Baseline

I watched this movie on the recommendation of a friend. This is not normally my type of movie, I don't even like the "Bourne" movies, or movies with violence and non-stop chase scenes. In most cases I would have stopped watching this in the first five minutes, but stuck with it because of my friend's recommendation. After I got in to the characters I really felt like I wanted to stick with it to the end of find out what happened to them all. Great character development !

Cinematic thug titans, and all-round Gangster movie mavens, the diabolically dashing duo of Dexter Fletcher and effortlessly skeezey Jamie Foreman make for a right pair of dodgy geezers in the competently made, delightfully gritty, well 'ard East End Gangster thriller 'Baseline'. Darkly set within the increasingly volatile environs of a busy, drug-saturated club, where on one especially fateful night it all goes Pete Tong for tall, handsome, straight-edged bouncer Danny (Freddie Connor) who bravely prevents an assassination attempt on his supremely villainous boss Terry (Jamie Foreman) which unforeseeably draws him inexorably into Terry's cruelly brutal regime of nefarious drug dealings, and gruesome gangland killings he is ill suited for, but when he is forced to betray his wayward, trouble-seeking friend Paul (Gordon Alexander) Danny very soon finds himself up to his aquiline jaw in the most terrible misfortune! 'Baseline' ostensibly mines the same B-Movie bad-boy, hyped-up hooligan shtick as Tamer Hassan, and 'Double Diamond' Danny Dyer, with its druggy dance-floor dust-ups, bungled rude boy drug deals, seriously sketchy shenanigans, bloody-knuckled retribution, well narky, hot-blooded Bruv Vs. Bruv action, crepuscular warehouse wickedness, and a bangin' finale, this has got some righteously good stuff goin' on, mayte! And while 'Baseline' isn't quite up there with 'Rise of the Footsoldier' (2007), or the criminally underrated 'St. Georges Day' (2012), it's most certainly worth a go if ya' think ya' hard enough, mayte!!!!

Although this film in my opinion doesn't match up to Guy Ritchies gangster films such as Snatch or Lock, stock and two smoking barrels it is still a well done British gangster film by an almost unknown director.

Compared to the most recently produced British gangster film i last watched (Dead man running) Baseline was a well casted film with a decent storyline, apart from an abrupt ending which left me disappointed as the film seemed to build up towards what i hoped was a action packed ending. Other than this the storyline was fairly well written.

Although from early on the film was fairly predictable as the audience is shown a large amount of money in a safe whilst our main protagonist, Danny, is keeping track of the amount of money he has in a notebook. I'm certain that i am not in the minority when i predicted that something will happen resulting in him loosing the money. Apart from the predictability in parts Baseline achieved what i expect from a British gangster film, it had plenty of violence and a scary, knuckle-duster brandishing crime lord who wants his money.

I really enjoyed this. It's the sort of film that puts you right into the lives of the characters very quickly, and keeps you down there in amongst the filth and the brutality the whole way through.

Some of the dialogue was a little clunky, but the production value was spot on and the story itself moved at a great pace. It also had some top notch British acting talent in the cast which doesn't hurt for this sort of thing. Dexter Fletcher and Jamie Foreman were along for the ride and were brilliant as always doing their (tried and tested) gangster thing.

In terms of originality, the film isn't going to blow any minds, but as for a good old fashioned yarn about a man struggling with a life spiraling out of control it ticks all the boxes. Well worth a look...

Considering is not exactly a Guy Ritchie gangster movie and kept me awake till 2am it was alright, good to watch if nothing more interesting on tv.