I know everyone is getting tired of low budget British gangster movies. There are now probably more low budget British gangster movies than there are actual British gangsters.
The difference is that this movie stars Craig Fairbrass. If you're a fan, you've probably had to answer the question "Who's Craig Fairbrass?" a few times. He's been in some pretty good movies, but it's more likely that you tell people about the cool character that he played in a bad movie. There's no shame in watching movies like Devil's Playground if you're in the mood for some gory fun. However, movies like that aren't going to win any prestigious awards, and they're not even going to be wild crowd-pleasers.
Villain is the kind of movie that I could send people to and say, "That's why I like Craig Fairbrass." Instead of just sleepwalking through the movie like some actors might have done, he gives Villain's protagonist, Eddie, a real personality. You can tell that Eddie's made some bad decisions, and he's not done making them. He leaves prison swearing that he's never going to return, but the title of the movie should be enough to let you know that it's just going to take one bad day before his true nature takes over.
In a sense, that makes this movie a tragedy. Despite quite explicitly being labeled as a villain, Eddie isn't really a bad person. If you ignore a few inconvenient facts, you can justify his actions along with him. That makes it easy to follow his descent, a bit gratifying to see him take down people even worse than him, and frustrating to watch his life play out like the Fates are controlling it. That's the thing about this script, though: it may be a bit cliched at times, but it couldn't really play out radically differently while keeping true to the character. Eddie is simply not going to make the kind of decisions that would alter this story.
Recommended mostly for fans of Craig Fairbrass. There's a reason why he's the only character on the poster. The other actors are good, but it's mostly his show.
The difference is that this movie stars Craig Fairbrass. If you're a fan, you've probably had to answer the question "Who's Craig Fairbrass?" a few times. He's been in some pretty good movies, but it's more likely that you tell people about the cool character that he played in a bad movie. There's no shame in watching movies like Devil's Playground if you're in the mood for some gory fun. However, movies like that aren't going to win any prestigious awards, and they're not even going to be wild crowd-pleasers.
Villain is the kind of movie that I could send people to and say, "That's why I like Craig Fairbrass." Instead of just sleepwalking through the movie like some actors might have done, he gives Villain's protagonist, Eddie, a real personality. You can tell that Eddie's made some bad decisions, and he's not done making them. He leaves prison swearing that he's never going to return, but the title of the movie should be enough to let you know that it's just going to take one bad day before his true nature takes over.
In a sense, that makes this movie a tragedy. Despite quite explicitly being labeled as a villain, Eddie isn't really a bad person. If you ignore a few inconvenient facts, you can justify his actions along with him. That makes it easy to follow his descent, a bit gratifying to see him take down people even worse than him, and frustrating to watch his life play out like the Fates are controlling it. That's the thing about this script, though: it may be a bit cliched at times, but it couldn't really play out radically differently while keeping true to the character. Eddie is simply not going to make the kind of decisions that would alter this story.
Recommended mostly for fans of Craig Fairbrass. There's a reason why he's the only character on the poster. The other actors are good, but it's mostly his show.