The Corrupted

Noel Clark was good in this, so was Sam Claflin. Tim Spall did a decent job too. This movie is quite entertaining in the end but has a fair few flaws.

It is very slow at the start, and spends ages focusing on side characters. The wife (girlfriend?) in particular gets about 25 mins of screen time at the start but all you get from it is that the ex con has a family he cares about. That could have been done in five mins. On the flip side a key scene in a car where you see important corruption and power play moves gets 30 seconds of screen time. Just a lack of focus there.

On top of that the characters are inconsistent, for instance the villain is basically playing the existing system and using it to his advantage. Then there is a scene where he talks about being in favor of brexit. Why? He is clearly benefiting from the system in place why would he want to undermine that? Makes no sense.

If the script had been tightened up and the characters made a bit more consistent it could have been good but as it is its just kind of okay.

...if it wasn't for the convoluted plot-hole ridden screenplay, especially in the beginning. Even the score was overbearing and annoying in the beginning, but I guess 1 of the 21 executive producers stepped up with changes and the story became clearer and the score less annoying. Had the screenplay been edited better, and the slow-paced 103 min run-time cut down to about 85-90 mins, it would've been more enjoyable. The directing and cinematography was decent, but the cast is what held this film together. If this is based on a true story, then I'm guessing such corruption is still present in London. Maybe that'll be a sequel. It's a generous 6/10 from me, mainly for the acting and last 3rd of the film that picked up the pace and intensity.

Based on true events, it is London 2012 after the Olympics. Liam McDonagh (Sam Claflin) is a boxer ex-con getting involved with powerful crime lord Clifford Cullen (Timothy Spall) who is connected to highly placed people like Anthony Hammond (Hugh Bonneville). DS Neil Beckett (Noel Clarke) and DS Gemma Connelly (Charlie Murphy) investigate a case which leads to the corrupt police force.

I don't know about the true events especially when everybody in the movie is corrupt. Liam really shouldn't be the lead character. It should be Beckett and Connelly. This has one good twist and limited action. The thrills are few. It is a lesser British crime thriller.

It's not awful awful but there's not a lot of good in this low budget british cliche.

Having said that i do want to give credit to the main bad guy (Cliff Cullen) played by Timothy Spall. He's not quite up to the level of a Guy Ritchie bad guy character but he's definitely provided a solid performance.

It started off ok but just withered off. One to watch on the telly when it's chucking it down