Directed by Julian Gilbey, 'Rise of the Footsoldier' tells the story of Carton Leach (played by Ricci Harnett) a football hooligan who 'progresses' from simple bouncer to respected crime boss.

Based on a true story (albeit with heavy artistic license) the viewer follows Leach's journey to the top of his dodgy trade - during which time we see torture, violent gangland killings and a whole host of shaky camera fight scenes.

Ricci Harnett is fairly good in the lead role, and the viewer is forced to empathise with him, as although he's a nasty piece of work, he's the only one with an ounce of respect. As a character, Leach is shown to evolve slightly and (unlike his peers) perhaps mellows out a bit towards the end.

The second part of the movie changes its focus to Pat Tate (ex-Eastender Craig Fairbrass) - a complete psycho who will do almost anything for a bit of cash. At one point Tate is shown cutting a mans face open with a pizza slicer - nice bloke eh? Fairbrass is quite good at these hardman roles, and has played a fair few of them in his time.

As brutal as the film is, I wasn't really shocked by anything which was portrayed - probably because I had seen it all before in other films. The movie doesn't shy away from showing stuff like the result of a shot-gun blast to the head at close range, and in combination with the pumping music which accompanies much of the fighting, you can tell that the directors intention is to glorify the violence.

The overall message is probably that it's not a good idea to get involved with underground dealings - but to be honest, there's no real message involved at all - and certainly no moral at the end of this one.

On the whole, Rise of the Footsoldier is an interesting film if you want an inside look into the lives of gangland bad boys - but if it's realism you're after, then this movie doesn't really deliver the goods - fights involving hundreds of machette wielding thugs on the London Underground with no police in sight? - come on.

A film that intends to shock more than anything else usually forgets to feature a well written story - and it's no different here. The only refreshing thing about this movie was the fact that it didn't feature Danny Dire - or at least I don't think it did!

Rise of the Footsoldier isn't a terrible film - I enjoyed certain bits of it, but it's definitely not the best either.

I would recommend staying away from this movie if you are easily offended - apart from the graphic violence, it's all 'c***' this and 'c***' that for the entirety of the 119 minute run-time.

The single disc edition of Rise of the Footsoldier costs £4.98 from Amazon.