The Crew

Dreadful, dreary, nonsense, 11 November 2009

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom


*** This review may contain spoilers ***


The British Gangster film has a noble tradition, this does not add to it.The Liverpool setting has great potential both as a backdrop, and as an opportunity to explore some real regional character. Both are squandered.

Director Adrain Vitoria's credentials sit with soaps like The Bill,Hollyoaks and Brookside. he is totally out of his depth with a full feature, his only previous effort "Capital Punishment" having sunk without trace.Kevin Sampson wrote the novel on which this is based, but the screenplay was written by Ian Brady who shows a spectacular inability to write convincing dialogue and paint colour into character. How he needs to hire Martin McDonaghs "In Bruges" to discover how to write dialogue and use settings.

What we are offered is lazy, clichéd fare, with a formula plot, you know, the "one last job" plot.When a gratuitous lesbian clinch is shown between gangsters molls, Debs and Marie it is hard to tell whether their smiles are of acted pleasure, or of stifled laughter at the absurdity of the script.Stephen Graham and Scot Williams sleep walk through proceedings which are interspersed with episodes of extreme violence designed to inject some interest into a strangely flat production.

Best forgotten, which will not be difficult.