| Essexboys -
Film |
WHSmith - Review of Essex Boys
WHSmith
Essex Boys Released: July 14th 2000
Stars: Sean Bean, Alex Kingston, Charlie Creed-Miles
Screenplay: Jeff Pope, Terry Winsor
Director: Terry Winsor
Info: Cert 18, running time 102 mins
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinema,
along comes yet another British gangster movie. To be
fair, Essex Boys isn’t one more link in the seemingly
unending chain of Lock Stock/Tarantino rip-offs that have
blighted our screens but an attempt at something more
realistic.
It is a fictional story, inspired by the pump-action murder
of three Essex villains in their Range Rover that happened
in the mid-1990’s. Young Billy (Charlie Creed-Mills)
is given the job of driving around local gangster Jason
Locke (Sean Bean), who’s fresh from a five-year
stretch for armed robbery.
Jason’s an acid throwing, wife beating, coke snorting
mad dog scumbag who wants to set up in ‘business’
again. He gets in touch with former cellmate John Dyke
(Tom Wilkinson) to import drugs for him so he can make
a fortune in the clubs around Southend.
But when a consignment of Spotty Dog pills turns out to
be contaminated, everything starts to go pear-shaped.
"It quickly abandons its anthropological study
to concentrate on the extremely bog standard plot."
The trouble with the film is that it never knows what
it wants to be. It starts off as a guided tour through
the mock Tudor mansion lifestyle of the modern criminal,
almost like a British version of Goodfellas or Donnie
Brasco.
But unlike those films, it quickly abandons its anthropological
study to concentrate on the extremely bog standard plot.
Director Terry Winsor lacks the courage of his convictions
to make a film about real life, modern day gangsters and
the compromise we’re left with contains little that’s
unfamiliar.
It’s a shame, as this unfamiliar material (especially
the use of the Essex countryside) is the most interesting
thing in it.
Essex Boys is kept from being dragged under by the cast.
Sean Bean reprises his 'Hardest Man In Britain' act and
makes Jason a memorably unpleasant psycho, ably abetted
by Charlie Creed-Mills as the (comparatively) innocent
Billy.
Tom Wilkinson gives his usual excellent performance but
best of all is Alex Kingston as Jason’s long-suffering
wife, Lisa. She’s preoccupied with her sex life
and knows far more than she’s letting on; Alex Kingston
is still best known for her role as Elizabeth Corday in
ER but the hard-as-nails Lisa is a world away from the
civilised doctor.
The Essex girl steals it from right under the boy’s
noses. The whole film feels like an inflated TV movie
with added swearing. Indeed, it was financed by Granada
TV’s film division, so expect to see it on ITV shortly.
Despite the admirable intentions that the film has to
extend the boundaries of the British gangster film, it
degenerates into a rather dull, second rate mess that’s
periodically enlivened by the occasional bout of violence.
Fans of those true-life crime books like The Guv’nor
will lap it up. Everyone else is advised to stay well
clear.
Review by James Oliver |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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