The gruesome death of three Essex drug dealers on a rainy night in December 1995 has already spawned three movies attempting to put the pieces together and solve the triple murder of Tony Tucker (38), Patrick Tate (37) and Craig Rolfe (26), shot dead in a Range Rover down a small farm track in Rettendon. All three films were rubbish. Luckily, some bright spark decided that we needed another one. Will The Fall Of The Essex Boys finally shed some light on the culprits, and can we really be choonked with a fourth instalment?
An 18-year-old schoolgirl from Essex dies after taking an
ecstasy pill. Leading the investigation is Detective Inspector Stone (Ewan
Ross), stepping in to try and put pressure on an untouchable unit of criminals
– Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe, also known as The Essex Boys.
As the gang grow stronger and more fearless, their addiction
to drugs and power slowly starts to spiral out of control, forming few
allegiances but gaining enemies at every turn.
It isn’t long before Stone starts seeing the cracks for
himself, and with the added pressure from his peers – including an ex-colleague
who is also the dead girl’s father – he soon realises that bringing them down
is the least of his worries; getting his man on the inside out safely will
prove much more difficult…
First, Sean Bean snarled his way through a drab Goodfellas
wannabe in Essex Boys (2000). The oddly titled Rise Of The Footsoldier (2007)
followed, charting the inexorable rise of Carlton Leach from one of the most
feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of the gang,
revelling in violence but little else. Three years later - and best of the
bunch - Bonded By Blood (2010) was well-acted with some nice touches, but
failed to offer anything new. Reem it certainly wasn’t. Whether we really
needed another instalment is up for debate (we can’t even get a Goonies sequel)
but nevertheless The Fall Of The Essex Boys will be out in selected cinemas on
the 8th February 2013, with a DVD release just ten days later.
It’s unfair to label auteur Paul Tanter as the poor man’s
Guy Richie. He’s more of an Andy Richie. The footballer - who made 661
appearances and scored 210 goals – was nicknamed ‘Stiches’. With Tanter’s
background in onscreen violence, especially football hooliganism (he has
already directed The Hooligan Wars and The Rise And Fall of a White Collar
Hooligan with White Collar Hooligan 2: England Away in post-production), it’s
safe to say you’re in for lots of c-words and bloodshed, with the occasional
scene of disorderly conduct thrown in for good measure. Fortunately, like Andy
was at playing football, he’s quite good at it, and the fourth attempt at
getting to the bottom of this intriguing case is easily the best.
The film begins with the car full of crimsoned corpses, then
zips back in time, as Darren Nicholls (Nick Nervern) fills us in on events
leading up to the slaughter. Filling us in basically means a lot of
overenthusiastic SHAHTIN’ in the voiceover, which either gets toned down in the
latter stages or we’ve just grown accustomed to such a clumsy and grating
technique. It really is infuriating, and hinders a film that may be riddled
with clichés and indistinguishable characters, but has enough menace to keep
you interested.
The film offers its actors (fans of Tanter’s movies will
recognise most of the cast) roles that allow them to strut, overact and grunt
throughout. Peter Barrett as Pat Tate is the standout; his ability to make his
character charismatic is a testament to his skills, and despite his lover,
Karen (Kierston Wareing), spending most of her time having sex with a rival,
it’s little wonder she fell for such a fella. Meanwhile, Wareing’s abilities
are wasted. The only reason she’s there is to convince the audience that Tate
is a bad egg, but Barrett does that perfectly well by himself.
Other performances are appropriately sleazy, with Nevern’s
Darren managing to sidestep the conventional in-too-deep-before-wanting-out
plot with the help of a neat twist and one of Tanter’s few moments of boldness.
Detective Stone is equally alluring, thankful for the richest characterization
and a family that doesn’t want him dead. But one of the biggest disappointments
is newcomer Jay Brown. He starts off predictably well playing the brutish,
psychopathic Tony Tucker, but soon gets bogged down by his trite, predictable
persona, ultimately becoming whiny and annoying, and most deserving of a bullet
to the head.
The film is further marred by the anticipated lack of
resolution. Out of the four films based on those same events this version does
at least hint at a more provocative explanation, but when the final twist
arrives it offers more questions than answers. Stephen Reynolds script
concentrates on Robert Cavanah’s character Mickey Steele and his relationship
with Karen, Tate’s woman, and the deteriorating affiliations with the gang.
Partnering up with Jack Whomes (Tony Denham), we’re quite happy to except their
reasons to double-cross and murder the gang (they’re currently serving life for
the crime) but instead Tanter throws in a curve-ball with few hints throughout
to make the payoff work.
Thankfully, apart from that disappointment, the final
fifteen minutes are mightily impressive, including a chase sequence that will
make this brief journey more worthwhile. The film isn’t a fact-by-fact account
of events; real-life victim Leah Betts’ name is replaced by a generic female
victim who collapses in the nightclub rather than at home, and the ensuing
discovery that the amount of water she took that evening was just as much to
blame for her death as the ecstasy tablet is disappointingly never touched
upon, but it’s as close as we’ve come to suggesting the police has a greater
involvement than merely failing to solve the case. At the end of the day, for
those that know very little about the events (it was nearly twenty years ago
now), The Fall Of The Essex Boys is probably the best, and only, place to
start. At the very least, you’ll be searching Wikipedia immediately after
watching.
Less glamorous than its rivals, The Fall Of The
Essex Boys once again fails to offer an enterprising explanation as to why
three men were left dead as two others served life imprisonment. Eventually
succumbing to a twist that provides more questions than answers, it also
suffers from clichéd characters and a jarring voiceover, but there’s enough to
enjoy, and the final chase is marginally short of sensational. DW
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