Hackney's Finest

It is really great to see a British independent movie, we get so few British films these days and this one has some gloss. Although I heard this was quite a low budget film, at no time does it give the impression there was a budget. The film is slick and glossy, some really great stunts and was very polished. I loved the way the characters were introduced at the beginning of the film, really nice directing. This is not your run of the mill action movie. Parts of this film are shocking reminding me of how I felt when I first watched Train Spotting. There are some really graphic images but presented in a comedic way. It shouldn't have worked but it did, I found myself laughing and then felt guilty. The cast has been well selected for the characters they play. Great characterisation! I personally loved the Russian gangsters. Evil as they are I couldn't help laughing and even liking the leader of the Russian gang. The Welsh "Yardies" are very entertaining and added humour to the film but equally they looked the part. The story line has a good pace and some cracking one liners. Some great location shooting giving this film a really gritty and realistic edge. Might need to provide ear muffs for the over 50's (language a bit ripe for me but to be fair the language was used in a humorous way so , after the initial shock I accepted it and felt it added to the atmosphere. Would make a great film to watch in a group over pizza and some beers! Would be good to see a sequel to this.

Review: I thought that was going to be your typical English gangster movie with the usual elements, but I quite enjoyed this crazy crime caper, even though they have to be some of the dumbest criminals in East London. Its about a drug dealer called Sirus who is wanted by a crooked cop who arrests his best friend (Asif) and blackmails him to go undercover so they can take-down Sirus in his next big drug deal with some Welsh Jamaicans. The cops plans end up going completely wrong because the Jamaicans are heavily armed so they hire some crazy, heroin taking thugs who try to help them get the shipment of drugs. Anyway, after a while the small time drug dealer ends up fighting for his life with the help from the Jamaicans who strike a deal to keep the shipment if they get them out alive. The plot was crazy and the characters, who were mostly heroin users, seemed to love being in the middle of East London in a big shoot out. The only person that seemed slightly scared of the whole situation was Sirus who didn't really know how to handle a gun at before they started to get shot at. I must admit, I did enjoy the crazy Welsh Jamaicans, even though I didn't know what they were saying half of the time, but it did get a bit silly after a while. Its better than a lot of the English gangster movies that I have seen lately because of the witty script and the amount of guns they use throughout the film but it isn't as good as Guy Ritchies earlier work and it did seem a bit far fetched. Watchable!

Round-Up: I haven't seen any of these characters before, so I can't really comment on them as actors, but they did put in good performances which made the film watchable. It really did seem like the director used all of the stereotypical aspects of the different nations in this film, like the crazy meat head Eastern Europeans who just wanted to kill any and everyone and the Welsh Jamaicans who had a heavy artillery and new everything about guns. Personally, thats what made me laugh about the movie and then fact that no one really feared for there life but Sirus. The corrupt racist cops and the Asian drug dealers were other aspects the storyline which made it quite interesting and the non-stop craziness was put together well by the director. Anyway, it's worth a watch if you want to see a film about a load of Heroin addicts and corrupt cops fighting against each other but don't expect anything with morality or a deep and meaningful storyline.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their English crime capers about a drug dealer who is on the run from corrupt cops who want his stash. 4/10

This is a strange hybrid of a film; on one hand it is quite a brutal London gang, drug and crime tale - with shooters. On the other it is actually quite a well realised dark comedy. I decided to suspend belief for ninety minutes and see what happened.

It is all about Sirus who is a mini cab controller, a seemingly nice guy and a drug dealer. He sells some of his gear to Welsh Yardies who drive up from the valleys for their stuff . There is also a particularly nasty cop - Priestly who is more rotten than a South American Junta, but also has a way with words that is both profane and actually very amusing. I would not want a parking ticket from him. He is on to Sirus and does not use the rule book in any way that a normal cop would recognise.

There is also 'casual racism' which may cause offence even where done for laughs, there is some graphic depictions of violence and there is a lot of shooting. Despite the plot errors and some less than savoury scenes I still found myself laughing and getting completely involved with all the characters. There is also a gang of stereotyped Russian meat heads who were all brilliant - even down to personalised phone rings. All in all this was ninety minutes that just flew by, and as such I wish I had seen this sooner.

Very much enjoyed the movie. It kept me thinking and made me laugh. The characters all worked well and the movie delivered what it said it would on the cover. Hats off to the film makers and cast cos they have made something very enjoyable and credible. More power to them all. It's great when a film allows you to get lost in another world and wonder what's going to happen next while making you laugh at different times too. I look forward to seeing future work from people who made the film as I found their work authentic and well crafted. They certainly have a lot of potential to go to greater heights and I look forward to seeing that arc in their careers.

Normally I wouldn't stoop to reviewing or even watching one of the endless glut of embarrassingly poor mockney gangster romps that have tainted the British film industry ever since Guy Ritchie decided to give birth to said genre, but in this case, given the believable authenticity and blindingly scripted nature of said venture; I'll make an exception. Smack is the drug of choice in this tale, and likable user Cyrus plays the doped up protagonist finding himself on the receiving end of a particularly vicious and shamelessly corrupt detective looking to manipulate him into delivering a mammoth stash of brown. Fortunately Cyrus has sterling backup in the form of a pair of welsh gangsters who provide a wealth of snappy dialogue and brutish ballistics. Adding to the comedic energy are an equally deranged mob of Russians who the detective calls in to balance the odds. Every other character has their own podium of eccentricity on which to shine, and grimily they do. Naturally, there is foul language aplenty, but deployed in all the right places for a change, and the frequent incidents of gunplay are air- punchingly superb.