Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

A Brilliant Conflict

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Ray is an ex-socialist who has become a bank-robber after seeing the demise of socialism in 1980s Britain.Teaming up with a gang of other working class criminals, he commits one bank job too many.The gang dissolves in a murderous flurry of recriminations....Birds movie does have flashes of genius, but it does feature too heavy on subliminal socialist propaganda, from the blink and you'll miss it graffiti, to the Ken Loach posters strewn over Rays home.Other than that, it's a solid smoke and mirrors crime movie, sadly shadowed by the slew of Ritchie-esque capers that followed for the next few years.Released near enough at the same time as The Full Monty, yearning to cash in on Carlyle, the film is a different beast altogether. It does have the family struggles that both movies feature, but Carlyle is the only thing that these two movies have in common.The cast are great, and the movie is wonderful right until the final act, when they decide to go all Hollywood with the police siege.With a brilliant soundtrack that epitomises the nineties, if you were not at a certain age at the time of it's release, Face could go well over your head, as just another Geezers in peril yarn.It's so much more intricate than that though.well worth seeing.

I for one am a great lover of London films, this movie has the same Filmer's (if i can call them that) as Love Honour and Obey.One of my old friends who is from the states, but lived over in the UK when we were at school recommended this to me. Dash is his name. I cant thank him enough, well anyway if you like these films, you have got to get hold of this one, why oh why is this not in the top 250 beats me, Also,how the hell have i missed this.well rant over, just watch it and enjoy, okay okay its a bit far-fetched in parts, but that makes the film. sound track is great as well. top notch

The basic plot is a familiar one: a group of hoodlum misfits who form a chaotic "band of brothers" with an unspoken code of gangster ethics. After following a marginally successful heist, the plot starts dissecting the relationships, and the code starts breaking down until the eventual conclusion. There are scenes of each key members' familial relationships, which helps round out the characters, and helps sets the stage for a father/daughter dynamic what starts the unravelling.Set within this fabric of a story is the main character Ray (played by Robert Carlyle), the leader of the gang. He has become disillusioned with his liberal mother's causes, and has gone to the criminal side, only to find that he is doomed to more disillusions of the path he has chosen. Why he has such faith in the social world of this criminal world is not explained, but it eventually becomes his hubris. As his world is crumbling around him, he seeks salvation by begging his girlfriend to start a new life with him, but she is fed up with his way of life, and doesn't see that they have any future together. She essentially says no.As everything spirals down around him, Ray has one last chance: a wistful hope of a rendevouz with his girlfriend. That scene is worth experiencing without my spoiling it.There are great performances everywhere. Ray Winston shows us the core of a seasoned gang soldier, and his hopes for his daughter's happiness and well-being. Philip Davis as Julian is the "loose canon" of the group (literally), and his scenes are very powerful...you just never know what he is capable of. The sweet innocence of Stevie, and Ray's affection for him, becomes a reflection of Ray's past, and is a constant reminder of the inner struggle within Ray.This is a very violent film, and that may turn people off, but the violence is not gratuitous.

From the very early scenes it is obvious that this is going to turn into a "blag gone wrong" movie.One smart criminal has recruited a "gang" of sub-normal associates. When he goes to pick up the driver we are confronted by a scene in which the drivers daughter turns up after an "all-nighter" with her policeman boyfriend. Policeman boyfriend !!!! Yeah, there's the standard father-daughter row, and from there it starts to go downhill rapidly. The dullest of the group is allotted the task of grabbing the "large" notes and proceeds to fail at this simple task, the absolute limit of 4 minutes in the target blows out through idiocy. And on and on and on .... every scene more unbelievable than the preceding one.Of course there's the obligatory "love-interest" .... the woman keeps bobbing up every ten minutes or so, nothing to do with the plot, nothing to do with anything except our mastermind's early life which is totally irrelevant. All she does is to divert from the rapidly unraveling thread of the film, but it does give you time to go and get a cup of coffee.Then the various shootouts start. Somehow the film maker got London confused with Dodge City. We have a street gunfight with the (unarmed) British police and a gunfight in a police station.Deary me. What a sad mish-mash of a movie. Unbelievable.