The Veteran

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.

This movie was very good... but after a while in to the movie I noticed it was going way to slow, though still good enough for me to enjoy. Then when the ending came..I was furious...WHY the heck do all these low budget movies have to have these type of endings where the guy doesn't get the girl, or the main character dies??????? I don't get understand this trash writing!!!!! This is not entertaining, We want to see the cliché, we want to see the happy ending in a sense. What worth is it to have the main character that you come to love get killed and an ending to a story that leaves no justice with the bad guy winning??????? Wow Mathew Hope You are a Moron. And all director / writers like you are too. I can not believe you get funding for garbage movies like this. You disappointing talentless losers. DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!! I WARN YOU the main actor is great, to bad the writers/ director sucks at doing there job.

Do not listen to the good reviews. They must be fabricated. I normally don't take the time to write something but I am SO pi-ssed me about how bad this movie ended that I have to warn everybody. Please watch it and you will see... and then post how disappointed you were. We must stop the fraudulent reviews! Your review does not contain enough lines - the minimum length for reviews is 10 lines of text. Please see the guidelines. Attempts to pad the comment with junk words can result in your account being blocked from future submissions. Your review does not contain enough lines - the minimum length for reviews is 10 lines of text. Please see the guidelines. Attempts to pad the comment with junk words can result in your account being blocked from future submissions.

Watched this film today and thoroughly enjoyed it. The camera scenes have been thought through for maximum effect. The feel of the whole film is gritty and fast moving. The scene which overlooks Canary Wharf is a new one on me ,it compares old and new London architecture in one scene. I have been to the Heygate estate and think this film thoroughly captures every essence of the area. The film is fast moving and nothing is overdone but is all conducive to the final scene. A Great British Urban Piece along the same lines of Harry Brown which i think was filmed on the same estate but from watching the two you can appreciate the different views of each director.

Toby Kebbel is excellent as the veteran, returning to his London council estate following retiring from army duty. The decorated soldier struggles to find work and so gets involved in an anti terrorist undercover role, tailing an informant (the team being led by Brian Cox). Whilst this is going on he tries to help his friend against the neighbourhood hoodie gang, who are brainwashing his brother into the local gang culture. Dark, gritty, slow to build up but gripping and exciting (and threatening) this Brit flick is a great watch. Miller (Kebbel) then realises all is not what it first seemed and has to find a way out and rectify a situation he is struggling to deal with. The thing that made it for me was the arguably non sell out ending, remaining in keeping with the film and rewarding the viewers patience with the story and slower first half. It is far from perfect, but with a forgiving film fan head, this film may surprise a few and entertain, and that is the point. Definitely a top 20 film of 2011 and it's non blockbuster status will make it an even better watch for admirers of this sort of film and content, a modern underdog fighting back styled film. This film is similar to Harry Brown, Taxi Driver and Outlaw.

This is actually a brilliant film, if you can forgive a few minor flaws. Kebbel plays 'Bobby' brilliantly and the key characters are all convincing; a tip of the hat to the absence of prima donna Hollywood stars there. The accuracy and attention to detail in certain areas more than make up for the relative shortness of the film, for example how Bobby takes a quick visual check of the chamber on his rifle before moving from cover in between contacts in the main firefight scene. This scene gets the old adrenalin going a little, it is actually very similar to the street battle scene from 'Heat'; no music, just the sound of gunfire echoing in the streets. The espionage element and the political scheming is portrayed smoothly, allowing the viewer to think for themselves and make up their own mind without going overboard on the conspiracy element. Whatever your views on whether or not this side of the plot is fictional, it's a film worth watching. The only difference between 'worth watching' and 'great film' is just a matter of budget and time really.

The movie's flaw was the antagonist formulaic Dr. Evil plan. For once, it would be OK to kill the "overlord" without having him explain the diabolical purpose. I was impressed throughout the movie that the characters didn't use one-liner tough guy clichés. Miller was matter-of-fact. He performed "the weary war veteran" as it is in real life. I'll qualify that by saying I did heavy combat in the Gulf War (1991) as a reconnaissance specialist and fought in 8 major battles (sorry about the narcissistic statement) I just want to say that I am qualified to make that statement. Miller had to have been trained by a professional combat/SWAT team. If you spot someone "double tapping" the trigger, looking down the barrel (the right end) and actually reloading (firearms usually carry between 7 - 30 rounds, not 900). I appreciate that the ending was "sad." I didn't like that he was taken out by a kid. The kid was not a worthy adversary, but that's a reality too. How stupid if I came back home from heavy battles and died by falling off a ladder or by a 12 year old wanna-be gang member with a stolen, cheap gun. But that's real and you never hear of veterans talking about the irony. You also knew he would die from the very beginning. He had nothing in life to prevent him from making the sacrifice. He didn't win the war, but he won the battle and ultimately saved lives. You can say that he also payed for the collateral damage - the female tenet - that he couldn't save the boy from going down the path. And, to have ended the movie with him escaping would be disgusting Hollywood, cookie- cutter pulp. This has the stamp of an indie film; it was low budget (I don't have the figure) but it meant it was not constrained by studios that pacify the masses. The paste eating audience and band-wagon critics can throw out 8's for The Fast and Furious, Harry Potter, Star Wars 1-3, Toy Story, you get the picture. Some films are entertaining but they cannot be considered as cinema. They should be classified as theme park rides. Hollywood movies are like roller-coasters; you're guided on a track, at the mercy of a controller and make you vomit. Real cinema has disappeared long before paperback books. I rate the audience and critics as 0/10

Saw this with my girl today and enjoyed it very much. It's nothing great by any means, but it's a good little film. Toby Kebbell plays a soldier back from Afghanistan, who soon finds himself in another war, this time on his home turf. The film switches between a plot involving terrorism and a plot involving violent gangs on the estate. Both are interesting to watch and both eventually collide. The plot is something we've seen hundred's of times over but that's not to say this isn't well made. Kebbell is very good in the lead role and can certainly carry a film. The supporting actors perform well enough too but nowhere near Kebbell's standards. The gun-heavy climax is gritty and well done, if you don't take it too seriously of course. Me and the missus were the only ones in the cinema, so I'm guessing this will probably die a death while it's on the big screen. Overall a violent, over-the-top but entertaining Brit flick, not to be taken seriously but not to be ignored. ***/*****

At the end of 2008's 'The Hurt Locker', an ex-soldier struggles to choose which type of cereal to buy. Accustomed to life-or-death situations, he is incapable of such a trivial decision. It's a brief scene, but it perfectly captures the difficulty of adapting to civilian life after the horrors of active duty. This is precisely the kind of vibe that 'The Veteran' aims for, but misses entirely. Robert Miller (Toby Kebbell) has just returned from Afghanistan. Unable to get a job and still haunted by his experiences of war, he feels like an outsider. He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which makes it even more difficult for him to adjust. On its own, this would have been enough, but there's more: Miller starts monitoring suspected terrorists for the government, and uncovers some kind of conspiracy. Meanwhile, a local gang starts terrorising his council estate, so he has to deal with that as well. So now there's espionage conspiracy and social commentary. Miller's psychological problems present an interesting examination into the effects of war, but there isn't enough of it. Any credibility that builds up is shattered every time the story wanders elsewhere. Just as viewers get a glimpse into Robert Miller's psyche, the film jumps away into 'Spooks' mode – shot after shot of people in cars, watching or following or driving past each other, seemingly without reason or consequence. Then there is the council estate storyline. The handful of scenes featuring hoodies and poor grammar fail to mask a lazy attempt at trying to make the film gritty and realistic. Of course there are places and situations just like the council estate portrayed, but there is nowhere near enough development to make viewers actually care about these people and their 'hood. Without actually stopping to examine the social issues implied, the inclusion of these scenes is an exercise in time-wasting. The problem with 'The Veteran' is that it lacks focus. Indecisively jumping all over the place between different genres and irrelevant plot lines, the film has a scatter-gun approach that doesn't hit any of its targets. The narrative just ends up feeling disjointed, which allows very little emotional investment. It is hard to understand what is going, but even harder to care about it. The action is another thing that's indecisive. There is initially very little action, and when there is some violence, it comes in short bursts. It is effective, and clearly meant to contrast the gun-* in American films. Then the film changes gear and gives Miller a machine gun. With no clear sense of identity, the film is as confusing as it is frustrating. There are hints of things that could have made this a good film had the filmmakers not tried so hard to be clever. The surveillance sections occasionally present an effective bit of tension. Toby Kebbell does a good job essentially driving the film by himself, playing Miller with a constant restlessness that makes him seem genuinely uneasy. None of this, however, will save this film from the bargain bin at your local petrol station. What starts off as a believable, gritty portrayal of a man's plight rapidly descends into incoherent tedium. 'The Veteran' spins too many plates, and ultimately ends up dropping them.

The Veteran