The Rise (2012)

good back-story, and good acting

Admirable film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I gave this film a chance having read the 10 + positive reviews herein. However, I feel I wasted my time watching it. It reminded me of St Trinian's - the film about the 'mischievous school girls causing havoc''. Nil character building depth - I would go as far as to say that the building of the characters is nestled within the costuming, and the viewer is expected to believe that the characters are urban clever hipsters, with a hoodlum leader who happens to be a criminal mastermind. A rather dizzy & twirling background soundtrack seems to turn itself on every now & then, adding unnecessary noisy to the scripting. It was difficult to take the characters seriously and the plot was ridiculous. A film for teenagers huddled up for a sleep over with crunch sounding popcorn.

The Rise isn't bad, considering the low budget and actors most of us have never seen perform before. The plot is coherent and acting on par but casting was very poor. It's probably due to financial reasons but these people, lead included, just don't have the character and cinematic presence that we've gotten used to see in British movies. I have utmost respect for British TV and cinema production but bearing in mind the excellence of especially Korean, but also Chinese and even Indonesian or Filipino movies these days, The Rise just doesn't make the cut to invets one's 90 minutes in when one has so many brilliant TV shows and movies to choose from.

This film had been sat in my Netflix queue for ages and I kept putting off watching it and almost didn't watch it. I'm not really sure why, but I just had a feeling that the 4 leads would be unlikeable one dimensional chavs - I'll admit that I was being a bit presumptuous. All I can say is that I'm so glad that I was wrong.I'll admit that the first 15-20 minutes of the film did play out as I thought; the characters were annoying at first, the dialogue was a bit shaky, but once the plot kicks in the film seems to find a new gear and I found that the more I watched it, the more enjoyment I got from it.One thing I did like about this film is the depth and complexities of its characters - we have Dodd (Matthew Lewis) who seems very much grounded and fears change (not wanting to venture outside of his own town, never mind leave the country). We have Charlie (Gerard Kearns) who is an out of work welder with an alcoholic mother who I felt was more a victim of circumstance than anything else. Then we have the mastermind behind the 'revenge' plot Harvey (Treadaway) who finds himself in a difficult place when he has to try to balance his desire to get his vengeance against Roper (Neil Maskell) and his need to try and appease his old flame Nicola (Vanessa Kirby). Each character had their own identity and all the characters felt real and believable -they'll argue, they'll laugh and they ultimately show that can also work well as a team. I really felt when watching this that the 4 leads had been friends for a long time and you could also tell that they all really cared for each other (this in spite of some of the petty squabbles that they all had throughout the film).One other thing I thought about this film was how clever it was; the film starts out as a standard tale of revenge, but part of the group's revenge is to carry out a heist - I won't say anymore than that, but let's just say that this made the film both exciting and fun to watch. This is where the film really comes into its own as there are various twists and turns throughout the film that will keep you guessing right up till the end. As well as strong characterisation and a good script, The Rise also benefits from strong and believable performances. For me, Maskell gave the best performance as psychotic drug pusher Steven Roper. Maskell has a naturally menacing look and coupled with his solid acting this made him a particularly effective villain. All the other performances were fine, but Maskell was the one that stood out for me.The Rise is a really good film and I wish that I hadn't left it in my Netflix queue for so long. The characters are believable, the acting was good, the script was excellent and very clever. If you're a fan of revenge films or heist films then you'll like this film. If revenge and heist films are your 2 favourite genres, then you may just have found your perfect film.

'Wasteland' is a British gangster flick - usually the kind of film I avoid like the plague, but to my surprise I really enjoyed the story of four lads who decide to gain revenge on the local hard nut who sent one of them to prison: the characters are likable, there's a feel-good ending, there are some nice twists to the plot (although I never did work out what was the point of the crossbow) and, unlike most British gangster flicks, it has neither Ken Stott, Danny Dyer nor Jamie Forman in it - definitely a plus! Gerard Kearns (a 'Shameless' escapee) plays one of the lads; acting honours go to Timothy Spall as a world-weary police detective with a heart of gold.