User reviews

As a fan of the franchise this is a disappointment on par with number 2. The other two main actors were missed like with number 2 when it was just Carlton's character. The humour is almost all gone and your left with a film trying to take it's self to seriously. The whole thing about this was always the comedy and violence that blended so well and the great cast, Craig Fairbrass is an amazing actor but this time Pat Tate is all but on one occasion without humour. I do hope they get back to basics and just have a laugh with it as that's what I see as the attraction to the films. They do have an amazing cast but bring back Terry Stone & Roland Manookian!

I am usually not one for the east end, London based, geezer type movie. Most of the actors in the movie would make me close the curtains if they were performing Rise of the Footsoldier Vengence 2 at the bottom of my garden. However I decided to give this a try. And was pleasantly surprised.

As a result, I am now probably going to go back and watch the previous instalments, all thirty seven of them. Lol.

Craig Fairbrass is a decent lead actor in a movie like this and it is surprisingly well made with plenty of gritty action and intrigue along the way.

I didnt understand the ending much because I haven't seen any of the others so don't follow my example and let this be your first venture into the series.

Ok, this franchise is really silly and most of the characters in it are violent psychopaths. And the real people they're based on must have been vile.

But these are movies, so let's put that to one side.

In this one, the tone is markedly different from before. It's a "proper" film and leaves out the relentless mindless violence and swearing that numbs you that characterised the previous movies.

Here - somehow - is a film that's technically very well put together indeed. The acting is good, the story is ok if a bit too convoluted and the way they keep holding off on a big reveal a few times too many gets annoying.

But the actors in this one are properly acting for the most part, and the camerawork and editing is very very good.

8 "faaaahkin caaaahnts" out of 10.

Growing up in Southend-on-Sea in Essex, I am old enough to remember the uneasy feeling surrounding the Rettendon murders. The first Rise of the Footsoldier was completely on point with its general tone and laid out Carlton Leach's (true) story in an enjoyable enough manner. The movie won so much goodwill in my mind, that I have been on board for all of the subsequent sequels.

Now six movies deep and running solely with purely fictional storylines, that goodwill has wained quite a bit, especially after the weaker efforts in Marbella and Origins. Vengeance, however, managed to gross the highest box office of the entire franchise, and I am curious to see exactly why.

In case you are unfamiliar, Pat Tate was gunned down in the first part of the franchise. All of the subsequent movies are prequels to this event, revolving around Pat and his cohorts and their escapades in and around Essex. Craig Fairbrass is getting on a bit now, but it still looks like he could punch the head off of a regular Joe. He's not quite as psychotically frightening as he has been previously, opting here more for a more quiet "say the wrong word and I'll smash ya" type performance. Vengeance is a lot less goofy without the presence of Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe and the bad wig department (who should be thoroughly flogged in the market square for some of the worst hairpieces in a non-comedy movie).

If you're familiar with UK TV, you'll probably make the obvious comparison with Eastenders. And yes, Vengeance does seem like a long, more violent episode of Eastenders. But a revenge storyline is something that's easy to get behind.

Overall, I would say that Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance is one of the franchises' more solid efforts. I was under the impression, however, that this would be the last movie in the franchise, yet the finale sets up another sequel which, judging from the box office take, won't take long to greenlight.

I left a very scathing review of Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins, so I feel it is only fair that I should leave one about ROTF: Vengeance.

I am by no means a fan of this franchise and I sat down to watch this film, expecting the usual - constant swearing, misogyny, drug taking, stilted accents and A-level drama quality acting.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The heavy use of the c word (probably 10-15 in this film) and comedic elements have been replaced with a slow-burn storyline, focussing on character development, and the lighting and set pieces were great, which proves that Nick Nevern has really hit his stride with this instalment.

A minor criticism would be that they seemed to bring back one recurring character too many, and the storyline became a touch confusing because of this.

All in all, a very enjoyable watch - the omission of the ghastly Terry Stone character helped immensely.

I've enjoyed all the films in this U. K. franchise and this one is really well made. It's quite different to the others and on a higher level of quality compared to the cheeky boy banter style of the previous movies. I was actually rooting for Pat and saw his good guy. There's a nice little twist towards the end and the action is decent. Craig Fairbrass really raised his acting chops in this one and the whole cast shone.

I'm down for more of these so as long as they keep making them with this quality in mind, I'll watch them. This was a lot of fun. Definitely worth a look and yeah, more please!

If this had been a stand alone movie it would of been called the english john wick type of thing, the only negativity i give it is the constant use of the characters and glorifying them as super anti heros. They have family so to keep misrepresenting them in make believe stories is getting very old now. Create a new basis for the franchise, new fictional hardmen who live upto the original hype....or even better bring carlton back, and even introduce some other well known hard men.....but please NOT Bernice O Madaydreamer. The less said about that nutjob the better. Great british thug flick with plenty of naughty stuff involved. HAVE ITTTT!

I'm a big fan of Rise of the Footsoldier. This effort ...The story is so slow that if it went any slower it would stop. Craig Fairbrass plays the normal characterisation he always does. Dialogue just doesn't hit the mark for an East End gangster movie.

It does link, well sort of, with the other films in the series. Joey is back from Origins, even though in the last one they near enough killed him and told him to get out of London.

Really, the film is just a reason for Fairbrass to be violent and either kill or brutally injure people.

The actors in the ROTF series need to understand that they are all older since the original in 2007. How can they portray younger characters when they are over 15 years older than the original film? Just waiting for "Rise of the Footsoldier - Zimmer frame " to be released.

I've really enjoyed this series but this one was a bit of a joke really. Didn't involve Tucker or Rolfe, It's turned Pat Tate from being the, lets face it, wrong un that he was, into some sort of avenging angel. The bloke was 37 when he was killed, and you've got CF at 60. There was none of the comedy elements from the previous films, and it just didn't grip me like any of the rest of the series has.

This could have been a decent stand-alone film. Change a few characters names and Boom. British Action Film, but it shouldn't have been a Footsoldier film. I think it's time to let that Franchise die out now.

Loved every one of the Rise of the Footsoldier films and this one does not disappoint. This film has everything you come to expect with Pat Tate painting the streets of Soho red with blood in an act of vengeance for one of his best mates. Decent plot, great cast and some great action.

Plot is decent which includes many of Tate's old acquaintances and takes some nice twists and turns along the way. The levels of violence and action are what you come to expect and the pace of the film is good and doesn't slow down for one minute.

If you like the previous films you are sure to enjoy this one as well. Already waiting impatiently for the next instalment!!

As I standalone movie, I quite enjoyed this. It's a decent London gangster flick. The pace is quite slow, but it is a decent enough revenge plotline. Having (more minor) characters from previous movies appear would probably mean that you need to have seen the other movies before you saw this to fully understand what is going on.

As a big fan of the franchise, it was a shame to see a departure from previous movies that always had a little humour and to have some of the core characters such as Tony and Craig missing also took away from The movie if you are viewing it as part of a long running series.

As you would expect, the music is excellent and of the period, and I always love to see the old cars being used and abused!

Just to be straight, I've loved the whole series of movies (apart from the second one) & it's been well documented (including by Craig Fairbrass) that this series of movies keeps rolling on because the fans love the almost cartoon violence & the bad Essex boy personas. Unfortunately, us fans loved the realistic gang violence & the naughty boy stories that stemmed from the original. We all know Pat Tate was a wrong'un & the previous films have not held back from showing the character he was. In 'Vengeance' he's the main protagonist of the story & made out to be almost a hero. The out of control Tate we've seen in previous movies (hookers & blow in the hospital & the infamous pizza cutter scene for example) is completely tamed down in this & is almost unrecognisable. Like Taken & the Expendables this almost seem dumbed down to reach a wider audience. The story is disjointed, the superb Geoff Bell is criminally underused & unfortunately just doesn't hit the spots that the diehard fans want. I so wanted to love this but ultimately felt mugged off.

For anyone that's watched all the previous films in this series, this is obviously one to watch.

Craig Fairbrass is totally watchable as Pat Tate, running around the streets of Essex and London like some coke fuelled deranged lunatic beating the crap out of anyone who crosses his path. I mean, this is why we watch anyway, exactly for that.

My only small gripe was the choice of 80s music throughout the film. I thought it was slightly overdone, too many tracks being played, but maybe that's just me. Saying that, the opening scene sets you up and gets you very excited for what lies ahead.

Loved seeing the 80s cars and specifically the Range Rover of course.

As always, you can expect some ultra violence, which I had to turn away once or twice. I left my imagination to it instead.

I absolutely love the Footsoldier franchise and I do hope they can pump one more out in the not too distant future.

Pleasantly surprised by this!

I have no idea how 'Rise of the Footsoldier' has managed to reach its sixth (sixth!) installment, but to be fair I actually truly enjoyed this entry - to the point that I'd even say this is the best of the series. Admittedly, I am someone who only likes the second film; 1 and 3-5 are all forgettable, at best.

Craig Fairbrass is, despite the aforementioned, someone I do appreciate from these flicks. I wouldn't class his acting as anything incredible, though he does definitely have enough screen presence about him and undoubtedly fits the character he portrays. This film, in my opinion, holds his best performance as Pat Tate. Elsewhere on the cast, Geoff Bell has an impressive (albeit brief) appearance.

What helps this movie is that it doesn't only rely on the cringey wannabe gangster clichés of drugs, guns and women, like most of the other five productions do; 'Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella' particularly falls victim to that, from what I remember. It's still in there, just not as front and centre as before. Here, the story has a bit more meat on its bones as my interest remained throughout. The score is quite good too, a few well chosen tracks.

In conclusion, a film that is vastly more entertaining than I thought it would be. Credit to all those involved with making 'Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance'. Incredibly, a seventh release has already been confirmed! You know what, after this, I'm actually here for it. Fascinated to see how many of these they end up making, the UK's very own 'Fast & Furious'...

No doubt about it. Professionally wise this was a better made film in many aspects. For starters tge ambience was darker, like a good old gangster film should be. It still contained some old faces, even a surprise towards the end, but the film was again centered around Pat Tate (Craig Fairbrass) who in fairness has maintained his same character from the start, and is no different in this film.

But being honest, I did miss Craig Rolfe and Tony Tucker. Despite their characters being nasty pieces of work they bought a comedic side in a positive way which I liked. But I also liked this version as well although not in the same vain.

The fims still contains aspects of the seedier parts of life that helped made the franchise popular. And Craig Fairbrass spilled an adequate amount of blood, and as the film suggests took vengeance out on his enemies.

As usual, like in the other films, the timeline doesn't seem to fit comfortably with the rest of the franchise. Not that it matters. If you haven't watched the others, you won't know and if you have you are more than used to it.

The one thing I will say, is that although all the other films were highly exaggerated, I do believe they were often based on rumours or stories from all the characters life. Although Vengeance is a good film, I don't think it is actually close to real events. But it is a good story, and is not at all centred around the Essex murders at all.

So here's yet another Rise of the Footsoldier movie, and again with archetypal Cockney tough guy, Craig Fairbrass, who played a minor role in the classic first flick.

Here's what the producers don't seem to understand: the first Footsoldier movie was successful not only because of the violence and constant use of the c-word, but also because the movie had a strong sense of character and story. You knew who it was about and what it was about. You could follow it from scene to scene, knowing what was going on.

With all these sequels, it feels like a melange of scenes that weren't good enough to go in the first movie. There's barely any throughline to the story. All I got was Fairbrass asking everybody if they'd seen somebody called Billy.

Why is it so hard to make a movie with a discernible plot and characters?

Disappointing, great action thriller on its own but doesn't fit into the footsoldier franchise.

Where's Tony and Craig!? The banter makes the films, (apart from number 2 which was great explaining the aftermath of the real event.)

It needed Terry Stone.(Tony Tucker Actor)

Won't be worth watching the next one if he's not there. Fiction or reality needed the famous duo!

£15.99, I should ask Sky for a refund, should of waited for pirat***b@ay "sharing website" copy.

I don't often leave reviews on films but this was an exception, the actors were great, story line was....ok..... but why kill the guy off? I didn't make sense to me. Then Pat asking for help from the backstabber, would of been a great opportunity to get the boys back in the film (Tony and Craig)

Not good guys, won't be watching again

Sorry.

I think a lot of these films don't look high quality, the camera work, locations, but to me that added to the charm of them, I love all of these films, the genres mixed up a bit but I think comparing this with an early film, the improvement is massive.

The acting won't win Oscars but again it was noticeably better than in other films, there weren't any people that you smirk at , there were even some younger ones who really have potential which is nice.

They surprised me, they even managed to get 1 section of woke nonsense into the show, it was a bit strange and hard to believe but I think most things have to force things these days. It wasn't too bad but didn't feel like it was anything but woke pleasing.

Overall story was great, acting was great, time flew by, the action was fun. The sound effects especially with Pats punches were excellent. Good range of cast and a satisfying ending/ follow on to the next one. Didn't feel forced or cash grabbing, was a sensible progression that made you excited for the next.

It was weird watching Craig back as Tate after seeing him in One Piece which he was excellent in.

The only reason it's 9 and not 10 was it was a bit too predictable but I don't know if it would be if you weren't as into these films as I am.

I enjoyed the other films in the series, but strangely this is not cutting it. Hackneyed villains and clunky dialogue make this one too slow and formulaic. Soho is cool and the chases are good yet it seems rushed to me. Loads of blood and action and 90s tunes and all the usual suspects appear so you wont be disappointed, especially as Southend and Essex appears quite frequently. There's a few kingpins to get involved and Pat Tate certainly does his thing in his own inimitable style. He doesn't say 'wrapped round ya' tho which is odd.

But for me it was a lite version of the usual. Like a shandy compared to a pint of Stella.

I will admit, I am a sucker for revenge films. Recent good ones have been Sisu and Avengement. Considering this had a main character from Avengement, I thought I would give it a chance. Wrong.

It had revenge & violence. What it did not have was a conhesive storyline, good dialogue(not sure if there was dailogue, every one was saying dumb one liners), editing poorly, did not know who was who until 2/3 through the movie, ex machina everywhere in a big city like London, dumbest crimininals(one criminal actually stabbed overhead like a cartoon), dumb cops and all together bad decisions. Be everyone. To top it off, loud music is playing through most of the movie to obviously distract us from the trainwreck.

Do your self a favor, go watch Avengement again.

Huge fan of the Rise of the foot soldier franchise, unfortunately this one wasn't as good as previous ones, it lacked the banter & humour we know and love. Craig is a great actor he committed to the role with professionalism. Without the other two (Tony & Ralph) it was just too serious and dare I say the fight scenes a little cringy. Josh (Jimmy) played a good role and was nice to see him get some extra screen time, was nice to see some familiar and established actors throughout the film and some new faces. The storyline didn't really have much impact. I think it will leave the audience asking questions. It's definitely a different vibe this one. I look forward to the next film though, it's setup nice to continue the story, hopefully with Terry Craig & Ron. Worth a watch but not worth the wait.

Unsure of where the franchise was going after origins? I was.

It's fair to say this storied, British institution has seen its ups and downs.

Sometimes in the same film.

However, with a touch of trepidation, worried that the series pinnacle was perhaps a memory, I went to watch Rise of the Footsolider: Vengeance with more questions then I care to admit.

So, the premise of the film is in the title. Vengeace. Lots of it. Brutal, uncompromising, fast paced vengeance. The sort of violence that is visceral. Not just for show, but meaty stuff. But, for the main part it's justified and fits in with the momentum gaining plot.

I won't go into the story, others will do that. I won't add spoilers either. But it is right uo there with the best of this series and I think it will surprise many when they see it and realise that Jason Mazza and Andrew Loveday have written a bloodstained love letter to the U. K. gangster cinema scene, classily polished off with the big screen direction of Nick Nevern.

Suffice to say, there are twists and turns that aren't obvious, there are plot lines intertwined with the main story which are new grounds for Footsolider films which will shock some. Go with it, this franchise is 'growing a bigger pair'.

This film has adapted, it embraces the term 'nothing stays the same'. It treads new grounds.

But, it doesn't overcomplicate things. It knows what it is. A very good, violent thriller led magnificently by Craig Fairbrass, who is now so consistent, bankable and just delivers when it matters. The rest of the cast are notable British names and some up comments showing promising pedigree.

My biggest question of the night was answered by the way.

Rise of the footsolider? Yes, dont you doubt it.