The Rise of the Krays

Having watched both the Kemp brothers film and Tom Hardy's brilliant recent portrayal of the Twins I hadn't much hope for this film; and I was right to. Where to start?! Firstly, the actors bare no resemblance to the Krays in anyway (a fault of whoever cast them) but moreover the actors seemingly don't even attempt to impersonate their voices or mannerisms. Secondly, it's historically inaccurate to the point of hilarity. The relationship between the two brothers is all wrong- totally ignoring the fluctuation in power roles the two played throughout their lives. It makes no mention of both the brother's homosexuality apart from in passing, a major aspect of their lives, especially Ron's. The part where David Litvinoff is cut from ear to ear by Ron wasn't done by either of the Kray's in real life, although they did beat him up, it was another villain that inflicted the above on Litvinoff. How the creators of this film made the life story of two of the most notorious villains so boring I'll never know, that's an achievement in itself. To add insult to injury the financial backers of this film then have the temerity to leave 10/10 reviews on this site.

Do yourself a favour and don't watch this, instead go out and buy John Pearson's "The Cult of Violence" if you actually want an insight into the Krays.

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.

Tom Hardy plays Reggie and Ronnie Kray ? Hey let's make a tie in movie and release it straight to DVD . Don't worry about developing it because the other film will market this one so it's just a case of releasing our film first

That's the impression I got and THE RISE OF THE KRAYS is painfully under-developed . As the other commentators have pointed out the titular characters are played by actors who bare little resemblance to the twins . Worse than that they're not good actors either . Simon Cotton is fairly dreadful as Ronnie and resembles a not very good actor playing an East End gangster . I suppose I should be charitable and say the cast and the rest of the production team were probably under heavy pressure with deadlines but even so the poor production values are a constant distraction

I can understand what director Zackary Adler tries to do with some scenes and that is to express in a cinematic style the mental illness Ronnie Kray suffers from , but considering the subject matter is an expressionistic film featuring violent gangsters really the place for a study of schizophrenia ? Probably not . Again to be charitable at least the production team don't come out with the old clichés of "Any old ladies getting mugged and he twins wanted to know about it . They stuck to their own , we were safe in those days etc etc" . The Krays are portrayed as unpleasant characters but this is also an unpleasant badly film too

This is another attempt at the story of the Kray twins who terrorised London's East End starting in the early 1960s. UK resident will know of the Kray twins as they had quite a reputation. Their portrayal in this movie is laughable. They come across as misunderstood, well meaning brats which they certainly weren't. As far as pure entertainment goes the movie is a first class clanger. The story of the Krays has been done before and was a considerably better effort than this latest version. Obviously made on a tight budget and full of historical inaccuracies, it is dull and at most times, embarrassing and painful to watch. I humbly suggest that you do yourself a huge favour, steer clear of this dud and wait for the release of "Legend" with Tom Hardy which I imagine will be infinitely better.

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.