The Crew

The Crew goes where many British gangster flicks tends to skirt around. It's an adaptation of Kevin Sampson's novel Outlaws (he wrote the screenplay too), and really shows off an attention to detail that paints a graphic and nihilistic picture of gangster life. It plays on moral bankruptcy rather than trying to spin out pithy one liners and any pretence of cool.

Nothing good happens to anyone; violence and lust doesn't make people happy, poetic justice slips through when you least expect and some neat twists give it a decent narrative that is a lot smarter than the usual brit gangster flic.

Bodes well for Awaydays!

Typical Brit Gangster Movie Plot: Someone has a job they need done so they can get out of the game, they hire a crew to do it, some hijinx ensue, and it's a rockin good time.

This movie: A crew boss has a big job he needs done so he can get out of the game, since he has a crew they can do it, things go wrong, people get killed, no one really has fun.

This movie was well made. The acting was spot on. The plot was fairly creative. I just didn't care.

I know intellectually this was a good movie. All the pieces were there for me to actually enjoy myself, I just couldn't like any of the characters. They're all really bad individuals, and really don't have any redeeming qualities about them. I also know this movie is probably more what it's like to be a gangster than Rocknrolla, or any of Guy Ritchie's fair, it's just that in Guy's movies you have a couple characters that are fun to watch. They may be bad guys, but they're naturally funny. They make you care about what happens to them. There just wasn't anyone in this film that did that.

I also liken this to "The Bank Job" in the sense that there wasn't really any genuinely good characters, yet Jason Statham carries the entire film because of his charisma. You can't really pin your hat on anyone in the crew, and it's unfortunate because this could have been a good film.

If you're into brutal violence, and people lying, stealing, and cheating just for fun, then you'll probably enjoy this. I just wanted a little more to keep my attention.

Movies from across the Pond are occasionally Excellent and they do tend to be Proud of their Gangster and Comedy Films that can sometimes influence Hollywood. Here is another in a current trend of Organized Crime Thrillers, British Style. These generally fall into two Categories. Wink and Smirk, Guy Ritchie Types, or Dirty and Gritty. This one is the Latter.

It is definitely Dirty. Not only in its Look and Tone but Sexually Speaking. Trouble is that while attempting to be Realistic and Unfettered, the Unfiltered Lens shows some Ugly, Disturbing, Disgusting, and Perverted Scenes that seem Staged for nothing more than to Elevate the Bar of Bad Taste.

One such Scene is so Brutal that its not only Annoying but asks the question Why?, than the Realization come along, that it is just a not so Subtle way to separate this abhorrent Behavior, from the other Lesser abhorrent Behavior, so the Audience can side with the more Civilized Criminal. The one who is Married, wears tailored Suits, has a Son, and doesn't do Drugs.

The Plot is Unforgivably Confusing and there are Scenes and Subplots so Undeveloped that the whole thing just Collapses and takes on a Complexity that is more Frustrating than Intriguing.

"Ged" (Scot Williams) has made a very good living over the years and now lives an outwardly respectable life with his family in London. Meantime, though, he is investing a cool £250,000 in one last scheme to raise him millions and hopefully set him on the straight and narrow. The thing is, his lieutenants - led by "Ratter" (Kenny Doughty) are bored living on what they perceive to be the scraps. They know that there's way more cash to be made if they start dealing hard drugs. "Ged" wants no truck with this, but egged on by his pal "Paul" (Philip Olivier), "Ratter" is determined that he will get his way - by hook or by crook. With the pressure mounting on their boss, revolution brewing amongst the troops and the deadly Serbs waiting in the wings to muscle in on this lucrative market, it's going to take all "Ged" can muster to save himself and his family from the new world order. On the face of it, this is a solid gangster story but as to it's execution - well that is just weak. Loads of faux-Scouse accents pepper the over-scripted drama; loads more Anglo-Saxon expletives don't make these actors into plausible hard-men and the whole thing looks like it's a low budget episode from a 1980s television series. Some of it is intentionally distasteful and on occasion that does work at illustrating just how odious, depraved and greedy some of this gang are, but so often those scenes seem here for their own gratification rather than to put any meat on the bones of these characters and at just over two hours, it takes far too long to get to anything like a sharp end about which I'd lost interest after some random sexually fluid brutality in a penthouse. It's based on a fairly graphic novel and I think it'd be best just to read that and let your own imagination do the work that Adrian Vitoria doesn't manage to do, here. This is just poor, sorry.

Some classic and genuinely unusual scenes. Different enough to be well worth watching. The film 'rocknrolla' should have been, and clearly NOT just another Brit gangster flick! After a slightly cheesy start, with over-acting from Phil Olivier, I became completely drawn in by the plot, with performances getting better as things went along (it must have been filmed in sequence).

Humorous and brutal, touching and chilling, I simply could not switch it off last night, and am now compelled to pen this review despite suffering from sleep deprivation ;-). I know films, and I know good from bad, and I know you will not regret adding this film to your collection!