Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance (2023)

United Kingdom

Action, Drama, Thriller

Carnaby International, Signature Films

Craig Fairbrass, Phil Davis, Geoff Bell, Jamie Foreman, Stephen McCole, Anthony Skordi

Nick Nevern

Andrew Loveday, Jason Maza

Taglines: Vengeance will rise.

revenge, crime epic, british cinema, vengeance, revenge thriller

Pat Tate embarks on a rampage to avenge his loyal and trusted footsoldier's violent death, venturing beyond his comfort zone of Essex into the dark side of 90s Soho to track down the villain responsible. Set to execute his revenge, Tate will stop at nothing even as the world around him starts to explode.

Reviews:

Author: Geronimo1967
So "Tate" (Craig Fairbrass) and his buddy "Kenny" (Josh Myers) are holding up a security van when things go a bit awry and the latter man ends up shooting one of the guards. They get away ok, only to discover that there is a distinct paucity of cash in the box they pinched. Furious, they fall out and "Kenny" heads into Soho where he meets his pal "Billy" (Ben Wilson) who does a turn as a drag act in the "Freedom Club". Turns out these two rather amateur villains are planning to make some large ones dealing cocaine and a meeting is set up with an unscrupulous dealer who decides to have his cake and eat it... It now falls to "Tate" to find out who did what to whom in as bloody and violent a fashion as possible and seek his revenge on the culprits. This picks up on some of the characters from the last outing for Fairbrass and Phil Davis's stereotypical and underwhelming gangster "Hexell" but is so clearly just an episode in what Nick Nevern wants to be a continuing series of these episodic and all-too-predictable dramas. Thing is with these stories, we don't get any depth to, or investment in, the characters and so I really couldn't care less about who was chasing who, nor did I really see the need for the undercooked "queer" storyline that was there, but for no apparent purpose. The production is way, way, better than the "Origins" (2021) effort with the direction and photography coupled with the dark London scenarios and a decent soundtrack going some way to creating a sense of menace. It's just the storytelling that's pretty weak and feeble and the acting little better.