Very well executed

Truly Dreadful Film

To me, this movie is perfection.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film steps out of nowhere and throws its weight around to such an extent you'd think the budget was several $''000,000's greater. Confident direction and cinematography that is fantastically arresting combined a smart edit and well planned sound design, score and soundtrack - the sort of thing new directors often overlook. The performances show actors who really turned up every day ready to work and be worked - nobody coasts through this. Steve Mackintosh captures the boastful and irritatingly mouthy Jasper's descent into friendless paranoia really well with an expression that reads as if he can't for the life of him remember who he might have upset recently. Bernard Hill mows down all before him, riding roughshod over any suspicions or hunches his cop partner, played by Holly Aird may have and giving explosively short shrift to a forensic scientist played by Eddie Izzard.

For a first movie by the young director one can only say "great" even if he were an old hand it would still be a great thriller and one that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I loved the camera work and the ideas in telling the story. Gritty with some fine acting, a very British movie without all the usual gloss and fancy fashions! Highly recommended.

'The Criminal' is an overlooked gem that I hadn't heard of prior to it showing up on cable. It captures classic noir in a modern framework with all the appropriate darkness and unsympathetic characters. The British have a knack for such crime drama, and I cringed throughout imagining what the Hollywood version would be like. (I'm surprised filming hasn't already begun.) The cast is brilliant from the top to the bottom of the credits, and the lead, Steven Mackintosh, is particularly outstanding as the trapped innocent attempting to piece together what he's fallen into. When it comes time to pull together the plot elements, writer/director Simpson makes a long stretch and comes up with something outrageous and a bit too easy, and some of the concluding twists feel somewhat contrived, but by this time, it really doesn't matter. The film's fast pace, great acting, and dark cinematography have already succeeded in making it a thoroughly entertaining noir.

"The Criminal" is a noirish Brit crime flick which tells of a man (Mackintosh) who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and finds himself as a murder suspect on the run from the police and a bunch of super secret underground heavies. A busy flick with little to offer save a bunch of running around, "The Criminal" suffers from low budgetness, a thin plot, lots of filler, and an awful ending. An okay time waster for the couch potato who can't find anything better. (+D)