The Crew

I really do dream of a better time for British cinema. This film is a glimpse of what could be. This film like all good movies focus' on a good story line, actors in roles they suit and a good pace for its style. A simmering tension through the main characters crumbling self confidence. The edge comes from some brutal violence thrown into boil. Added with the right taste, again for the type of movie it is. Along with a dash of hot lesbian action, a couple of twists and a quintessential scouse feel. Usually i think scousers get a bad representation as comedy or annoying characters but this time everyone one had a natural feel to them. In summary i would highly recommend it to any man and their dog, especially the dog.

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.

Another British film from the early 21st Century and like so many other Brit flicks it revolves around a bunch of hardened gangsters

" Wow Theo I think you might have to elaborate ? "

Do I have to ? To be fair it's not one of those embarrassing Guy Ritchie inspired comedy gangster movies that tries and fails to bring a smile to the audiences face . Well it does but these scenes are so intermittent and forgettable that they're forgotten about by the half way stage of the next scene

You certainly won't feel like laughing much because this is foul mouthed brutal stuff . Characters are incapable of opening their mouths without a stream of expletives come gushing out . That's not when they're torturing , beating or murdering one another and some scenes merely exist to shoehorn some explicit mindless violence just in case the audience get bored without ten minutes of graphic violence . Perhaps the producers should concentrated on developing the story a bit more

This is one of two problems with THE CREW . As other people have been quick to point out the film is trying to be complex but just ends up confused as rival firms cross , double cross and triple cross one another so much so that you'll be lost as to why the latest victim is getting ripped off or tortured . By having a Serbian gang as one of the protagonists you're also reminded of LAYER CAKE and how much superior that was to the Ritchie wannabes

The second fundamental fault is that the entire look of the film . Again other commentators have brought it up and that is the film never appears cinematic and resembles something shown on Channel 4 at tea time . Did someone mention HOLLYOAKS ? Try and imagine HOLLYOAKS with the F and C words in every sentence along with frequent maimings and murders and you've got a rough idea what THE CREW resembles on a visual level

"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!