Release Date (UK) – 11 November 2009
Certificate (UK) – 18
Country – UK
Director – Daniel Barber
Runtime –103 mins
Starring – Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Charlie Creed-Miles

In this Michael Caine vehicle Caine returns to his glory gangster days but there’s no denying his age now as this film is a sort of cross between his recent portrayal of a crazed senior in Is Anybody There and his early gun toting days of Alfie and Get Carter. Caine plays elderly widower Harry who lives on a gang ridden estate. After his friend Len (David Bradley) confides he is scared of a gang of young thugs who are harrising him Len is found murdered in the subway the gang often occupies. As police investigation proves fruitless ex-Marine Harry takes the law into his own hands to get revenge on Len’s killers.

This thriller is filled with some horrific violent scenes and a conventional twisty plot but the scenes with Caine are sometimes excruciating slow as we watch him plod through his daily life. With bleak themes of urban street gangs, drug deals and murder the film is obviously trying to address modern British societal issues but at some points taking it slightly too far – at one point as police arrest gang members in a surprise move a full scale riot takes place in the estate and this rapid escalation of seemingly prepared fire bombs seems unlikely. There is also an undeveloped side plot concerning why police officer Frampton (Emily Mortimer) who is leading the investigation has chosen to take the case and her hinted relationship to the estate – this left me with a puzzled feeling that a huge section of the film may have been cut out at the last minute.

However apart from these flaws the film works quite well overall as a captivating and tension building thriller. The casting is great all round and although Caine is slow he’s certainly believable in character, if not altogether in action as although he is given a marine background to explain his gun skills it’s a little incredulous. It has been compared to Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, minus the car, but this is a much more violent film and I would definitely warn off the faint hearted from this one. The soundtrack is full of modern artists with the likes of Chase and Status and Ben Drew, AKA rapper Plan B also stars as a gang member (you may recognise him from recent Brit film Adulthood).

This film is definitely a better choice of cinema watching than the other British thriller/gangster film currently at the cinema, Dead Man Running,  (See our review here) as this is much better produced and scripted film, but it is much grimmer and the violent scenes may shock some people. Its out a week Friday so heres the trailer to whet your appetite