Silent Night

The setup has been done to death, so beyond its Christmas backdrop I wasn't expecting much. It is entertaining enough until the contracts begin, at which point it sort of picks up steam.

The final act is full of twists and turns that while not entirely original, were a pleasant surprise given what I thought would be a much more straight forward "seen this setup a hundred times before" type ordeal (guy out of prison, tries going clean, drawn in for "one last job" etc).

I start all movies at neutral 5 and go from there. Most tend to get a 6 (slightly positive +1) if they generally entertain, but for its unforeseen twists and turns and what was a genuinely enthralling final act, this rose to +2 (7/10)

I cannot believe some of the poor reviews solely because it wasn't a Christmas film!! This film was grim but realistic, superbly acted with a great story, I think if you're not British then you won't get it. Highly reccomended.

After being released from Prison, Mark is determined to go straight for the sake of his round daughter, but his former cellmate Alan convinced him to do one final job.

Once again, I was hooked in by a number one on Netflix tag, only this time I quite enjoyed the choice. I'll be honest, it does have a low budget feel about it, but I think that's part of its charm. There will be obvious comparisons, Lock stock for example, but it's not trying to be.

So it's not exactly Die Hard, you're not going to want to dig this out every December, but as a one off, it's worth seeing, and the good outweighs the bad, just about.

I really liked Bradley Taylor as Mark, I really did buy a guy down on his luck, trying hard to make changes and desperate to restart his life. Joel Fry also very good, nice to see him in a serious role.

Favourite scene had to be that surreal Christmas dinner, that really was off the wall, a cracking and unexpected twist.

6/10.

Pretty easy to watch, can't fault the script / acting / jokes, was all pretty good and the movie goes along nicely.

The one thing that i found extremely annoying is the main 'twist', it's too obvious and been done thousands of times before i can't believe people can still be surprised by it.

Aside from that the story takes different twists and turns and keeps you watching till the end as the main character goes through a seemingly unwinnable situation.

Nothing great but def worth a watch as a bit of a festive comedic ganster movie. Although i think alot of the movie was obviously filmed away from christmas so the outside shots aren't very festive.. but the christmas dinner at the end is very good.

Because this movie has plenty of gunfire and violence, surely enough for most fans of the crime thriller genre. The cast all make their characters believable and interesting, even those with small roles like the cop. The dialogue has some clever bits, and Silent Night's director, Will Thorne, did a fine job dealing with all the challenges of making a by no means simple gangland revenge story entertaining. If this comes out as a DVD with a director's cut, it could well be worth buying just to see how movies are made in gritty urban settings.

What really sets Silent Night apart, however, is a twist in the plot. Can't say much about that without taking this review into spoiler territory, but the twist certainly puts Mark in a whole different light. Not necessarily a better light, however.