Bull

Intense thriller, the story slowly unravels, in a violent way, unsympathetic characters that keep you on the tip of the chair nonetheless, with un unexpected ending.

Not bad for a movie that only cost $100,000 and was filmed in three weeks. Bull does not feature epic shootouts or fight scenes, but it does have a magnetic-intimidating lead performance from Neil Maskell and moments of sheer brutality. In my opinion, this is enough to recommend Bull to anyone interested in darker revenge movies. The film is over in less than ninety minutes and depending on your taste you will either love or loathe the ending.

Revenge thrillers have been a movie staple as long as there have been movies. This one is the same but different. The film-maker makes no attempt to catch the sympathy of the viewer upfront--a very gutsy thing to try--and instead relies on the constant forward motion of the action to win the hearts and minds of the audience. It works, mostly. The end result is more resembles a roller coaster ride than the typical "3 Act" script. And yes it is entertaining. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

There's much to like about Bull. Neil Maskell, who you might recognize from Kill List puts in a great performance. David Hayman gives good support. For a budget production it looks OK too although much more akin to a TV movie than a cinematic release. It's a violent crime movie and most of the violence is with knives which is much more gruesome than simply shooting someone. My problem is the disjointed narrative. The eponymous Bull is a small time gangster working for a small time boss of a small time gang in Kent. He's double crossed by the gang only to appear from nowhere a decade later to get his revenge. But instead of a linear narrative the writer/director, Paul Andrew Williams mixes past and present in a ad hock fashion and despite the events occurring 10 years apart all the characters look exactly the same, the wardrobe is identical and the time of year, summer is also the same. There are no visual clues as to what is a flash back and what is present, like the flashback sequences being in black and white or being a bit hazy or even just being lit differently. It makes the narrative difficult to follow despite it not being a particularly complicated plot in the first place. The final payoff comes completely out of the blue and although it's quite a fun twist doesn't fit in with the tone of the movie at all.

A well made revenge thriller, with particularly gruesome and graphic retribution acts. I'm not really into it with this level of nastiness. If you want a good feeling in you after a viewing, don't see this.

Though by the end, the aforementioned excessive nastiness can be explained by a story revelation, there's still not much gain from this given the negative prestige we feel for the main character.

The film-craft is in top form here with a high level of art attributed to the script, direction, acting and sound. Unfortunately the main character is an awful person, even before he went evil. It's not easy to sympathise with the guy, for his gruesome acts and short flashback segments which don't display his humane side for long enough. Not possible to get close enough to him.