Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance

Growing up in Southend-on-Sea in Essex, I am old enough to remember the uneasy feeling surrounding the Rettendon murders. The first Rise of the Footsoldier was completely on point with its general tone and laid out Carlton Leach's (true) story in an enjoyable enough manner. The movie won so much goodwill in my mind, that I have been on board for all of the subsequent sequels.

Now six movies deep and running solely with purely fictional storylines, that goodwill has wained quite a bit, especially after the weaker efforts in Marbella and Origins. Vengeance, however, managed to gross the highest box office of the entire franchise, and I am curious to see exactly why.

In case you are unfamiliar, Pat Tate was gunned down in the first part of the franchise. All of the subsequent movies are prequels to this event, revolving around Pat and his cohorts and their escapades in and around Essex. Craig Fairbrass is getting on a bit now, but it still looks like he could punch the head off of a regular Joe. He's not quite as psychotically frightening as he has been previously, opting here more for a more quiet "say the wrong word and I'll smash ya" type performance. Vengeance is a lot less goofy without the presence of Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe and the bad wig department (who should be thoroughly flogged in the market square for some of the worst hairpieces in a non-comedy movie).

If you're familiar with UK TV, you'll probably make the obvious comparison with Eastenders. And yes, Vengeance does seem like a long, more violent episode of Eastenders. But a revenge storyline is something that's easy to get behind.

Overall, I would say that Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance is one of the franchises' more solid efforts. I was under the impression, however, that this would be the last movie in the franchise, yet the finale sets up another sequel which, judging from the box office take, won't take long to greenlight.

Loved every one of the Rise of the Footsoldier films and this one does not disappoint. This film has everything you come to expect with Pat Tate painting the streets of Soho red with blood in an act of vengeance for one of his best mates. Decent plot, great cast and some great action.

Plot is decent which includes many of Tate's old acquaintances and takes some nice twists and turns along the way. The levels of violence and action are what you come to expect and the pace of the film is good and doesn't slow down for one minute.

If you like the previous films you are sure to enjoy this one as well. Already waiting impatiently for the next instalment!!

I left a very scathing review of Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins, so I feel it is only fair that I should leave one about ROTF: Vengeance.

I am by no means a fan of this franchise and I sat down to watch this film, expecting the usual - constant swearing, misogyny, drug taking, stilted accents and A-level drama quality acting.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The heavy use of the c word (probably 10-15 in this film) and comedic elements have been replaced with a slow-burn storyline, focussing on character development, and the lighting and set pieces were great, which proves that Nick Nevern has really hit his stride with this instalment.

A minor criticism would be that they seemed to bring back one recurring character too many, and the storyline became a touch confusing because of this.

All in all, a very enjoyable watch - the omission of the ghastly Terry Stone character helped immensely.

I'm a big fan of Rise of the Footsoldier. This effort ...The story is so slow that if it went any slower it would stop. Craig Fairbrass plays the normal characterisation he always does. Dialogue just doesn't hit the mark for an East End gangster movie.

It does link, well sort of, with the other films in the series. Joey is back from Origins, even though in the last one they near enough killed him and told him to get out of London.

Really, the film is just a reason for Fairbrass to be violent and either kill or brutally injure people.

The actors in the ROTF series need to understand that they are all older since the original in 2007. How can they portray younger characters when they are over 15 years older than the original film? Just waiting for "Rise of the Footsoldier - Zimmer frame " to be released.

As a fan of the franchise this is a disappointment on par with number 2. The other two main actors were missed like with number 2 when it was just Carlton's character. The humour is almost all gone and your left with a film trying to take it's self to seriously. The whole thing about this was always the comedy and violence that blended so well and the great cast, Craig Fairbrass is an amazing actor but this time Pat Tate is all but on one occasion without humour. I do hope they get back to basics and just have a laugh with it as that's what I see as the attraction to the films. They do have an amazing cast but bring back Terry Stone & Roland Manookian!