St George's Day (2012)

Very well executed

Sadly Over-hyped

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Really solid British gangster film with strong performance for actors that we don't see much of in America. The story has plenty of interesting twists and seem to me to be fairly original. It's not a criticism, but you have to be on your toes to understand a lot of the dialog, because most of the British accents are very heavy and the talking is fast. I don't have anything really bad to say about this movie, and the only reason I'm not rating it higher is because I don't think that there was one single sympathetic character in the entire film--you couldn't care less if any of these unseemly characters met an untimely end. Every single character in this film is somebody that I would intensely dislike and absolutely want to be miles away from in real life. Still, an interesting film, just nobody to root for at all.

You probably know Frank Harper from pretty much every British gangster film (he was 'Dog' in Lock Stock). Now, he's taken to writing and directing one of his own. St George's Day tells the story of two London gangsters who lose a shipment of drugs that belong to the Russian Mafia and have to pull off a heist to get the money to pay it back.Yes, it's hardly an inspired plot, but, when you watch it, you'll soon realise that that's the least of its problems. Frank Harper narrates pretty much the whole way through, giving his 'patriotic' thoughts and opinions on the story, plus introducing every character along the way. And there are many. Every other scene has a new gangster who gets his own intro from Frank, most of which are hardly seen again in the film.Unfortunately, St George's Day utilises every cliché in the book. Every line sounds like someone doing a bad impression of what they think a cockney would say. After a while, you start to wonder how quite a talented bunch of actors were ever roped into this film to begin with. I say 'talented actors' as most of them are. However, this doesn't apply to former Page 3 girl turned 'actress' Keeley Hazell. She is truly wooden beyond belief.St George's Day brings nothing new to the genre of gangster films. It's clichéd, boring, overly-long and just bad. One to avoid. Stick with Lock Stock and Snatch.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

where do i start!this is quite possibly the corniest film i have ever dare laid my eyes on,the whole film lacks imagination and its just not gritty enough to be a gangster film,the Narrating of the film is what go too me!blah blah blah blah,i can recommend this film to anyone who has trouble sleeping its far better than any sleeping tablet this will numb the mind beyond repair,so to sum up what i think......POOR POOR POORdon't watch it. don't buy it. don't do anything with it except leave it on the shelf,poor acting from all concerned

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningMicky Mannock (Frank Harper) has been talked into doing a cocaine deal with some Russian mobsters, while his cousin Ray Collishaw (Craig Fairbrass) is trying to go straight, and particularly doesn't want to work with said Russians. But he gets talked in anyway, and then the sh!t really hits the fan when the drugs are lost in high seas. The already fragile alliance he had with the Russians is now in tatters, and they end up at war, while to solve the problem co conspirator Albert Ball (Vincent Regan) suggests a diamond smuggling from Amsterdam, whilst other factions of their group get involved in a big football ruckus in Germany- on St. George's Day.Over the last decade or so, the British Film Industry has created a sort of cult following of these crime/gangster films. One of the more familiar faces to have become known among them is big cockney lad Frank Harper, and with this he marks his directorial debut. It's clear he was working with a very low budget, surprising given the all star cast list on offer here, but with no A list names on board (the closest to big time seemingly Charles Dance in a supporting role), it feels more like a collaboration between mates rather than an all star, sweeping epic. And you only have to watch it to feel this more so.I must admit I haven't done my best job with the plot summary, but it all just feels so convoluted and disjointed that it was the best I could do. It ends up coming off as a boring, uninteresting gangster story, with all the usual clichés of the genre thrown in without thought and without even any decent violence to satisfy the more immoral of the audience, or even justify the 18 certificate. After all this, as it draws to a close, the film has the nerve to become self indulgent, dragging on well over the hour and a half mark.Mr. Harper may have a presence that makes him a favourite of Nick Love and the like, but from this evidence it's clear directing really isn't his forte. *