hayley-crubbs

This is most emphatically not yet another football hooligan movie. It's not Nick Love's The Sweeney either. In fact the film I was constantly reminded of was the 2011 film Rampart, because like that this is an exploration into the psyche of a dark avenging angel police officer. The film wants to be an examination of Broken Britain, or more specifically a broken London and, more successfully placed into the mix is the 2011 riots, the Afghan war, unemployment, sexual abuse, rising urban crime including drugs and gun crime. Unfortunately the script has a tendency only to pay lip service to these issues but somehow this less deeper exploration is perhaps fitting given that we see how these things affect Damien, a disturbed and damaged individual who you just now is going to reach boiling point from the off, you're just not sure how.

Martin, Sid and Janan are captivating as the lead characters. Z-Lister is an experiment, the first official TV Bandits production to be exact. It's an ambitious thing to do; to make a comedy pilot short film and try to pull everything off. Unfortunately I felt that the film was 50% funny but 50% falls flat on its face with the awkward timing, lengthy editing and out of place soundtrack. The jokes could have easily been more vulgar at times and the ending should have been broadened on better. Nonetheless Z-Lister is attempt to make something different and I respect the filmmakers for even trying so.

Lee Charles and Mark Griffin hit it out of the park on this one! A great short film, not necessarily for everybody, but a great short Batman fan film regardless. Joker and the Penguin were portrayed brilliantly in this dark thriller.