Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins

When ex army man "Tony" (Terry Stone) comes to the rescue of the grandson of the wealthy "Moriarty" (Ian Jarvis) he asks the man for a job. Next thing he is on the door of one of his nightclubs with ambitions to clean it up. Meantime "Simms" (Keith Allen) is having similar problems at his nearby club and after engaging the services of "Bernard" (Vinnie Jones) the two enforcers start to work together; "Tony" moves venue and now both men try to tackle the local drug pusher "Whitaker" (Bronson Webb) who deals for pub-based "Tait" (Craig Fairbrass). Will it be all out war between the two, or can they reach an accommodation? Based on real characters from East London, this is a really poorly produced crime thriller that is singularly lacking in thrills. The writers clearly swallowed a dictionary of Anglo-Saxon expletives that regurgitates with an angry and repetitive script which quickly loses any potency, as does the violent narrative acted out by a seriously mediocre group of actors. It's bloody and gory, at times, but for the most part it consists of way too much chatter and very little action. It does take a swipe at the attitudes taken by government and society towards soldiers returning from conflict who receive little, if any, support from a population all-to-quick to move on, but that aspect accounts for only a very short period at the start of the film. Gritty and dark? Yes, but little attempt is made to develop the characters and by half way through I really couldn't have cared less what happened to any of them.