i-burgess1

I found this film rather disappointing. Although it was good to see both David Bradley and Michael Caine the rest of the characters I'm afraid were two dimensional and all rather predictable. This film reminded me of Death Wish and in that sense was derivative. And how predictable was it that the female police officer was right (and right-on PC) - just like the TV series The Bill? The final scene of the DI has been seen so many times before - a corrupt system. We'd seen enough to know that that would happen. The characterisation of the young people was awful. None of them had any redeeming qualities. The writer of this film should watch The Wire/Goodfellas for how to draw the characters of even the bad guys. I suppose the fee that Michael Caine received will add to his pension but this is not one of his better films.

I'm surprised at some of the comments here. Cliff Hanley I think you'll find that all the members of the gang were white so can't see where you got the idea that the leader had a 'multi-coloured' gang. From different national and religious groups, yes. Can't say I agree that his comments are anti-Semitic, David W - Hanley's comments about the Palestinians are simply irrelevant. I was struck by the coldness of both sides. What does come through is that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. At least the gang tried not to kill civilians, but that came from the members not the leaders. What Mr Timothy has against 'knobs', I do not know! 'Nazi knobs' 'Commie knobs' - how about door knobs? I thought that this was a very powerful film - with few redeeming characters. Under extreme circumstances people give up their ethics, but at what price? Betrayal, either innocent or knowing is one of the major themes of the arts (see Graham Greene's books).