Riot

One month before the title event, I'm not clear on what's going on or whether it has a connection with the title event.

We see the words "Two weeks before". "One week before". "One hour before". I don't know what happens at each of these times. I'm just saying we are told this. Not in a way that really makes clear what is happening when.

I'm not at all certain what is going on half the time or what the connection is to the title event. Between the accents and the curse words that get bleeped, it's difficult for me to follow anything.

What I do know is there are tragedies connected with the title event.

This movie has some pleasant moments, even a few laughs. But mostly it is depressing. And when there is violence, it is quite graphic. No guns. Just fists. The leading actors seem to do a good job and I'm sure the writing is well done. This just isn't the sort of thing I can enjoy.

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

Review: This is just your typical violent English movie with your usual dose of swearing, sex and violence. The acting in the movie was quite terrible for the leading actors, but the storyline wasn't too bad. I also though that the film looked pretty cheap and it just seemed to go round and round in circles. By the end of the film it just seemed like the director wanted to show how much policemen can get away with, which wasn't a smart way to portray the people who are supposed to protect public. Anyway, I wasn't that impressed with it.

Round-Up: I wasn't expecting that much from this movie so I wasn't that disappointed. Some of the scenes were pretty graphic, but there wasn't any real moral to the story. For a low budget movie, it does have a bit of substance but nothing worth watching again.

Budget: £1.5million Worldwide Gross: N/A

I recommend this movie to people who are into there violent British movies. 2/10

GBH aka Riot (2012) Directed by Simon Phillips. GBH aka Riot is the tale of Damien crossing the line between being a London football hooligan to becoming a member of her majesty's Metropolitan Police force on the edge between both sides of the fight. Nick Nevern plays the part well as things around him spiral out of control. You can feel the intensity of it all as the movie progresses.

Kelly Shirley, ( Carly Wicks in Eastenders) who plays his rookie cop love interest, fits the bill along with Nick to make the movie believable. Damien tells her that he was in and out of care all of his life because of anger management issues. A police officer told him "he'd got so much rage in his eyes and should use it to get back at the life he hates so much." That's why he became a policeman. That scene in this movie epitomises what this movie all about and watching it, which starts off a bit slowly, is like looking like a time bomb and you, the viewer are just waiting for it to explode in your face. bcarruthers-76500

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.