Villain

I don't know why the average score is low. I thought this was a great film. Shame about the ending as could've been follow up films, but nevertheless great story and Craig Fairbrass is mustard in it. Not original in terms of storyline, but I really enjoyed it.

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.

Craig Fairbrass' gave a strong performance. It's unfortunate that this is such an unoriginal plot and quite overused, in my humble opinion. This is still well worth a watch though, especially to see a surprisingly magnificent performance by Izuka Hoyle. Although, she is a virtual unknown, I expect it won't be for too much longer. She was only in a few scenes but she gave a riveting performance especially in her final scene. She is beautiful and very talented. In spite of an over used plot and storyline, you will find yourself rooting for Craig's character early on in this movie. Thanks to this talented actors ability to draw you into his character to empathize with him.

I've worked on a set with Craig before, and I found him entirely unpleasant to be around with how he was talking to the crew. I was just an extra so quietly backed away. But it was enough of a lasting impression to make me actively avoid anything he is a part of.

Bored, surfing Netflix, the streaming service started playing a scene from Villain and I rolled my eyes hard. Here we go, another "Craig is a hard-man" film but... Watching the scene play out, his acting was decent. It wasn't the same old, same old we have come to expect from him. Sure there are scenes where we get the same Craig we see in every other production he is in but there's enough "new" acting from him that it keeps you pulled along.

And just as well because, as much as it pains me to say it, it IS Craig who carries this film. The other actors are good, don't get me wrong, but they're screen time is considerably shorter. They are all believable and flesh out the small part of the world we're shown but, they don't hang around for long. Then we are left with the story; something we have seen a million times before.

In summary: guy gets out of prison, vowing to never go back. His brother is in trouble with local criminals and, so, Craig is pulled back into the seedier side of life. That it is. Nothing original here but it is, at least, done well. Shots are nice, colour grading gritty, sound decent enough and Craig really pulls it all along.

Will I watch it again? No. Does it make me change my mind about what I've seen of Craig? Not a chance. But it did at least show me that while he might be hot-headed on set, at least there is some range there.

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.