Hard Men (1996)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Here's an OK film with some good scenes, but an atrocious story. Everything you need to know is established in 15 minutes and when they step back from it to create the gangsters they end up too wooden and sentimental to be believable. Pockets of imagination are squashed with regularity. Other brit gangster films are much better! Frankie Fraser, a real gangster, is included to give the film some authenticity, but he only succeeds in hamming up the scenes he appears in. The protoganist gets a call during a hold up that involves listening to his new born daughter gurgle at him. Cue a confirmed ex-gangster trying to then break free from the shackles of crime. Frankie Fraser says the son I never had; humour among thieves nonsense and his two partners after displaying strong affections for each other gladly accept to do the hit on him... only he susses and here's the only twist worth mentioning. It even ends with redemption too. Everyone dies except him and he's goes to costs del crime and becomes a free man. Phew!

Badly dressed, rubbish brit gangster flick. There is a loopy young buck with different coloured specs to show what mood he is in. Ross "Pretty boy" Boatman is the big name in this, the film is bad. Its before he found hid true calling as a big money poker player. UNDERWORLD AUTHENTICITY is added by Mad Frankie Frazer, a good honest villain. I can't be bothered with the plot, i hate this film. I wanted to watch men in black but my mates got this instead. Watch this film and then watch Rancid Aluminium, you will be amazed.

Back in the Fifties, many a movie seemed to require one or other of its characters to say: 'hey, let's put on a show!'. In what may have passed for the gestation of this film, someone, perhaps the writer / director, said: 'Hey, let's make a movie!' The result now is much the same as the result way back then, except that in those Fifties disasters the people on each side of the camera had a reasonable idea of what they were doing. No such luck here: if I'd had to sit through this as a graduation piece from young film makers, the most charitable verdict would've been that 'Hard Men' is to movie making what Jeffrey Archer is to English Literature. In other words, no connection.The movie doesn't so much take to the screen as set up house in a cliche -- guns, shouting, more guns, more shouting, bad language, guns, bad language, guns. As reportage it's dismal. As fiction it's unsustainable. The acting is of a standard to make one wish to hand out Oscars to those responsible for 'Night of the Lepus' ('Attack of The Killer Rabbits') and the direction as consistent as a weathervane in a hurricane. But that ol' Fifties magic lingers on, for a third of the way through the director finally loses the plot altogether and it's time for 'hey, let's put on a show!' -- whereupon one or other of the mass murderers turns to the camera and sings about his newborn baby.Come back, Ed Wood. All is forgiven.Rating: unrateable.

One of the reviewers on the Imdb page was right...you will either love this film or hate it. I loved it.J K Amalou's directorial debut is a very underrated piece of filmmaking. He pays homage to various similar films of the same genre, and delivers a thought provoking, funny and dark film that, for me, gives hope to the future of British cinema. The main character is Tone, who wants to leave "the life" for domestic tranquility after 15 years of cracking heads and busting jaws for Pops Den, the underworld boss who is "past it". Along for the ride are his two colleagues and friends, Bear and Speed (the latter brilliantly played by the versatile Lee Ross).Of course, the powers that be decide that Tone should be killed, and it's up to Bear and Speed to do it. As proof, Pops Den wants Tone's severed hand on his desk by 9am the following morning. And so, we are taken on a whirlwind of a night through East London with the boys struggling against their moral consciences, while Tone looks forward to a life with his girlfriend and new baby.There are pieces of genius in this movie. There is a memorable scene in a brothel where a disillusioned twenty year old prostitute tells her life story with violent consequences, and one can't help but be touched when, in front of his macho colleagues, Tone sings a gentle lullaby to his baby daughter over his mobile phone.All in all, Hard Men was overlooked and ignored by the British filmgoing public. This is a shame because, while not in the same class as The Long Good Friday, it definitely gives the likes of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels a good run for its money.