Nemesis

Now gangster/gangland movies have never really been my thing but every so often I'll take the plunge and check one out.

My interest in this one stems from having known one of the producers on the project. Now before you raise an eyebrow and think I'm about to sing lyrically about the movie without giving my real thoughts, rest assured I've thought long and hard about this review.

Obviously filmed in the time of Corona, so with that in mind I tip my cap to all for pulling the production together in such circumstances.

As the movie begins we see a little girl running along a beach, as to why, it's a case of watch carefully and don't blink, it's all plot relevant.

What happens when a feared member of the gangster fraternity returns from exile, will things remain the same? Or will time have moved on, well as Billy Murray's John Morgan soon discovers, time waits for no man and in his absence enter the ever so suave Bruce Payne as Damien Osborne to lay down the rules of the game.

Of course Frank Morgan has other ideas and along with his wife, Sadie played by Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott and daughter Kate played by Roger Moore's granddaughter Ambra.

With a movie of this kind, how do you inject something fresh into the proceedings, as I mentioned previously it all begins at the beginning with the very brief prologue, who is this little girl and what part will she play during the ensuing proceedings.

Of course with Frank Morgan's arrival back on home soil, this ignites long fuelled passions of anger within the community plus it reinstates the passion for justice within Nick Moran world weary police officer Frank Conway, can he finally put his stamp of authority on the the returning Morgan and make the streets just that little bit safer? Or will his own demons take hold and derail his own sanity.

Whilst entertaining to a point, there are some issues, certain scenes go on way too long, the direction isn't exactly flashy given that the Director James Crow is more known in certain circles for his frequent foray's into the horror genre but this assignment was a last minute gig as he replaced the original director Adam Stephen Kelly, who wrote the script for this movie.

There is a very jaw dropping scene involving Miss Sothcott, which at first glance was perhaps not needed, but if you recall the movie world of Roger Corman and his insistence that if the plot is flagging throw in some mild nudity.

Granted afterwards, I did ponder and wonder if the scene between Miss Sothcott and Lucy Aarden's character of Zoe that followed afterward should have went in a different direction.

The storyline is a little strained in terms of trying to follow it but no doubt revisions played a part in certain elements of the coherency of the plot, I must say though the scenes between Nick Moran and Ricky Grover as Billy in the bar room scene were excellent, very understated with both actors bouncing off one another with some choice dialogue, in some respects Nick Moran's character pretty much stole the show.

Billed as a home invasion thriller, this aspect comes into play with the party scene, and the events that follow with double cross shenanigans revealing themselves between all parties plus we get a twist in the tail which as twists go did sting a little as the plot devices used to wind up the story didn't at any point suggest what had happened in the life of Frank Morgan previously.

The movie itself has been a huge hit regardless of what I or any one else's think, and having been on the set of this movie I understand the blood sweat and tears that went into making it, but perhaps if they hassle given themselves more time and filmed at a later date we might have gotten a more polished production but to be commended regardless.

This film should win a worst gangster film of all time award.

Cheap awful rubbish.

Billy Murray & Frank Harper in awful gangster film. Nothing new there. Nick Moran is a surprise though, you'd expect from him.

It's a wonder that this drivel gets made.

Wooden script. Wooden acting. Wooden production.

If it was a secondary school drama production you'd say B for effort. But you'd never commission it as a serious film production!!

Don't bother watching this, 88 minutes of your life you just won't get back. So do yourself a favour and watch something else. Anything else. Really. Watch a Tesco ad on repeat. Watch paint dry. Watch Crossroads. Or even watch Billy Murray in The Bill when he actually had some credibility!!

From the trite, over-done dialogue to the trout-pout, fake EVERYTHING bimbo, this is a total waste of time. I cannot believe the hype that surrounds this film!

I spend a lot of time writing up an elaborate review about Nemesis but realized it wasn't worth it. This film is hard to watch. It's not very well shot. Poorly edited. And the writing is its weakest element. Here are some points that sum up Nemesis.

Some of the best acting is from Rupert Holliday-Evans, who spends maybe three minutes on screen, is completely stationary, and whose character could be cut completely without any loss to the narrative.

In the first scene where we meet John's brother, the color correction changes between shots, back to back. None of it is very good.

In the scene prior, John frequently leans in and out of focus. Damien is just not in focus for significant periods of time. Shots try to include an insignificant character, creating awkward compositions. Except for when they realized this, and they don't include him, creating a strange volley of similar shots.

The only believable characters are the ones who spend the least time on screen. Our major players are pretty inconsistent and mostly just looking to spout cliche dialogue, or to drop an F-word several times in one sentence.

I like to think this is not on purpose, but the relationship between John's daughter and her girlfriend feels somewhat fetishized. In a similar vein, there is no reason for the girlfriend to meet Sadie when she has her tits out. Even if it had been her daughter like she expected, that would still be really gross. I don't understand the thinking behind that.

Yes. The actress portraying Sadie has had a lot of work done. This is not an attack on her appearance. Quite frankly, she has lost some range in facial expression. That's pretty detrimental to acting.

I did not know who the protagonist was a half hour in.

Don't watch this. This is not a so-bad-its-good experience. It's pretty boring at times and just frustrating at others. I think it could be improved with a recut. Maybe 4 or 5 stars. Still pretty weak, but maybe more viewable. I just can't fully grasp how this film stumbles the way it does. Honestly, it's pretty sad to see. I'm hopeful this production group learns from Nemesis for their future work, especially considering that they had an entire lineup already planned before Nemesis was released.