Riot

G.B.H wasn't entirely irredeemable, Nick Nevern did have a great brooding intensity that he brought to his lead character, and Kellie Shirley(whose acting has grown since her stint on EastEnders) is affecting. For me though, that's it for the saving graces. The rest of the acting is poor, Steven Berkoff for example doesn't seem to have a clue as to what to do and how to play his role. Though in all fairness they weren't helped at all by sketchily written characters that were largely sidelined throughout the film, the juiciest side character was Con O'Neill's but that is not saying very much. The dialogue resorts to a lot of clichéd banter, while the way G.B.H is shot looks cobbled together(like some of it was done in one stretch with a gap and then in another stretch after). And I do have to agree about the wildly inaccurate portrayal of the police force, it is not only inaccurate but completely unbelievable too. There was a good story in G.B.H somewhere, no matter how many times we've seen its plot points on other films and television shows, the structure was just so clumsy and disorganised with no tension that that potential didn't ever come out. It was also very difficult to be drawn in by, it was purposefully grim and bleak which is not a problem in any way, it was just dealt with in such a tedious and heavy-handed way that the tone was more wearying(and increasingly so) and overly-aggressive in alternative to tense and properly involving. Overall, apart from the leads I found it by difficult to be drawn in by G.B.H. 2/10 Bethany Cox

This movie is kind of an enigma, if you read the review that is tagged by IMDb you'd think it was the next Academy award winner for best picture? But it only garners a 4.1 from members and it's dropping fast?

Then I remember hearing that Yahoo did a study, and even in it's own reviews 80% were fake, one way or the other... This movie is no Diff.

The real reviews are easy to pick out, as they are the ones SPOT ON, to quote that tagged review...

The acting here is somewhat less than stellar as is the directing, the budget is smaller than most movies, but I would still say was a wasted expense~they'll be no profits still~except for those already made... ;-)

Believable, No!

Good acting or direction, NO

AlxMac (me) gives this a 2.1 you may even give it less. Put it this way, if it was a EarthQuake on the CA coast, after being reported many people would say, "I never felt a thing"... Pun? For sure, you might feel something, but I doubt it will be anything but the feeling to find a commode chair ASAP and grab the for railings...

Another movie designed to get the London Tourist Bureau running for the hills. it is supposedly set during the big riots we experienced three years ago. In reality though, only the final scenes touch upon that major incident. Instead, we follow the life of a former hooligan now turned cop, and his attempts to juggle his new job with his old loutish friends, who either see him as a sell out, or a person who they can extract favours from.

There are about as many surprises here as finding a plastic toy in a Kinder Egg, as our anti-hero experiences the predictable dual pressures of dealing with human trash on the beat, and even worse garbage in the form of his 'mates' off it. How any right minded person would want to spend five seconds in the company of his former buddies I don't know, but at least he's making a bit of an effort to get away from them.

They are many, many breaks in the action to inform us that one scene took place ONE WEEK AGO, ONE HOUR AGO etc. You can tell it's trying to pretend it's telling a complex story, but this mediocre script is clearly nothing of the sort. Delusions of grandeur, perhaps. It's watchable, it's efficient, but aside from a rather upsetting sequence involving a serious assault on a female officer, there's little here to stir the imagination.

Even the Downer Ending has been done to death in this genre. As soon as our rogue lawman gets that look in his eyes, there's only one possible conclusion. So... file under 'average'. 5/10

As of this writing, this film is sitting at a sub-3 star rating. Seriously? Sure the film's got it's problems, but it's pretty well written, pretty well acted, and solidly put together. Maybe England is going through a rash of hooligan films that I'm not aware of and this was the straw that broke the camel's back? That...or people are just kind of idiots.

OK, maybe idiots is a harsh term as there's no accounting for taste, but this film actually works pretty well on most levels. It moves along at a good clip, the characters develop well, and the story is though out. My only real gripe is the way the film jumps around between certain scenes. There's a bit of that "three weeks earlier" crap that makes it a bit hard to follow at times. But on the whole I'd say it's at least worth a watch.

I am not surprised that so many people are disappointed by this film. They expected a cop thriller, an action flick probably, and instead they watched a complex and also confused psychological drama about violence, hooligans and the tough reality to be a cop when you have yourself major family problems. I was myself confused by the editing. To speak truly, I was lost, although I got the whole thing. I think it is a too ambitious but not enough monitored script. But certainly not uninteresting at all. Some pricks who don't understand it will say that's a bad movie. Shame on them. This is just an editing issue that jeopardizes the whole stiff and makes it too complicated for most of the audiences. Some very disturbing sequences, such as the female cop rape, in the underground parking. This film is far better than the ones which Simon Philips usually plays in. In summary, don't expect any gunshots or gangsters, but only brutality, cops and hooligans. A typical British noir social drama from UK. A trade mark for this country.