Why are there no jokes about Essex Boys? Because they are as hard as f*****g nails, thats why! (Essex Boys (DVD))

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	Essex Boys (DVD)
Date:	09/04/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gripping, gritty and uncompromising

Disadvantages: Overly complicated in places and very very nasty as well at times

Essex Boys is a fictional movie based around the true-life story of the bodies of three drug dealers found shot to death in a Landrover parked in a field in Rettenden, Essex. Taking great liberty with the facts and constructing a new story, the film depicts the real gritty lifestyle of small-time drug dealers trying to make it big in a small county fraught with competition. Starring a cast of well-known British names including Sean Bean and Larry Lamb (recently seen in Eastenders and before that as the dad in Gavin And Stacey), it is a tense, uncomprising look at a seedy under-belly that lurks just beneath our society...

Billy Reynolds is a mini-cab driver whio has done some driving for local gangsters on occassion. Asked to drive around ex-con Jason Locke (Sean Bean), he soon earns the nickname Billy Whiz for his skill as a driver and his quick thinking when pursued by Police. One of the first scenes features a recently-released Sean Bean tossing acid in the face of a grass who nailed him and lead to his imprisonment and the film doesn't get much less violent from there. All of the cast, including Alex Kingston as Sean Bean's wife, are equally as chilling and cold as each other and it is hard to feel any sympathy for any of the characters including Billy as he finds himself getting drawn further and further in despite his reluctance. Mixing with the low-life's who think they are celebrity leads him ever closer to a dark and dangerous ending until he reaches a point from where there is no escape. And yet escape he does, for it is his narration that guides us through the course of this often-overly-long two hour movie.

As British crime movies go there are better and bigger budget numbers but this isn't bad as far as British movies go. It never fails to pull any punches and is quite hard-hittting at times but the plot often races all over the place and it can get a tad hard to follow with all the back-stabbing and betrayal that occurs...

Still if it comes on the telly late at night, as it did last night on ITV4, it's worth giving a watch as, if you haven't seen it, it's not bad a film to pass some time- I just wouldn't go out of my way to watch it and don't think I would watch it again.

Summary: A young guy, employed as a driver, gets over his head and mixed in with a very bad crowd!