The Rise of the Krays

source: The Rise of the Krays

Well I would like to personally rate this an 8 out of 10 stars. I have seen gangster movies such as Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Infernal Affairs, and a few others and I have to say that this one is high up on my re-watch list. What made it so special? Very rarely will you see a gangster film where it is based on realism of torture and beating up the victim. This is what real crimewaves have done in the past, and still do today, but back in the 50's there was more violence in dark rooms than there were threats through online and smartphone ransoms like today, threatening victims of mafia groups. So with this said, enjoy this movie if you like violent films such as Quentin Tarantino-based movies. If you're more of a drama or action person, I recommend another film. Enjoy!

Make no mistake, this is a must miss movie. The principals perform like school children, who are dressed up for Halloween, but who find themselves with no proper party to go to. It's a bit like Bugsy Malone, only without the music and characters and story and necessary pizazz to make the grade. Seriously it's shocking. The writer must have made some poor producer an offer he couldn't refuse. It's that bad. Raised voices, chain smoking, preening and a general lack of lighting and stage props, are over used, out of sequence and quite unnecessarily at points, to compensate for the lack of accurate character portrayal, making it look unauthentic, almost like the outtakes from a poorly financed music video. Stick with Legend, it's far and away the most watchable adaptation to date.

if you forget its a film about the Krays then it isn't bad, as a biopic of the twins growing up unfortunately it is terrible, acting wise anyway, stories not to tuff and it is to jumpy like the 90's kray film, as viewers we want to know things we didn't know about that period in time about the twins or how the events went down, i know we have to wait for the fall of the Krays for this, but personally i was disappointed in the movie. Cant wait for legend hopefully they don't jump around the time scene and stick certain points that are relevant for Kray fans, i don't understand why it classes itself as the "best British gangster movie" its OK but far from the best. Rise of the foot soldier is 80 times better personal opinion, and Legend will be even better than this!!

I can't believe this film is getting such low reviews, I think this and the Fall are cracking films. I have watched most of the Kray films and these are some of, if not the best. I enjoyed watching the Tom Hardy film, but I have to say I thought these were better. Both the actors who played the twins put in a great performance and through both films you got to know and feel for the characters, also the guy who played Dickie. I would highly recommend both of these films.

This is a good example of when the writer and director get together and try to be artsy. Most of the dialog isn't bad, and most of the acting is at least par. But man they have these scenes, slow mo, and in "space" that just sink this movie. It's like they were looking for 40 minutes of filler to extend this crap into some series instead of just telling the story. They weren't even montage worth scenes, it's like they watched pulp fiction and tried to implement it but failed full out. They took up such a large portion of this first part that it was almost unwatchable. The story of the Krays has so much potential, however you won't see that here! It's simply not scripted well enough to make the story of two kick ass twin brother gangsters good. With so much source material it's a sad statement that they couldn't get it right. You can not simply depict people as crazy by having slow mo space screens with them holding a gun. What ever this director was thinking when he shot this, or the write was thinking when they wrote it just makes my head hurt. This movie is exhibit A on what not to do when writing a movie.

Cotton and Leslie do a superb job depicting the charm and charisma of the Krays but if you were looking for a remake of all the other films on the Krays, then this movie is not for you. It centralises on the younger years of Krays as the "rise" part of the title hints and the whole plot revolves around the lesser known attributes of the pair such as Ronnie's mental illness and bisexuality. All other movies neglect to mention the various legitimate businesses and political influence the Krays possessed at the time and how they happened to come by them in favour of violence and bloodshed unlike this one. All in all a very enjoyable film.

Having watched both the Kemp brothers film and Tom Hardy's brilliant recent portrayal of the Twins I hadn't much hope for this film; and I was right to. Where to start?! Firstly, the actors bare no resemblance to the Krays in anyway (a fault of whoever cast them) but moreover the actors seemingly don't even attempt to impersonate their voices or mannerisms. Secondly, it's historically inaccurate to the point of hilarity. The relationship between the two brothers is all wrong- totally ignoring the fluctuation in power roles the two played throughout their lives. It makes no mention of both the brother's homosexuality apart from in passing, a major aspect of their lives, especially Ron's. The part where David Litvinoff is cut from ear to ear by Ron wasn't done by either of the Kray's in real life, although they did beat him up, it was another villain that inflicted the above on Litvinoff. How the creators of this film made the life story of two of the most notorious villains so boring I'll never know, that's an achievement in itself. To add insult to injury the financial backers of this film then have the temerity to leave 10/10 reviews on this site. Do yourself a favour and don't watch this, instead go out and buy John Pearson's "The Cult of Violence" if you actually want an insight into the Krays.

Tom Hardy plays Reggie and Ronnie Kray ? Hey let's make a tie in movie and release it straight to DVD . Don't worry about developing it because the other film will market this one so it's just a case of releasing our film first That's the impression I got and THE RISE OF THE KRAYS is painfully under-developed . As the other commentators have pointed out the titular characters are played by actors who bare little resemblance to the twins . Worse than that they're not good actors either . Simon Cotton is fairly dreadful as Ronnie and resembles a not very good actor playing an East End gangster . I suppose I should be charitable and say the cast and the rest of the production team were probably under heavy pressure with deadlines but even so the poor production values are a constant distraction I can understand what director Zackary Adler tries to do with some scenes and that is to express in a cinematic style the mental illness Ronnie Kray suffers from , but considering the subject matter is an expressionistic film featuring violent gangsters really the place for a study of schizophrenia ? Probably not . Again to be charitable at least the production team don't come out with the old clichés of "Any old ladies getting mugged and he twins wanted to know about it . They stuck to their own , we were safe in those days etc etc" . The Krays are portrayed as unpleasant characters but this is also an unpleasant badly film too

coming from someone from hackney, i can state the krays did a lot for charity, as well as kept the streets safe. they also took a lot of people off the streets and gave them homes and jobs. so to of clamed they spent 2.5 million on this is insulting. the guys cant act. everything looks fake, and its very out of touch on how they came across and behaved. they deserved a lot better than this mockery of a film. even rise of the foot soldier looked better than this, and he was just a common chav that every town has. i give it 0 out of 10 for insulting the brothers who cleaned up hackney when no one could before or after. even my nan used to say it was the only time you could ever walk the streets at night without worryed about getting robbed.