The Guvnors (2014)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Just perfect...

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Guvnors is a predictable "what is violence?", "when do men grow up?" type movie.There is no match day aggro, any of that is just shown in brief flashbacks, so you'll be disappointed if you were looking for another The Firm or Football Factory. While we're on the subject, the violence acted out is good, well choreographed and mostly believable.No, this is a tale of an old nutcase in retirement who comes up against a rising young nutcase, so far so clichéd. We're expected to believe that one guy (played by one of Rizzle Kicks lol) who inexplicably sniffs a lot and his multiracial cartoon character pyschos can become feudal lords of a half deserted London estate. The son of our antihero is threatened by a clichéd giggling blond loony, all weird head tilting and playing with knives, so the retired Guvnors firm are rounded up and pressed into action.Are they saving their community? Participating in primal scream therapy? Mid life crisis? It's never clear, but the main catalyst is 70s songster David Essex, incredulously, flooring the sniffing gang leader in Britain's darkest pub then his later fate at the hands of our young Scarface.I cannot buy the gang, it's leader, what they actually do (who buys their drugs, nobody lives there?), the sketchy flashbacks to "something" happening in the past...but to be fair Doug Allen does a fair job portraying the bored, uptight Guvnors top boy and we also bizarrely, considering this is London, get real life old Zulus top boy Barrington Patterson in his first geezer movie appearance.Summing up - OK for a hungover morning or a sick day off work, but don't expect The Firm.

Americans won't understand the references to the troubled 80's and the main character who was a skinhead frustrated rebel who created quite a bit of trouble, but ended up just a successful gay businessman.The action takes place in a neighborhood embattled by the ghost history of the old versus the physical brutality of the youth. Simple plot really, but the sidetexts of violence begets violence through the generations, through genetics, and through entrenched poverty make this movie break away and become entertaining and contain more depth than a simple gang-turf warfare meaningless bit of film-making.While not perfect, I make it out to be a fine example of its genre, something not intended to be Oscar worthy, but still gripping, entertaining, and worth some popcorn.

I thought the trailer looked fairly good for this, so was excited to see this one. I was pretty disappointed with how it turned out. The characters seem to be very a-drift and nothing really comes together. We are left thinking a lot of questions. There is a lot of the typical hard-man action, but at the end it just looks like load of 15 year old boys fighting their Dads. We didn't rally get chance to meet any of the characters, and we stayed fairly distant from them throughout.What I did enjoy was some of the actors performances despite the broken script. It saved the film for me to an extent and made it OK to watch. Overall, nothing new here, a load of people hating another load of people that have a big fight somewhere very public at the end. But some of the performances make it watchable.

One of the best gangster flicks of our times, the plot is simple but bewitching excellent performance by Vas Blackwood and the rest of the guys, the film captures the British street scene with honesty, shot in true-to-scene locations a unique one of kind film, i see it doing very well in world over, a classic example of what goes around comes around and the true saying that a gangster once yields a sword, will die by one. The climax was fantastic with a good mix of natives and immigrant (even a Sikh) making a fantastic entry scene for the final fight. if not for the "always" underwhelming reception of the American press for good British films, i see this movie doing big business if a pending proper release.