Strong and Moving!

I wanted to but couldn't!

good film but with many flaws

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The Veteran sits as an enjoyable watch, this British film boasts some pretty realistic action but the plot suffers greatly. The film follows a British soldier coming home from Afghanistan only to be tangled up in a conspiracy between government officials and street gangs. While the premise sounds promising, the plot relies too heavily on clichés from other films that, quite frankly, have done it better and more coherently in the past. The type of film has been played out in films ranging from The Bourne Supremacy and Shooter but what The Veteran does feature are some pretty intense and brutal action sequences that feature more than enough entertainment to keep the film going. The film is also really dark and brooding, it has a really great atmosphere to it but, as I said before, the plot clearly doesn't match up to the technical side of the film so it feels a bit lop-sided. One of my biggest complaints was the ending, and to spare the spoilers, all I will say is that you will feel a bit cheated by the lack of originality behind it. Furthermore considering that the script for this film is flat and features some poor plot devices and the occasional witty line, the cast does very well. Brian Cox feels criminally underused but that's really my only complaint as far as the cast is concerned. Writer-director Matthew Hope does know how to direct an action sequence but as far as adding some depth to his characters, he is severely lacking. At times we get glimpses of some genius muddled in between scenes that just don't work and it grows increasingly frustrating throughout the film. Overall, The Veteran offers up some amusing action sequences and an occasional bit of witty dialog but overall feels like a cliché-ridden missed opportunity.

A soldier returns to The World only to be promptly recruited by some shoddy spy outfit to keep tabs on a terrorist, while gang-bang scum on his housing estate hustle to be the main story.And that's what's wrong with this: it's neither thriller nor drama, as we follow the superb lead follow people around and check in on his neighbour, while not a lot really happens (yet my attention was, bizarrely given that fact, firmly held).By the time the ending rolls around, I was a touch confused that I'd missed something, so luckily one off the characters gave a Bond-villain-esque speech to clue me in, which was tantamount to the writers saying, "We didn't make it clear via clues what's been going on, so let us explain..." The realism then goes out of the window as the film turns into Deathwish 3, for a predictable ending that only serves to leave a bad taste in one's mouth.If you like British independent films, you could watch worse, but due to aimless plotting, you could certainly see better too.

If you are bored, you might enjoy this. The story line is all over the place. It is never established of what he did or how it really played into the plot line. He is a veteran but it lacks information about what he did. The characters didn't really connect and the ending shoot out was (I think) as merely shock value or some commentary on the War on Terror. The the movie tried too hard to show this and it failed. It left an open ending which didn't really give any suspense and was a lackluster effort to show what the ongoing conflict is really about. Perhaps the focus should have stayed with a local situation as opposed to leaning towards a boarder appeal. It might have lead the viewer to establish more empathy about each character but it's impossible do so when the characters drop suddenly from the move.

A soldier returns from serving in Afghanistan to a $hithole tower block estate, looking for a job, doesn't find one, but gets recruited by the 'intelligence service'....why? Because hes an ex para?Really stupid plot. Very unrealistic. The main actor has one expression throughout the entire film, no charisma what so ever. This is the guy that played the retard brother in Dead Mans Shoes.The gang is pathetic. There's a shoot-out at the end with no sign of police ever showing up.The whole film has the same mundane, going nowhere pace to it.The main character likes to punch his wall and spit at the mirror....I was really bored throughout. I didn't care about any of the characters or what was happening because the director doesn't make us feel anything.The ending was pitiful.Give this one a wide birth.