yourstruly2010 Reviews

Finney (1994– )

long forgotten

[8/10 · 4 December 2010]

This long forgotten 6 part TV serial is a sequel of sorts to the 1988 movie STORMY Monday which portrays Finney a nightclub owner mixed up in Newcastle's seedy underworld not quite as noirish as the movie and missing the original cast but still an excellent crime saga never released on DVD in the UK but was released in north America on region 1 DVD.

predates both the sopranos and underbelly but was actually not the first of its kind in england (the fantastic OUT springs t mind and the overly stylised GANGSTERS) its worth a look if you like this kind of thing or have seen the original movie.

Stormy Monday (1988)

OK but not GREAT

[6/10 · 4 December 2010]

A better than average film noir set in Newcastle england which gives a fairly inaccurate portrayal of organised crime and the club scene in Newcastle (although i did read a statistic that there were over 400 firearms incidents in Newcastle in 1992 which is staggering considering the whole of england could fit into Texas Newcastle itself is probably the size of a tiny new york suburb and england has extremely tough gun licencing laws) the rain soaked streets and neon lights look fantastic the plot is somewhat of a no brainer the ending left me scratching my head a bit fantastic cast it has to be said but i think the over done the the American influence its like the whole film is a big party celebrating tommy lee Jones presence which is kind of unfair given his performance here pretty much stinks. sting is a fantastic actor and obviously Sean bean i a fantastic actor both from Newcastle however both speak with a fairly none descript northern accent there are no geordie accents (Newcastle accents that people from Newcastle are famous for) in the film which left me feeling a bit short changed to be honest.

on an interesting side note there was a 6 part British TV series which kind of a sequel to stormy Monday called FINNEY (1994) which had none of the original cast but was actually really quite good somewhat of a pre SOPRANOS TV crime saga about organised crime and Newcastle's club scene featuring David morrisey (from TV's ONE SUMMER) taking the role of FINNEY (played in stormy Monday by sting).

Plunkett & Macleane (1999)

British film industry take note

[3/10 · 10 November 2010]

other than historical accuracy there's nothing really wrong with the film but i was left wanting to see a bit more of a serious less romantic film about English outlaws or highwaymen, why do no such films exist ? there's plenty of outlaws in British history its like there's a genre of films that doesn't even exist that really should Americans have the their westerns Australians have their bush-ranger films we have have plunkett and mcleane ? seriously we need a few outlaw films this proves such films can be made but no English cinema would rather make awful hardman/gangster films that have been passé for a decade anyway.

I Became a Criminal (1947)

More English Gangsterism

[10/10 · 7 November 2010]

utterly fantastic gangster film from the UK, relentlessly dark and sarcastic cynical and violent with a morose sense of humour doomed pilot returns from the war to become a gangster job goes wrong is framed for murder escapes from jail to clear his name but before he gets back to the city hes framed for another murder so may as well get busy and exact some revenge while hes at it.

there was a slew of these British gangster films at the time as was a reflection of what was happening in British society the gangsters much like their American counterparts made small fortunes from illegal gambling activities and selling elicit goods (in england postwar rationing meant a clamouring black market for everything from food to alchaol and strikingly this film even portrays drug dealing) not as well known as the American gangster movies but similar other films of note in the genre (known in the UK as the Spiv Cycle) are Brighton Rock, Black Memory, The Dark Road, Dancing With Crime, Appointment With Crime, Silent Dust, No Tres in the Street.

Outlaw (2007)

Deeply Misunderstood

[7/10 · 5 November 2010]

OUTLAW must be one the most deeply misunderstood movies iv encountered, not one single reviewer here has mentioned the whole point of the film is a modern day Robbin hood parable a deeply cynical and sarcastic film. Sean Bean plays the Robbin hood a man trained to kill by the state who has returned home from fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan to find no thanks no heroes homecoming just mocked and shut out of society he like all too many of British war vets winds up living out of a bag and ends up in a bed an breakfast where he begins to recruit his band of similarly merry men and they all head off to their sharewood forest to take on the establishment. Basiclly the film is asking what if robin hood was real and happened in todays society ? I think after the recent Raul Moats case here in england the film and the characters make a lot more "sense" certainly not a classic and not without its problems but worth a look all the same.

Brighton Rock (1948)

Classsic Gangsterism

[10/10 · 7 July 2010]

So much has already been said of this film its pointless to type out the story but this is absolutely without shadow of a doubt the finest British gangster film ever made and one of the greatest British films ever made. Richard Attenborough was very almost typecast as hoodlums and gangsters (the hundred pound window, London belongs to me, boys in brown, dancing with crime) his performance here is not uncagney like (via public enemy) phycotic seething brooding filled with rage fear hate and despair. He seems to bear a grudge against religious and authoritative figures he also appears to be homosexual in one scene he goes berserk to find fellow gang members and their girlfriends drinking and acting flirtatious and promiscuous he even threatens to kill when a fellow gangster says his wife is going to make a man of him on their wedding night and then the next morning after their wedding night he hasn't slept with his wife. his best friend tells her "not to worry hes just busy hes got stuff on his mind" she tells pinkies best friend "i don't want to be on his mind ever i just want be with him" implying she hasn't 'BEEN' with him in fact by the end of the film I'm not sure he has slept with her at all. You can fill in the blanks why does a 17 year old lad wind up this vicious and angry where are his parents what lead him to the place where he is now why the hatred toward religion ? even his nick name pinky brown... you have to wonder ... the relationships hes forged with other members of the gang are quite interesting also the former leader seems to have been somewhat of a father figure to pinky and hes trying to forge that same relationship with Dallow (william hartnel) who is clearly the brains of the outfit and would be the leader of the mob if he wasn't scared of pinky as everyone is he knows fine well what pinky is capable of he gets a good indication in the first few minutes of the film. Pinky isn't used of people standing up to him and not fearing him he doesn't like the fact the town is now increasingly ran by colleani he hates it and the rest of the mob know if it wasn't for pinkies murderous reputation they'd be finished. Pinkies relationship with women also worth noting the only time he shows his wife anything but hostility is when hes hurt and wants mothering.

1947 Was the year england took America's crown albeit briefly as the worlds finest producer of gangster films as this They Made Me A Fugitive and Black Memory stormed onto British screens, we had previously had a few films that dealt with small scale gangsters (the man from Chicago) and young hoodlums (bad boy) but we had always been weary of the kind of film America had been producing in fact the British censors blocked an attempt to produce a screen version of the play The Blue Cafe which dealt with organised crime in London's seedy Soho district and No Orchids For Mss Blandish was filmed in America complete with fake American accents but here finally in 1947 we were treat to a reflection of our own homegrown gangsters on screen no there's no ring of tommy gun fire but believe me the violence and sheer darkness of these films are just as gripping intense and shocking.

To those who question attenboroughs legitimacy as a 17 year old saying hes unbelievable i say that its a cultural difference here people leave school at 16 (at the earliest) they can leave home get a job and start a family in fact i know people doing that right now and back then people were leaving school at 14 so yes attenboroughs performance is actually a lot more believable than you'd give it credit for.

Flat out Masterpiece !!!

The Combination (2009)

A Missed Opportunity

[5/10 · 7 July 2010]

This film comes oh so very close to being a genuine attempt at Australian urban drama but its let down by absolutely awful acting on behalf of one or two actors that really distracts from some amazing acting and genuinely menacing Zeus and some hugely over choreographed fight scenes that belong in a Hollywood shot em up action flick not in a realistic urban drama. the other problem is that Australia has many different types of youth gang from the traditional American/English types to biker and surfer gangs the main reason why these youths are involved in gangs and thug lifestyle is not to do with poverty and horrible circumstances (although I'm sure that is the case some of the time) the vast majority of it seems to be bored teens replicating what they see on TV and hear in rap music in fact most of the people in this movie come from beautiful suburban neighbourhoods drive nice cars and have expensive clothes they come across as obnoxious posers who have no sense of national identity which is of course the point of the film anyway but you just cant help feel thats its pointless to point a camera at a group of rich kids who live in paradise and say "look their pretending to ghetto kids" because everyone accept them can see it anyway and one day their going to look back and cringe at how they used to behave if they're mature enough and mange to survive the little world they've created. thankfully there is more to the story than that, there's racial tension which oddly isn't usually a component of an urban drama so in itself could of been ground braking but its weighed down too heavily by the main clichéd urban drama story of big brother former hood sees little brother going down same route which lead him to jail and must delve in to save his brother (bullet boy, green street, American history X) in short this wants to stand up next to the big boys of the genre (Boyz N The Hood, Menace 2 Society, Babylon, Bullet Boy, La Haine, City Of God, Tribu) but in the end is overly choreographed badly acted and in the end doesn't really have a lot to say about what is probably the most civilised western nations problems of young suburban Asian Australian men imitating black American/British men whilst using race as a subplot (which in itself seems like a total hypocrisy) still worth a look to see a real side of Australia that is scarcely represented on screen and does leave you hoping the Australian film makers realise there are story's to be told in the suburbs with real people in real circumstances and despite what Australia thinks the rest of the English speaking world have no problem understanding their accents and dialects we watch neighbours, home and away, prisoner cell block H, chopper, mad max and much more just as much as we do home grown material and frankly its an insult to our intelligence and to Australians themselves to think otherwise.

Squizzy Taylor (1982)

The first ever Australian gangster movie ? Australia's only entry into the spiv cycle ? the last ever spiv film ?

[8/10 · 5 July 2010]

Having no knowledge of squizzy taylor beforehand but having a mild fascination with Australian culture i was able to appreciate the film but not having any background knowledge i didn't fully understand the plot at times. having since read a little about taylor since on the internet this film seems to distort a few facts.

This reminded me a lot of a classic British gangster film from the 40s although it isn't mentioned in this film squizzy was regarded a spiv (exactly the same as the spivs of English history and movies our most famous spiv being Darby Sabini spivs in england inspired a whole cycle of films known as the spiv cycle) ie a member of a razor gang who operated at race tracks but just like the crooks of English history he soon progressed to bigger crimes and more serious gangsterism. in some ways the film reminds me of the classic American crime movies with its drive bys and the overall feel of the film is very American although the structure of the film reminds me of English gangster biopic The Krays in that unless you have background knowledge at times it feels like your being drip fed random acts and outbursts also the police officer determined to nab taylor reminds m a lot of the military police officer in The Krays who comes to search their mums house when they go AWOL in The Krays. although the film is not like the film in style or attitude it is almost without the trademark sense of humour that normally distracts me from Australian gangster films although still nowhere near as heavy going as The Krays though and not to say its devoid of humour.

I think this is one more for those with an interest in gangster films and want to trys something a bit different.

No Trees in the Street (1959)

Great British Gangster

[10/10 · 4 July 2010]

I was impressed with this one, a young hoodlum mugs someone (we never actually see the mugging) and is caught knife in hand by a local off duty policeman who drags the young lad home and gives him a lecture about a lad just like him that he knew some years earlier the film is then told as one big flashback to a time just after the war when small time organised crime was ripe (a slew of British gangster films were made on the subject look up The spiv cycle) due to rationing and post war poverty a time when a some parts of england were reduced to rubble and slums were allowed to fester poverty bread desperation and violence and a few petty criminals were able to up their own living standards slightly but considering the mob live on the same street as the kid in question their little empires were nothing more than a joke. one such mobster has fallen head over heals with a decent working class girl who does no wrong and looks after a family that consists of elderly, disabled, alchaolics and her beloved little brother who has developed an obsession with small time gang boss Herbert Lom seeing Lom get everything he wants watching him throw money around and wearing expensive suits makes quite an impression on the young lad and before long hes packing heat and involved in petty crime and giving money to his sister and mother wearing expensive clothes and generally impersonating Lom. His sister hates it and although she wants the good life lom can offer her (as do the family) she at first resists his advances (in my opinion to show the brother money cant buy everything) but eventually she gives in and this seals her little brothers fate. Fantastic film fine acting lom as usual fine as a mobster (although he doesn't actually do much because he wants out of the rackets for a normal life while the young lad very much wants to replace him) mesmerising start to finish great use of location and makes for an interesting look at the squalor of post war england. i don't want to give the ending away but its right up there with all of the best gangster film endings absaloutley brilliant and still after all these years packs one hell of a punch.

if you get the chance to see this don't pass on it.

Future War (1997 Video)

it was OK until

[2/10 · 24 November 2005]

the android thingy had that stupid fight with that guy n the cardboard boxes i mean i was actually kinda into it but then card board boxes that at first we're led to believe are full of something (please note the people carrying them before the fight kicks off) then their suddenly empty and are being kicked round then they are being thrown in slow motion as possibly the worst weapon ever seen in a movie also notice how many boxes are in this movie there's even a scene where people are boarding themselves up living dead style boarding there doors with yup you guessed it card board boxes also the amount of times they use the same house as everything from a police station to a church is just ridiculous although the scene in the church when the android smashes through the window was actually i felt a pleasant surprise also there is definitely a story to be told in here i was certainly more interested in place where the human came from than the cat n mouse stuff also the chadwick scene is the funniest thing iv ever seen

Blackrock (1997)

what would you do?

[10/10 · 31 October 2005]

I bought this film on DVD for 1 UK pound and have watched it over and over again a great story handled with care and told from no one in particulars point of view. OK so its not going to win any Oscars for having the biggest budget but i cant recommend this enough a truly under rated piece of Aussie cinema. If your looking for something different rent it or buy it i imagine you can pick it up cheap enough anywhere in the free world.

A lot of great photography and beautiful Australian scenery great direction great script.

also a ton of great music (austrailia and new Zealand have the best undiscovered bands music scenes and movies)

Horrorvision (2001 Video)

its not that bad

[4/10 · 31 October 2005]

Decent enough with some stylish imagery however the tiny budget hampers things.

I also get the impression they were trying to shock you with some of the graphic weirdo perv website stuff.

if you like anime in particular stuff like cyber city and the AD police then this might up your street.

but basically its low budget matrix cash in however not totally devoid of its own style.

Great soundtrack by some unheard of grunge/punk/post grunge bands. Worth checking out if only for the soundtrack.