Very watchable until the end, which struck me as eminently predictable and a let down. 6/10.