Hackney's Finest

Following in the footsteps of a Great British love affair with heist and gangster movie, Hackney Finest hits the bullseye.

The grim story is seasoned by just the right amount of (dark) humour. In this regard, it definitely echoes some of Guy Richie or Tarantino's moments of brilliance.

The characters are, if not lovable, definitely charismatic. The eastern European gangsters are just as hilarious as they are scary.

Hackney Finest is not trying to revolutionise the genre: it embraces it, and definitely delivers.

Another side thing I liked, especially in regards to the current attitude of "spoiling trailers", is that Hackney's Finest trailer stays true to the spirit of film without giving away the very best bits. Refreshing

Normally I wouldn't stoop to reviewing or even watching one of the endless glut of embarrassingly poor mockney gangster romps that have tainted the British film industry ever since Guy Ritchie decided to give birth to said genre, but in this case, given the believable authenticity and blindingly scripted nature of said venture; I'll make an exception. Smack is the drug of choice in this tale, and likable user Cyrus plays the doped up protagonist finding himself on the receiving end of a particularly vicious and shamelessly corrupt detective looking to manipulate him into delivering a mammoth stash of brown. Fortunately Cyrus has sterling backup in the form of a pair of welsh gangsters who provide a wealth of snappy dialogue and brutish ballistics. Adding to the comedic energy are an equally deranged mob of Russians who the detective calls in to balance the odds. Every other character has their own podium of eccentricity on which to shine, and grimily they do. Naturally, there is foul language aplenty, but deployed in all the right places for a change, and the frequent incidents of gunplay are air- punchingly superb.

Review: I thought that was going to be your typical English gangster movie with the usual elements, but I quite enjoyed this crazy crime caper, even though they have to be some of the dumbest criminals in East London. Its about a drug dealer called Sirus who is wanted by a crooked cop who arrests his best friend (Asif) and blackmails him to go undercover so they can take-down Sirus in his next big drug deal with some Welsh Jamaicans. The cops plans end up going completely wrong because the Jamaicans are heavily armed so they hire some crazy, heroin taking thugs who try to help them get the shipment of drugs. Anyway, after a while the small time drug dealer ends up fighting for his life with the help from the Jamaicans who strike a deal to keep the shipment if they get them out alive. The plot was crazy and the characters, who were mostly heroin users, seemed to love being in the middle of East London in a big shoot out. The only person that seemed slightly scared of the whole situation was Sirus who didn't really know how to handle a gun at before they started to get shot at. I must admit, I did enjoy the crazy Welsh Jamaicans, even though I didn't know what they were saying half of the time, but it did get a bit silly after a while. Its better than a lot of the English gangster movies that I have seen lately because of the witty script and the amount of guns they use throughout the film but it isn't as good as Guy Ritchies earlier work and it did seem a bit far fetched. Watchable!

Round-Up: I haven't seen any of these characters before, so I can't really comment on them as actors, but they did put in good performances which made the film watchable. It really did seem like the director used all of the stereotypical aspects of the different nations in this film, like the crazy meat head Eastern Europeans who just wanted to kill any and everyone and the Welsh Jamaicans who had a heavy artillery and new everything about guns. Personally, thats what made me laugh about the movie and then fact that no one really feared for there life but Sirus. The corrupt racist cops and the Asian drug dealers were other aspects the storyline which made it quite interesting and the non-stop craziness was put together well by the director. Anyway, it's worth a watch if you want to see a film about a load of Heroin addicts and corrupt cops fighting against each other but don't expect anything with morality or a deep and meaningful storyline.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their English crime capers about a drug dealer who is on the run from corrupt cops who want his stash. 4/10

This is a strange hybrid of a film; on one hand it is quite a brutal London gang, drug and crime tale - with shooters. On the other it is actually quite a well realised dark comedy. I decided to suspend belief for ninety minutes and see what happened.

It is all about Sirus who is a mini cab controller, a seemingly nice guy and a drug dealer. He sells some of his gear to Welsh Yardies who drive up from the valleys for their stuff . There is also a particularly nasty cop - Priestly who is more rotten than a South American Junta, but also has a way with words that is both profane and actually very amusing. I would not want a parking ticket from him. He is on to Sirus and does not use the rule book in any way that a normal cop would recognise.

There is also 'casual racism' which may cause offence even where done for laughs, there is some graphic depictions of violence and there is a lot of shooting. Despite the plot errors and some less than savoury scenes I still found myself laughing and getting completely involved with all the characters. There is also a gang of stereotyped Russian meat heads who were all brilliant - even down to personalised phone rings. All in all this was ninety minutes that just flew by, and as such I wish I had seen this sooner.

I'm giving it 5 from 10 simply because it's from my old life and it's good to see some representation(wow, apparently that's a proper word. Plot circuit in a courier office in east London my ARSE. The main "character" and his 'colleagues' display an unbelievable level of ineptitude and do not convey any "plot" courier circuit in London, England. I am okay with some scope for messing about (dramatic license,etc). But, the main character would not be allowed near any real 'plot' circuit that has EVER existed in an east,west,north or south London office(unless the owner liked magic mushrooms more than money which is highly unlikely).It's is just sh*t that actually sort of but didn't really happen 20 years ago and it doesn't qualify as a "Movie" or work on any level. Good effort but must try harder. What about what the REAL characters that work the courier circuit, shame you don't know who they are or how their lives outweigh this tosh.