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Rise of the Foot Soldier (2007)

Director: Julian Gilbey

Time Out rating

Average user rating

171 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

A repugnant gangland romp in which a group of Neanderthalic, perpetually gurning ruffians get tooled up with axe handles, baseball bats and Stanley knives then knock ten bells out of each other for just shy of two hours. Based on a true story, the ‘Rise’ of the title refers to the ‘meteoric’ ascent of mockney street tough, Carlton Leach (Ricci Harnett), from middle-rung football hooligan to, er, club doorman. Leach is then unceremoniously swept aside as the film hastily attempts to give the Rettendon Range Rover murders a once-over in its scrappy second half. There is fun to be had deconstructing writer-director Julian Gilbey’s laughable join-the-dots yob patois, as every sentence seems to start with an, ‘I’m gonna fackin’…’ or ‘You fackin’…’ or, on occasion, ‘So then I only went an’ fackin’…’, typically concluded with a mandatory ‘caaaant!’ The direction, too, smacks of sadism, especially the obvious glee Gilbey gets from filming violent scenes in close-up and, in the case of the bloody shotgun-to-the-face denouement, in triplicate.

Author: David Jenkins 2007-09-04 11:29:32

Time Out London Issue 1933: September 5-11 2007

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User reviews of this film

tony said...

Posted on Jul 04 2009 10:47 this film is the best film ive ever seen,the acting was great along with the truth of it all.there was no beeting about the bush what you see in the film is what you get.it was facking amazing,seen the film 4 times up to press and ive noticed different things each time.what a story

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Tim G said...

Posted on Jul 03 2009 11:30 The film was brilliant as especially as far as UK movie go. Not being funny or anything but why bother to leave a negative comment for the film and try and put it down when you can clearly see it has an average user rating of 5 stars, meaning that at least 95% of the comments so far have to be good, its like you guys who leave the neg comments are just attention seeking and have nothing better to do than try and annoy people, jesus go and get a job, oh sorry you probably do work, just at 24 hour Tescos 9pm till 6am stacking the furit and veg late night so noone can see you and your geeky looking selves.

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Jay said...

Posted on Jul 03 2009 05:23 If this quote is your idea of an indepth movie review: "this is one of the best f----g movies ive ever seen, f--k the ones who have been putting the film down its f----g great, f--k them other c---s",
...then you may actually enjoy this movie.
For the rest of us? Only bit of interest was the boobs. The movie is, in the end, pretty tiresome, which is amazing for something with so much blood and violence and nudity. If you are looking for any kind of story, plotting, or character development, look elsewhere.
Some of the acting is solid, but incredibly one note. No-one really has any range other than violent or tired of violence, and the main character scowls his way through most of it. Even the interesting sideline characters get little to do other than react. It pummels you into numbness with the violence, which hurts the film because by the end you don't care about the "big" triple murder, except wanting to get it over with -- not just cause they deserve it, but also because you want it to end.
The minor attempt to present murder theories is pretty half hearted stuff, and weirder is how the film totally drops the main character. He goes from focal point of the movie to guy at home waiting for a phone call for the last 45 minutes.
If you must watch it, fast forward for the tits, and insert your own dialog using quotes form all the comments here.

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GRAY said...

Posted on May 06 2009 20:43 THIS WAS AN AWESOME FILM,NOT FOR THE FEINT HEARTED WALLIES OUT THERE,THE NEG REVIEWS ARE FROM PEOPLE WHO COULDNT HANDLE THE REALLISM OF THE FILM,STICK TO WATCHING SOAPS U MUGS.
LOVED THE FILM,LIKE I DO ALL DECENT FILMS,6 OUTTA 6 FOR ME

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Dylan D said...

Posted on Apr 16 2009 09:06 5 WORD REVIEW: FACKING AMAZING FILM YOU CUANT.
(6 Stars for sure)
On another note Mr David Jenkins should not really be allowed to review films for time out.
Take a look at the AVERAGE USER RATING which is 5/6 Stars and then Mr Jenkins rating 1/6 stars.
This just goes to show that film critic and reviewers really do ONLY speak for themselves and ONLY watch the film from one angle THERES.
Surly a critic should be of equal mind that he should speak for what he believes is the MAJORITY, in this case CLEARLY sadly not.
THIS FILM WAS SOME WHAT GENIUS AND BRILLIANT, AND ON A WHOLE NEW LEVEL COMPARED TO OTHER BRIT MOVIES AND INFACT MOVIES WORLDWIDE FULL STOP.

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zippy said...

Posted on Apr 16 2009 08:57 That was without a shadow, THE BEST BRITISH GANGSTER MOVIE EVER, and its nice to see that the MAJORITY of these comments agree, for those who are leaving the negative feedback, THAT WAS REAL LIFE, not some made up made for movie rubbish like the rest of the ridiculous crap we call BRIT MOVIES. This shit really happened people like you guys are so damn stupid and have no idea of how life is for some people. For most this is an eye opener for what really goes on out there, for others it was a great movie and for the negatives go sit with your microwave popcorn and go and watch TITANIC FOR THE BILLIONTH TIME.

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mark said...

Posted on Apr 16 2009 04:33 This was just mindless violence. The film had little plot and events in time were only marked by bloodshed. I am unsure what the film was portraying. The life of Carlton Leach. If so; then he was one of the most insignicant and uniteresting football hooligan come nightclub bouncer/manger come standover men come semi-quasi organised crime bosses in history. He was just plain boring in the end. If the film was to showcase Brit gangster movement in Essex in the 1990's then it fell well short of substance and content in both a directing and acting sense. It was truely a woeful movie with very little going for it. The sad indictment on the film is that it truely could have been a really good movie if done properly. Unfortunately all that was left to do was clean the back of the tv set out from all the blood; guts and extreme course language that tried to hide the films obvious short comings

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Alex said...

Posted on Apr 06 2009 17:59 Just a very very bad film. If you like Saw then you'll probably like this. But then you probably also like torturing small cats. You freak.

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Joe said...

Posted on Apr 03 2009 00:16 This is the BEST brit gangster movie i have ever seen. No other movie comes even close.

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david said...

Posted on Mar 29 2009 03:05 Great film, I can't believe the timeout review...just look at the average user review compared to critic review. Maybe this film does polarise opinion but me and all my mates love it. To find the film uncomfortable watching is ok, but don't call it a bad film. It is so much more involving that half of the dross released these days.

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THE REAL BRENDAN CARR said...

Posted on Feb 16 2009 19:40 Well i just came across all these comments on this review online after doing a google search for reviews of my new movie Ten Dead Men, and seems that someone has been posting under my name, obviously somone with a grudge and looks like its the same person with the grudge is also writing bad things about me, hmmmm talking to themselves it seems.
Well i did appear as jason in rise of the footsoldier so to leave a review on this site about the film would seem a little wrong.
But please guys GET A LIFE, as with the 100s of reviews on my new movie i havnt left any comments and there are some bad reviews but mostly good i am pleased to say, Stop writing using my name and please can you make sure that you keep the GOLDEN GRAHAMS at tescos in stock when i go shopping, im just assuming your a shelf stacker as you have nothing better to do than pretend to me, and i love golden grahams.
TEN DEAD MEN RELEASED IN UK MAY 4TH and is up for BEST ACTION MOVIE IN THE END OF PEIR FILM FESTIVAL.

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marcus said...

Posted on Jan 22 2009 22:17 Nice one now that was good. love ya west ham

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jason young said...

Posted on Jan 11 2009 04:24 10 / 10 best brit gangster film ever

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nebzz said...

Posted on Nov 11 2008 11:33 bad man fril boop

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Jakub said...

Posted on Oct 11 2008 06:16 Best fuckin movie ever. I cannot put it in any better words that would relate to how I feel. Everything about this movie moves me. When I see the start and hear the dong sound when they show the bodies i literally get goosebumps even my 20th time watching it. Deffinately one of the most underrated directors in movie business, if I met Julian Gilbey in real life I would shake his hand hard in the utmost respect.

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