The Rise of the Krays

Unlike many reviewers of this film I haven't got a great knowledge of the Krays. I thought the film was flawed and mis-titled. The fact that neither actor looks like the Krays didn't really matter ( neither did the Kemp brothers) it was more the story of Ronnie Kray, portrayed as a victim of severe mental illness, absurd delusions of grandeur , paranoia, sadistic tendencies etc. It showed the brothers as driven by uncontrolled anger, ambition, a force of evil but without any real plan .They gained predominance in the criminal underworld by their extra willingness to go that extra mile in violence and savagery, especially Ronnie whose total abandonment to dark forces made it inconceivable that that profits from their extortion rackets could ever be diverted into sustainable 'non-criminal' businesses, and grain them any veneer of respectability. The lack of plot in the film reflected well the lack of ability the Krays had to plan ahead or make any shrewd , intelligent decisions. Their forté was merciless violence and sadism which saved them from the need for any foresight. In its portrayal of Ronnie , the film captured the eye of the storm which was Ronnie Kray, a vacuum of humanity sucking in, and throwing out everything in its path. Simon Cotton's portrayal of a psychopath captured an unimaginable anger and hatred mixed with a sense of observation and removal from his own actions and was an inspired performance.

The film was a depiction of a post war deprivation, poverty , social injustice and its consequences. The Krays were vicious predators but also victims themselves.

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.

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.

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!

This is a good example of when the writer and director get together and try to be artsy. Most of the dialog isn't bad, and most of the acting is at least par. But man they have these scenes, slow mo, and in "space" that just sink this movie. It's like they were looking for 40 minutes of filler to extend this crap into some series instead of just telling the story. They weren't even montage worth scenes, it's like they watched pulp fiction and tried to implement it but failed full out. They took up such a large portion of this first part that it was almost unwatchable. The story of the Krays has so much potential, however you won't see that here! It's simply not scripted well enough to make the story of two kick ass twin brother gangsters good. With so much source material it's a sad statement that they couldn't get it right. You can not simply depict people as crazy by having slow mo space screens with them holding a gun. What ever this director was thinking when he shot this, or the write was thinking when they wrote it just makes my head hurt. This movie is exhibit A on what not to do when writing a movie.