The Rise of the Krays

This film is terrible. Where to start? Poor acting, no idea where they got the guy who played Reggie from but I've seen more character in a wooden spoon. No proper research was clearly done into the Krays which makes the film hard to watch and cringe worthy in parts. The fact that the "twins" looked and acted a million miles apart pretty much sums it up. It's offensive that this film was even produced under the name of the Krays and I agree with other users that the logic behind the film was simply to milk the subject for all it's worth. Best advice would be to save your time and money and either watch Legend or read one of John Pearson's novels on the Krays, both of which at least do the subject some justice.

This is an absolutely poor lose "remake" of the The Krays. Poorly filmed, awful scripting and a total mish-mash of babble. Not only that it would appear that whole budget was spent on fake blood that showed up quite a bit in the film. Indeed, it seems that the whole film just contained mindless violence for the sake of violence as it cheapish to produce on film.

Add to this the appalling locations and errors in sets e.g. "plastic double glazed windows" and modern cars it just make it more unbearable to watch. I seemed to of missed key points in their history due to sleep apnea! I really isn't worth the watch or the pain. At times in the film I wished they would of plucked my eyes out to save me the torture!

if you forget its a film about the Krays then it isn't bad, as a biopic of the twins growing up unfortunately it is terrible, acting wise anyway, stories not to tuff and it is to jumpy like the 90's kray film, as viewers we want to know things we didn't know about that period in time about the twins or how the events went down, i know we have to wait for the fall of the Krays for this, but personally i was disappointed in the movie. Cant wait for legend hopefully they don't jump around the time scene and stick certain points that are relevant for Kray fans, i don't understand why it classes itself as the "best British gangster movie" its OK but far from the best.

Rise of the foot soldier is 80 times better personal opinion, and Legend will be even better than this!!

I have always been interested in the Krays. I have read most of the books about them and I also enjoyed the 1990 film with the Kemp brothers, which was flawed and left a great deal of things out, but became a cult film. The Rise Of The Krays, however, makes the Kemp film look like a masterpiece in comparison. I only watched it for half an hour and I thought it was absolute rubbish. It featured violence just for the sake of it, no coherent plot, was obviously made on a shoestring and featured no actors that I had actually heard of before. To make matters even worse, the two actors playing the Krays didn't look like them at all! The comment on the cover of the DVD states that this is, apparently, "The Best British Gangster Film Ever", which is complete rubbish. This is, without doubt, the worst film I have seen for a long time and anyone who knows anything about the Krays' story would soon spot glaring mistakes. It is a blatant rip-off of the 1990 film and an obvious cash-in on the new Legend film starring Tom Hardy as the twins. He looks more like the Krays than the two jokers in this film. Honestly, just don't waste your time or money on this rubbish. If you want to know more about the Krays, then I suggest you read one of the books about them, which are infinitely more accurate and tell a fuller picture than this film. You will thank me for it, trust me. Even the 1990 film is better than this.

Simon Cotton and Kevin Leslie star as the twin brothers who were leading gangsters in 1960s London. Filmed simultaneously with its sequel, THE FALL OF THE KRAYS, it purports to offer their lives from their initial move to take over a bar, through their increasing political influence through the election of Harold Wilson.

Although Ronnie's homosexuality is not mentioned -- despite its featuring in other versions -- there is the occasionally almost orgasmic release as Kevin Leslie pulls out a cavalry saber to rip apart some bloke who has offended him. Is this some lingering reticence, or will it be saved for the sequel? There's certainly no shyness about showing young women's breasts in the sequence covering the Profumo Affair. My conclusion is that this was intended as pornography, soft enough to manage an R rating in the US and an 18 in the UK.