Essex Boys

This film looks cheap, features cheap low-life people, and is shot in a totally nasty, depressing landscape (around Essex and the Thames estuary, particularly the Dartford Bridge area). Furthermore, it's about drugs and dealers, particularly for the youth market. Yet it is interesting to watch, probably due to a very convincing performance by Sean Bean as the revolting Jason.

Sean Bean is usually quite a suave sort of character (Sharpe, Bond films, etc.) yet is both disgusting and convincing in this film. Plays a good London/Essex accent (considering he's from Sheffield) accompanied by tons of evil, sadistic violence.

If you want to "see" what a drug induced blank look really looks like Sean Bean's bedroom scene half way through the movie is a must see. He ain't trying to look good or mean or anything other then just be in the character. And he does that to the exclusion of the rest of the world. He's a git and he will make your skin crawl.

This an an ensemble cast and they fit together wonderfully. The ways they come together and come apart are believable. You may even feel compassion for some of them until you remember what everyone is doing.

At the end of viewing it I thought it was a once through but now a few days later I want to see it again and I am thinking seriously about buying th DVD.

This movie was reviewed as the English version of Goodfellas, and although the plot lines are similar in a way, and the insanity is much the same, it felt much grittier and harder-edged. Maybe it's the way they treat their women or something. Although the camraderie amongst the 'boys' appeared much the same superficially, underneath there was no 'club'. Sean Bean was so realistic as a bad-guy, that he was REALLY scary. Really hope it was great acting and not a window into his soul showing here. I was surprised at the quality of acting shown by Alex Kingston too. The supporting cast was fine, and it was interesting to see Essex for those of us who live on the other side of the pond. My interest was actually captured farther on in the film by the quick-paced events and the twisted plot line. Imaginative and surprising writing, although the dialogue wasnt as good as Goodfellas. Overall, i recommend it, but it was a hard one to watch -

I'm ashamed to admit that I only understood this film the second time I saw it. It is easy to confuse the characters at times as they double cross each other, change camps and generally confuse the viewer to no end.

However, it was worth it for Sean Bean as the psychopathic Jason Locke and Alex Kingston as his femme fatale wife. The guy playing Billy, the narrator, was also very good.

There are very few moments of humour but they certainly work, Lisa's foul mouth, comes to mind as well as the fact that Jason stole the marble lion from his former boss' garden. The plot becomes a bit too confused in the end with Lisa's web of deceit becoming wider and wider.

Moments of violence are very realistic. Jason Locke's treatment of his wife is by far more shocking than anyone flying off a glass window.

As far as the direction is concerned, it is fairly straightforward with some truly excellent editing in the shoot out, near the end as well as in the scene where Mr Dyke (I for one found Tom Wilkinson's gentleman gangster quite believable) is trying to kill Billy.

In all, it is hardly a groundbreaking film but it is very entertaining. I'll give it 7/10.

A good film on several levels. The unflattering comparisons that some critics have made between it and The Usual Suspects are completely misguided as directorial intent and effect in the two pictures are dissimilar. Winsor's film, it seems to me, brilliantly evokes both the drabness and cruelty of the criminal mindset. It does this partly through the choice of dull, flat Essex landscapes with their coastal marshes, grey motorway links, flash nouveau riche mansions and the tawdry glamour of seafront locations. The characters are both repellent and yet curiously mesmerising. This is not a film in which it is easy to lose interest. Nobody can do psycho-thug better than Sean Bean, and Charlie Creed-Miles has created a dangerously weak character as Billy, whom it is almost possible to feel sorry for without actually liking. The film is very well lit, though I did find sound levels a little dodgy at times It's a film that, despite critics' comments, is not a million miles from Get Carter in quality.