The Rise of the Krays (2015)

Really Surprised!

Powerful

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Horrendous! What a mess. Coming from the makers of the foot soldiers too?? Can't really say anything more!!

Make no mistake, this is a must miss movie. The principals perform like school children, who are dressed up for Halloween, but who find themselves with no proper party to go to. It's a bit like Bugsy Malone, only without the music and characters and story and necessary pizazz to make the grade. Seriously it's shocking. The writer must have made some poor producer an offer he couldn't refuse. It's that bad. Raised voices, chain smoking, preening and a general lack of lighting and stage props, are over used, out of sequence and quite unnecessarily at points, to compensate for the lack of accurate character portrayal, making it look unauthentic, almost like the outtakes from a poorly financed music video. Stick with Legend, it's far and away the most watchable adaptation to date.

Having watched both the Kemp brothers film and Tom Hardy's brilliant recent portrayal of the Twins I hadn't much hope for this film; and I was right to. Where to start?! Firstly, the actors bare no resemblance to the Krays in anyway (a fault of whoever cast them) but moreover the actors seemingly don't even attempt to impersonate their voices or mannerisms. Secondly, it's historically inaccurate to the point of hilarity. The relationship between the two brothers is all wrong- totally ignoring the fluctuation in power roles the two played throughout their lives. It makes no mention of both the brother's homosexuality apart from in passing, a major aspect of their lives, especially Ron's. The part where David Litvinoff is cut from ear to ear by Ron wasn't done by either of the Kray's in real life, although they did beat him up, it was another villain that inflicted the above on Litvinoff. How the creators of this film made the life story of two of the most notorious villains so boring I'll never know, that's an achievement in itself. To add insult to injury the financial backers of this film then have the temerity to leave 10/10 reviews on this site.Do yourself a favour and don't watch this, instead go out and buy John Pearson's "The Cult of Violence" if you actually want an insight into the Krays.

I have always been interested in the Krays. I have read most of the books about them and I also enjoyed the 1990 film with the Kemp brothers, which was flawed and left a great deal of things out, but became a cult film. The Rise Of The Krays, however, makes the Kemp film look like a masterpiece in comparison. I only watched it for half an hour and I thought it was absolute rubbish. It featured violence just for the sake of it, no coherent plot, was obviously made on a shoestring and featured no actors that I had actually heard of before. To make matters even worse, the two actors playing the Krays didn't look like them at all! The comment on the cover of the DVD states that this is, apparently, "The Best British Gangster Film Ever", which is complete rubbish. This is, without doubt, the worst film I have seen for a long time and anyone who knows anything about the Krays' story would soon spot glaring mistakes. It is a blatant rip-off of the 1990 film and an obvious cash-in on the new Legend film starring Tom Hardy as the twins. He looks more like the Krays than the two jokers in this film. Honestly, just don't waste your time or money on this rubbish. If you want to know more about the Krays, then I suggest you read one of the books about them, which are infinitely more accurate and tell a fuller picture than this film. You will thank me for it, trust me. Even the 1990 film is better than this.