Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance

Just to be straight, I've loved the whole series of movies (apart from the second one) & it's been well documented (including by Craig Fairbrass) that this series of movies keeps rolling on because the fans love the almost cartoon violence & the bad Essex boy personas. Unfortunately, us fans loved the realistic gang violence & the naughty boy stories that stemmed from the original. We all know Pat Tate was a wrong'un & the previous films have not held back from showing the character he was. In 'Vengeance' he's the main protagonist of the story & made out to be almost a hero. The out of control Tate we've seen in previous movies (hookers & blow in the hospital & the infamous pizza cutter scene for example) is completely tamed down in this & is almost unrecognisable. Like Taken & the Expendables this almost seem dumbed down to reach a wider audience. The story is disjointed, the superb Geoff Bell is criminally underused & unfortunately just doesn't hit the spots that the diehard fans want. I so wanted to love this but ultimately felt mugged off.

I've enjoyed all the films in this U. K. franchise and this one is really well made. It's quite different to the others and on a higher level of quality compared to the cheeky boy banter style of the previous movies. I was actually rooting for Pat and saw his good guy. There's a nice little twist towards the end and the action is decent. Craig Fairbrass really raised his acting chops in this one and the whole cast shone.

I'm down for more of these so as long as they keep making them with this quality in mind, I'll watch them. This was a lot of fun. Definitely worth a look and yeah, more please!

I'm a big fan of Rise of the Footsoldier. This effort ...The story is so slow that if it went any slower it would stop. Craig Fairbrass plays the normal characterisation he always does. Dialogue just doesn't hit the mark for an East End gangster movie.

It does link, well sort of, with the other films in the series. Joey is back from Origins, even though in the last one they near enough killed him and told him to get out of London.

Really, the film is just a reason for Fairbrass to be violent and either kill or brutally injure people.

The actors in the ROTF series need to understand that they are all older since the original in 2007. How can they portray younger characters when they are over 15 years older than the original film? Just waiting for "Rise of the Footsoldier - Zimmer frame " to be released.

I left a very scathing review of Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins, so I feel it is only fair that I should leave one about ROTF: Vengeance.

I am by no means a fan of this franchise and I sat down to watch this film, expecting the usual - constant swearing, misogyny, drug taking, stilted accents and A-level drama quality acting.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The heavy use of the c word (probably 10-15 in this film) and comedic elements have been replaced with a slow-burn storyline, focussing on character development, and the lighting and set pieces were great, which proves that Nick Nevern has really hit his stride with this instalment.

A minor criticism would be that they seemed to bring back one recurring character too many, and the storyline became a touch confusing because of this.

All in all, a very enjoyable watch - the omission of the ghastly Terry Stone character helped immensely.

Ok, this franchise is really silly and most of the characters in it are violent psychopaths. And the real people they're based on must have been vile.

But these are movies, so let's put that to one side.

In this one, the tone is markedly different from before. It's a "proper" film and leaves out the relentless mindless violence and swearing that numbs you that characterised the previous movies.

Here - somehow - is a film that's technically very well put together indeed. The acting is good, the story is ok if a bit too convoluted and the way they keep holding off on a big reveal a few times too many gets annoying.

But the actors in this one are properly acting for the most part, and the camerawork and editing is very very good.

8 "faaaahkin caaaahnts" out of 10.