A professional contract killer, haunted by visions of his violent past, spirals out of control. His work compromised as he reaches breaking point, he is forced to defend his family from his ... Read allA professional contract killer, haunted by visions of his violent past, spirals out of control. His work compromised as he reaches breaking point, he is forced to defend his family from his ruthless employers.A professional contract killer, haunted by visions of his violent past, spirals out of control. His work compromised as he reaches breaking point, he is forced to defend his family from his ruthless employers.
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I watch the new British films emerging from a generation of filmmakers trained in the language of Hollywood realism and soaps and TV detectives/villains and wonder if anyone who gets involves in making cinema like this realises what a waste it all is..same terrible copies of every other kind of cliché/stereotype/scene structure/shot style/music soundtrack that has been a massive bore time and again. Dreadful script, appalling characterisation,violence,lots of blood,gore,and for what ? For no one to see it in a cinema,or anywhere else with luck, all for the sake of making "a film".Those who made this should be ashamed .....when there are so many ordinary people's lives in Britain totally ignored by mainstream media, hidden behind crap like this so called film.
You know what you're gonna get with Fairbrass. You're not gonna get Oscar performances but compared to some of his films, this was better.
I enjoyed it, although I could see where it was heading.
Overall, one of his better films.
I enjoyed it, although I could see where it was heading.
Overall, one of his better films.
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Alfie Jennings (Craig Fairbrass) is a cold, ruthless contract killer, who has suddenly developed a crisis with his conscience, haunted by nightmarish visions of those he has killed over the years. It all comes to a head one night when he is unable to a finish a job, and embarrasses headman Chapman (James Cosmo), his employer and family friend. With his fifteen year old daughter to look after, and loving wife in tow, Alfie realises it's time to quit the life...but Chapman has other ideas.
Breakdown enjoyed the most limited of cinema releases, before rapidly arriving on DVD. If this kind of British film were in the mainstream, it would paint a very grim picture of the current state of our green and pleasant land. While many may think it has a point, the brutal, unflinching violence and cold, dispassionate onslaughts this film delivers at times, really make your skin crawl and test your endurance limit, making you question when as a decent person you should turn away.
This is fairly standard looking in presentation, and appears to want to burst right out of it's direct to DVD confines, offering that little bit more meat on the bones than the usual such film, cramming in subplots involving family dramas and soforth, and even an element of horror at the beginning that might have stretched the budget a bit. Fairbrass has an undeniably hard, no nonsense presence and delivery, and is very effective in the lead role, whilst Cosmo, by turns, is a quietly understated and menacing villain.
Ultimately, though, it isn't pieced together well enough to work as a whole, and the sheer gratuity and nastiness of it really weighs it down. **
Alfie Jennings (Craig Fairbrass) is a cold, ruthless contract killer, who has suddenly developed a crisis with his conscience, haunted by nightmarish visions of those he has killed over the years. It all comes to a head one night when he is unable to a finish a job, and embarrasses headman Chapman (James Cosmo), his employer and family friend. With his fifteen year old daughter to look after, and loving wife in tow, Alfie realises it's time to quit the life...but Chapman has other ideas.
Breakdown enjoyed the most limited of cinema releases, before rapidly arriving on DVD. If this kind of British film were in the mainstream, it would paint a very grim picture of the current state of our green and pleasant land. While many may think it has a point, the brutal, unflinching violence and cold, dispassionate onslaughts this film delivers at times, really make your skin crawl and test your endurance limit, making you question when as a decent person you should turn away.
This is fairly standard looking in presentation, and appears to want to burst right out of it's direct to DVD confines, offering that little bit more meat on the bones than the usual such film, cramming in subplots involving family dramas and soforth, and even an element of horror at the beginning that might have stretched the budget a bit. Fairbrass has an undeniably hard, no nonsense presence and delivery, and is very effective in the lead role, whilst Cosmo, by turns, is a quietly understated and menacing villain.
Ultimately, though, it isn't pieced together well enough to work as a whole, and the sheer gratuity and nastiness of it really weighs it down. **
It takes a long time to go where it wants to go. Craig Fairbrass plays his normal characterisation, normal dialogue 'Hardman'. The only thing that saves this is the presence of James Cosmo.
Apart from that, it is a violent over timed movie that could be cut down by at least 30 minutes just by speeding it up and making it a little more exciting.
This film was better than I thought it was going to be it had a gripping stoeyline,different to what you normally see in these films ,Craig Fairbras played the role well as a man with a past catching up with him.
Nice to see some of the familier faces from these gangster films again.
Nice to see some of the familier faces from these gangster films again.
Did you know
- TriviaThe debut film of Natasha Mayo, daughter of British radio DJ Simon Mayo, who co-presents a film review show with Mark Kermode on BBC Radio 5Live.
- SoundtracksThe Message
Written by Enzo Cannatella
- How long is Breakdown?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $713
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
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