Jack Said

The crime films from UK from the nineties till now have always, at ninety percent, deceived me, because of bad directing, bad acting, bad scripts. Forget LONG GOOD FRIDAY, GET CARTER, ROBBERY. Guy Ritchie was one of those who are responsible of this situation; Ritchie himself more or less under Quentin Tarantino's influence. But from time to time, you have tough, rough "faces", such as the likes of Craig Fairbrass, Ray Winstone, characters who enhance the interest of those genuinely lame movies. Here, for this movie, I will be honest, I was bored from the very beginning. However, a dark, gloomy, bleak ending can please me, and let me forget the below average quality of those crime dramas.

Yet another cheapo British gangster flick...yawn. This one stars Danny Dyer (surprise!)as a bit of a cockney rebellious rogue..or should that be webellious wogue.

It all seems to take place in a warehouse..even the scenes in someone's flat.The characters have names like "the fixer", "the guvnor" and even the rival gang are called "the other side gang". Its like watching children playing at gangster stories..and about as believable.

Simon Phillips is an unconvincing action hero to say the least and the baddies all have bald heads cockney accents and long black overcoats.

Ashlie Walker overacts but that might because the rest of the cast are so wooden.

Interesting that those reviewing this negatively seem completely unaware of the original and that any confusion only arises from not knowing this and not having seen the original.

As for unbelievable characters...well that's a first isn't it. No movie has ever had characters that one doesn't come across in real life. (/sarcasm)

I'm not sure it was worth a prequel, although a couple of things from the original were explained so it had its uses, not least seeing the relationship with Erin and having a better understanding of her reaction when 'Peanut' re-entered her life in the first one.

Altogether, not a bad follow up to the original.

I'm keen to see what the third one offers.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Undercover cop Jack Adleth (Simon Phillips) is deep into the world of gangland London and has formed a bit too close a relationship with Nathan (Danny Dyer) a loose cannon crook who steals quite a bit of money from gang boss's daughter Natalie (Ashlie Walker.) When he's interrogated for information by Natalie who thinks he's helping hide Nathan, Jack ends up making 'amends' by being Natalie's puppet, performing whatever gangland chore she wants. But a blossoming relationship with Nathan's sister provides the only shining light in his increasingly grim life as everything builds up to end in chaos.

The 'graphic novel' craze arrives straight to DVD, with a project that's been glammed up like one of the more successful entries, Sin City. In parts it tries to capture the film noir feel a lot of these movies try to capture but the outcome feels more pretentious than successful. Sadly, Jack Said just isn't exciting or tense enough to work. While it's all done competently enough, the story feels wavey and all over the place and just doesn't leave the impression it could have. Such a shame considering the talent involved, including Dyer, Phillips and familiar face Terry Stone in a supporting role. And I've only just learned it's actually a sequel, which only means I can only wonder what came before it. **

I saw this last night at the cinema and I'm glad it's out on DVD soon as I'm going to get it and watch it again. I thought for an independent low-budget feature, this was a considerably impressive effort. It may not have the money of Sin City – which is clearly an influence for the graphic novels and the films – but they have worked with whatever they had to achieve great production values.

The opening is a massive nod to its graphic novel roots before bringing us into a slightly more recognisable setting but still retaining its noir elements. Scot Simon Phillips is perfectly cast as the everyman-leading man. It's a nice touch that the "name" in the film, Danny Dyer, supports here rather than leads and the predominantly un-famous cast means that we're seeing characters rather than actors laying characters. That said, the two big names, Dyer and David O'Hara, put in often scene-stealing appearances.

Larger that-life in some parts, the characters are clearly based on the graphic novel approach where everything can be in your face, and it works. Ashlie Walker impresses as the sexy psycho seeking to usurp Daddy and Terry Stone is a combination of menacing and funny as the Guv'nor's second in command, 'The Fixer'. It's also impressive that we've finally seen a British gangster film with very strong female characters. Rebecca Keatley and Rita Ramnani provide the "good" to Walkers "bad" and achieve convincingly naturalistic performances.

There are certainly elements of other gangster and noir films. References to the Big Combo, Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, Pulp Fiction and Get Carter abound, but nothing seems lifted, more occasionally treading were others have already tread (thought this isn't always a bad thing). The plot's MacGuffin – a box with mysterious and never-explained contents – is a film staple seen in Ronin and Pulp Fiction, but this is merely a device to propel events forward. The voice-over is of course classic noir – but it's refreshing to hear it as we see London streets rather than American ones.

I can't think of another British film that has even attempted noir in recent years, let alone adapting elements from a graphic novel, and this is a very worthy effort.