The Guvnors

Oh another gangster flick from Britain . Anyone watching a British film from the last twenty tears must be under the impression everyone in England must be a gangster or a football hooligan in much the same way as anyone watching a 1970s movie set in New York must either be a victim of crime or the victim of a vigilante . Hopefully the English tourist board can sell England to foreign tourists but it's going to be very difficult selling a sub genre that has been done so many and too many times before . To be fair to THE GUVNORS it is a fairly engaging film for the most part

A bunch of violent thugs led by Adam takes over a London estate through a reign of merciless violence . Stepping over the mark when they kill an erstwhile member of an old firm from 1980s former gang leader Mitch pulls his old crew together to take on Adam's ruthless thugs . It's a rather basic premise of old school "nice" gangsters taking on new school "bad" gangsters . Director/writer Gabe Turner has resisted the temptation of casting the usual suspects of Danny Dyer , Ray Winstone and Noel Clarke and the film works better because of this . You have to buy in to the concept that when the titular "guvnors" were young they were merely young rascals who stuck to their own . Certainly sticking to their own isn't what Adam's crew do as their portrayed as violent amoral thugs . The film asks us to take sides and you don't need any persuading as to which side to take . It also makes several good points as to how the aging process changes people

I did say THE GUVNORS is an engaging film for the most part and it was chugging along very nicely . Unfortunately this sustained narrative pace doesn't seem good enough for Turner the screenwriter and adds a plot turn just over two thirds of the way through which supposedly adds another layer to the story which the film could have done without and interferes with the rest of the movie which lurches in to melodrama and cliché after this which is a pity because at least the film does try and bring something new to the table

It's not that great to start with but it looked like it had potential. The incessant sniffing by the main character adds to the annoying viewing. Made on the cheap and in places it shows.

This rewardingly bellicose, Thug-Tastic British gangland thriller is an adrenalized, bloody-knuckled admixture of 'Rise of The Footsoldier' & 'Harry Brown'. When feral, drug-peddling, recklessly razor-slashing horror hoodies seek to annihilate legendary old school terrace titans 'The Guvnors', disgraced, Teflon-tough ex-top boy, Mitch (Doug Allen) reveals his fearsome reputation is well deserved! There's a nihilistic, Droog-like intensity to, Harley Sylvester's cruel, hate-fuelled, dead-eyed delinquency which proved eerily compelling. Gabe Turner's immensely watchable 'The Guvnors' is a polished, convincingly acted, exhilaratingly lively portrayal of the fractious internecine conflict between two rival inner city firms right to rule. While The Guvnor's greatest appeal will be to rabid Thugsploitation junkies, those individuals with a prurient interest in the dodgier denizens of London's more deprived suburbs certainly won't feel cheated.

Predictable. Contrived. Far-fetched. Ridiculous. Nonsense. And about as detailed and dramatic as this review. It gets a 5 from me though, but only because I've seen worse.

This film has been written off by some lazy press reviewers as just another mockney fighting movie, probably due to its slightly unfortunate title and cover art.

The reality is that couldn't be further from the truth. Although I sat down expecting to watch some kind of sub-Nick Love fluff (which isn't setting the bar very high at all), this was a far better film than I had expected.

The cinematography, music, performances and pacing were all very good, and the story is far from the kind of nonsense you'd associate with most standard football hooligan-style movies. It has nuance, depth and some great twists. It's a proper film, basically, and not just a load of fighting. Though there's a fair amount of that too.

I don't normally write reviews but I felt compelled to defend this movie because on reading some reviews (after I'd seen the film) it seemed that a lot of people had got it completely wrong and probably prejudged it because from a glance at the box, you'd think it was a bit dim. But it isn't.

Good work all round.