Castor (Alex Mills) is orphaned when gangsters murdered his parents, but sentimental assassin Milo Novak (Ian Reddington) spares his life. Ten years later, once Castor has reached adulthood, the two are reunited when Castor steals from one of Milo's men to survive. Milo sees a budding gangster in Castor, who has resorted to violence to sustain himself in his mostly homeless existence. Milo subsequently procures a job for Castor as an enforcer. Since Castor is happy to repay Milo for saving his life, he finds himself increasingly uncomfortable with the cold, emotionless existence of a criminal. After screwing up his job, Milo then sends Castor to his friend Jean-Baptiste Philippe (Steve Guttenberg) to help him out with giving him a job which Baptiste does only involving Castor to even more of the underworld. Castor must make a choice between living the violent, empty life of a gangster or to pursue his lifelong dream of having his own family.
Others to round out the cast are Adam Deacon as Remo, right-hand man of Baptiste, Isabelle Hernandez as Maria Leon, Milo's wife, Mike Mousicos as Mario Leon, Maria's father, Jamie Crew as Damien Tarver, Vas Blackwood as Bobby Bravo and Daniel Caltagirone as Campbell.
This was directed with grit and soberness by Savvas D. Michael ("Smoking Guns" '16, "Red Devil" '19, "Righteous Villains" '20). Certainly this film doesn't stretch too far out of his comfort zone, however he does what he does best, I can definitely respect him for that. The film is gritty, bloody and violent--all attributes one would expect being the film it is, and he surely creates the tone in which the film involves. It was also written by Michael (same as resume above). This is where the story gets a bit bogged down. First of all, it moved a bit too slow whereas it could have been cut about ten minutes and still get the essence of the story. Secondly, there were a couple of inconsistencies, albeit not too obvious, however still there which created a bit of confusion. After about half way through the movie, it started to pick up and then became the film Michael was attempting to convey. The only American in this was Guttenberg, which portrayed a congenial, yet deadly adversary. It is definitely a Britain film, replete with the dialects, locales and culture. If you like the work of this filmmaker, his "The Bezonians" which he wrote and directed is in post-production.
If crime films, and more to the point, U.K. crime films are to your liking, you will enjoy this movie. It's not the best U.K. crime film produced, however it does have something for all who enjoy this genre: crime, violence, retaliation, revenge and redemption, with enough four-letter-words for any young 18-24 year-old single male to get into. Again, like the previous film, this was released on 12-1-20, whereas it didn't make it to theaters due to the pandemic, so I purchased it to view so as to critique it for you.
Out of 4 Stars: 2.5 Rated: Not Rated 110mins.
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