Silent Night

The setup has been done to death, so beyond its Christmas backdrop I wasn't expecting much. It is entertaining enough until the contracts begin, at which point it sort of picks up steam.

The final act is full of twists and turns that while not entirely original, were a pleasant surprise given what I thought would be a much more straight forward "seen this setup a hundred times before" type ordeal (guy out of prison, tries going clean, drawn in for "one last job" etc).

I start all movies at neutral 5 and go from there. Most tend to get a 6 (slightly positive +1) if they generally entertain, but for its unforeseen twists and turns and what was a genuinely enthralling final act, this rose to +2 (7/10)

Was expecting a one dimensional gangland thriller but this delivered a lot more. Gritty and remarkably well shot, yes...but there's elements of dark humour in there and decent performances, particularly from "Mark" the lead. Well worth a watch.

Pretty easy to watch, can't fault the script / acting / jokes, was all pretty good and the movie goes along nicely.

The one thing that i found extremely annoying is the main 'twist', it's too obvious and been done thousands of times before i can't believe people can still be surprised by it.

Aside from that the story takes different twists and turns and keeps you watching till the end as the main character goes through a seemingly unwinnable situation.

Nothing great but def worth a watch as a bit of a festive comedic ganster movie. Although i think alot of the movie was obviously filmed away from christmas so the outside shots aren't very festive.. but the christmas dinner at the end is very good.

This is definitely my kind of Christmas film. Absolutely loved the performances between the two leads and loved spotting all the familiar South London locations, felt real and raw but with some great touching moments and some humour that made you feel like you were with old friends. I'd definitely watch it again!

I have a suspicion that the wide variation in how this film was perceived probably depends on whether you're British or not. As a Brit - and from South London to boot - I was pleasantly surprised by this film, and especially the lead (Bradley Taylor), who was outstanding throughout. Twist was unexpected, well executed but fell down slightly on the originality front. Full of South London grit and black humour, and the director somehow managed to eke sympathy for Taylor's character out of me when I'm not convinced much was deserved. Time well spent with this one.