The Guvnors (2014)

We start with gang leader "Adam" (Harley Sylvester) proving who's the boss to the neighbours. A brutal and violent man, he then proceeds to visit a boozer that used to be the haunt of the legendary "Guvnors" where he comes off slightly worse at the hands of the elderly " Mickey" (David Essex). Humiliated, he exacts his revenge and soon the two gangs are heading for a rumble with his newly invigorated opponents led by "Mitch" (Doug Allen). Now had this just stayed on the path of a nasty, vicious, tale of gangland power-struggling, then it might just have been passable. It doesn't! It introduces some frankly ridiculous familial sub-plots and delivers these and the overall narrative via some pretty static dialogue and some even worse acting performances. Sylvester just has no menace to him at all, whatever the expletives are that emanative from his scarred face. Maybe I just recall him too much as the quiet one from "Rizzle Kicks" a bit here, but he is just unremarkable. No more so, it has to be said, than the equally unconvincing "Mitch" whose character reminded me of someone from "Green Street" (2005). It can't have had much of a budget, and the production and editing look the product of basic, single-camera, assemble direction that seems determined to shock us into appreciation rather than engage us with any of these, frankly rather odious, individuals. Maybe it is indicative of aspects of East London life, but presented this way I couldn't honestly say I cared about any of them up to and after it's "West Side Story" style denouement.

Nov 27, 2022