The Corrupted

Based on true events, it is London 2012 after the Olympics. Liam McDonagh (Sam Claflin) is a boxer ex-con getting involved with powerful crime lord Clifford Cullen (Timothy Spall) who is connected to highly placed people like Anthony Hammond (Hugh Bonneville). DS Neil Beckett (Noel Clarke) and DS Gemma Connelly (Charlie Murphy) investigate a case which leads to the corrupt police force.

I don't know about the true events especially when everybody in the movie is corrupt. Liam really shouldn't be the lead character. It should be Beckett and Connelly. This has one good twist and limited action. The thrills are few. It is a lesser British crime thriller.

When I saw the trailer for The Corrupted I thought this is right up my street . It's a gangster movie ( my favourite genre) it's set in a part of London I know very well and it has some superb British actors in it such a Tim Spall , Noel Clarke and Hugh Bonneville but did it live up to my expectations?

This is the story of Liam, who wants nothing more than to live a peaceful life and to re-connect with his young son after coming out of prison .He learns his brother is caught up in a dark and dangerous web of corruption with property developer Clifford Cullen (Timothy Spall). In a drive for redemption, Liam risks everything to save his brother and win back the trust of his family.

The first thing to say about this film is that it's relentlessly dark . There is nothing happy or cheerful going on here and there is definitely no humour but that's not necessarily a bad thing in my book.

Tim Spall is fantastic as the gangland boss and Sam Claflin does a great job as our anti hero but I wasn't convinced that Noel Clarke was a copper for one minute .

I have to admit an hour into this I felt like it was going through the motions . Sure , there was lots of action but nothing we hadn't seen many times before . Luckily in the second half of the film it got a lot more interesting and grimmer !

This film seemed to slip under the radar when it was released last year, maybe because of how dark it is but as London gangster movies go it's not too bad at all.

...if it wasn't for the convoluted plot-hole ridden screenplay, especially in the beginning. Even the score was overbearing and annoying in the beginning, but I guess 1 of the 21 executive producers stepped up with changes and the story became clearer and the score less annoying. Had the screenplay been edited better, and the slow-paced 103 min run-time cut down to about 85-90 mins, it would've been more enjoyable. The directing and cinematography was decent, but the cast is what held this film together. If this is based on a true story, then I'm guessing such corruption is still present in London. Maybe that'll be a sequel. It's a generous 6/10 from me, mainly for the acting and last 3rd of the film that picked up the pace and intensity.

This isnt a bad movie, it just doesnt manage to hit the mark.

The good, the plot for the story is pretty good, the three main actors, the cop, the ex con and the main villain are all pretty good and towards the end the story picks up.

The cons, very slow start, some of the other actors arent all that great, even though it has a good premise it doesnt really do that much with it.

Its a watchable movie but it is definately something I would recommend waiting until its on hulu or netflix. Its not worth the price of a cinema ticket in my opinion.

Its a damn good entertaining film. Way better than a lot of brain dead US rubbish. I enjoyed it from start to finish