Relentless

After having greatly enjoyed independent film-maker Steven Murphy's sexually skewed, downbeat small-town melodrama 'My Saviour', I eagerly went into his gritty suburban pot-boiler 'Relentless', secretly hoping for a similarly strange, off-beat excursion into the bellicose Brit-gangster milieu, only to soon discover that, for reasons obscure, Murphy largely eschews the quixotic, auteurist weirdness of 'My Saviour' for a far more formulaic gunz n' dodgy geezerz 'Essex Boys' pastiche. Jake (Steven), an amiable quick-fisted lug is released from nick for crimes obscure, only to find himself inexorably embroiled in some increasingly volatile small-town chav warfare that will do little to endear him to his parole officer!.

After the muscular thug with the big heart comes to the aid of Ava (Tiffany Ellen-Robinson), a chippy, red-headed brass with the proverbial gilded heart, these dramatically mismatched hearts form an uneasy, frequently febrile alliance as they frantically attempt to elude the ever encroaching menace of knife-wielding, Hyena-like Hoodies, reckless roid-headed hoodlums, gun-happy gangsters and some mountainous mush-mouthed mongle called 'The Beast'! Even with 'Relentless' concluding explosively in a seemingly arbitrary squib-happy gunfight I found myself a little underwhelmed by it all. The acting performances are pretty variable, with stolid, if unexciting work from Murphy, and the plainly engaged Ellen-Robinson is convincing as the pitifully insecure, hard-luck, happy-go-mucky harlot, but, unfortunately, it is all a trifle predictable, Murphy's generic dialogue is functional, rather than exceptional, the too-hectic fight scenes appeared rushed, but happily the noisome, thick-eared narrative is deliciously enlivened by actor/composer Maria Theresa Rodriguez's fine score. In conclusion, while I enjoyed the more incongruent episodes of 'Reckless' it lacked the inherent WTF quality of 'My Saviour'. To end on a more positive note, I genuinely dug the Father Ted joke!

I tend to start watching films, then last about 10 minutes, then I am all in, or abandon it and start another one. Having tried to watch Hot Air, which I abandoned when some irritating niece turns up, I started relentless. A gritty, British film, that portrays a ex con leaving prison and within a day manages to upset the local scumbag lowlifes. It really is a depressing take on gangs and people that I am sure exist, but thankfully I have never come across. Jake, is the tough man with a decent heart, who rescues an underage prostitute and this provides an insight into her life and family. I did find it compelling to watch and reinforces the common trope that violence never ends well. I was rather hoping it would.

As jbar 19 said, "Likeable characters". But that's about it. Script is all over the place.

It's as if the writer/director has dyslexia, or doesn't understand how the A to Z alphabet works. Makes shows like this hard to watch. It's as if he had the first and last scenes clearly in his head, but dropped the middle pages on the floor, not remembering their order.

Would like to see the main 2 cast in something decently written. They have potential... This movie did not.

Gave it and extra two stars for them. It's only really a 3.

This movie is one of the worst directed, worst written, and worst acted horror movies I have seen in awhile. Just skip it and find anything else. The ending, if u can even call it that, makes no sense, basically the movie just stops.

Stop making movies with your kids pocket money.

Likeable characters who speak with such a strong English accent they should have included subtitles.

The story goes nowhere. You keep waiting for action but it's few and far between.

There is no resolution. It just ends.

4/10.