Vendetta (2014)

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

If you want a film full of violence and revenge, to get your adrenaline going, then this will fill the bill. It doesn't have the qualities to make it a great film, but it is not pretending to be that, just an entertaining action flick.However, it is a bad film in that it seems to have the message behind it that vigilantism is the solution to our current crime problems. In watching the film it dawns on you that the author is saying our current system is broken and out of control. So well and good, that is a good point to make, but in watching the short bundled with the DVD (The Snowman) it seems to be advocating vigilantism as the solution. Our system may be bad and need fixing, but this is not the way to go. It is hard to tell if the film itself is pro vigilantes, as it was left in the air ready for the sequel. However, I won't be watching it.

I have never gone through the effort of writing review and this is my first. However i am very passionate about films and Vendetta (2013) is generally an awful film! the quality of acting throughout is appalling. I usually quite like Danny Dyer and think he is actually very funny in his appearances on TV shows but there were many points in this film when the cheesiness and over the top dramatic scenes and the inability to act them led me to re-evaluate the possibility that the film was actually intended as a spoof comedy. many of the smaller parts were awfully portrayed. For example the part of Jimmy's friend that gets him a gun. His inability to make me believe anything he was trying to act was laughable. equally the special effects were truly dismal. the scene where jimmy breaks into the flat building and gets into a firefight with the drug dealers was unlike anything i have ever seen before; the gun shots were so cartoon like and didn't even slightly relate to the action on screen, again the acting was over the top and poor and the effects of the rounds hitting people and the room were so unrealistic i literally laughed and re-winded it and showed someone else. Although it is awful, this film is so awful that i couldn't stop watching it. Although i have arguably ripped this film apart, it is watchable and enjoyable for its comical value. However if you are intending to watch this film as an good quality action movie or anything other than a spoof then i would suggest watching something else instead.

Vendetta is a low budget revenge flick from writer-director Stephen Reynolds. I have no idea about Mr Reynolds politics but after watching this film I can safely say that this is wet dream if you are a supporter of UKIP, British National Party or the English Defence League. The ones where certain people will say, look this is what Britain is actually like and its because of the foreigners.Vendetta by the way does not have one sympathetic Asian or Black character. A black army personnel (played by the stunt co-ordinator) does turn up in the middle and immediately beats up some police officers.So a taxi driver stops to help out a lady being attacked and for his troubles gets arrested. The person he killed is the brother of a notorious gangster and gets no police protection and after he and his wife have been brutally killed the police or at a loss as to who the suspects could be.Its left to their son (Danny Dyer) a special black ops expert to exact revenge which he does in a manner of other pictures such as The Hitcher.Vincent Regan turns up as Danny Dyer's superior officer and I can only hope that after spewing such cringeworthy lines Mr Regan (a respected veteran actor) cleaned his mouth out with bleach and counted the cash he got for the role.This is a world where the police are inept, corrupt and go out of their way to protect the guilty and terrorise the innocent. Only Dyer is willing to stand up to the bad guys and he is not that great as he lets one of them get away with disastrous consequences.Dyer who has shown as in his recent stint in Eastenders that he can act is not someone who convinces me that he is a hard-man actor like Vinnie Jones. He is not even that muscular but he does his best with a limited script in this truly horrible film.

Any great movie begins with a good story. Vendetta has that. Next, it has to be believable. V gets a high score for that as well and I'm difficult to please. This movie embarrasses the anything goes culture of present day Britain and the gross ineffectiveness of modern-day policing to deal with violent crime. This story shows the vulnerability of ordinary people who are neither warned, trained or equipped to deal with violent confrontation. For those, like our anti-hero in this film, who are willing to deal with the bad guys on their level, the law labels him as a vigilante and puts more resources into apprehending him than are dedicated to dealing with the real criminals. The critics who pan a movie like this cannot see past the chocolate box image of their own comfortable lives and can't stomach any story that gets so uncomfortably close to what real life is like for the other 80%. There's some great dialogue in this movie that reflects much of the frustration with modern politics and laws that anger most decent law-abiding citizens. This is a hidden gem. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat.