Director: Stephen Reynolds.
Starring: Danny Dyer, Roxanne McKee, Vincent Regan, Bruce Payne.
Running Time: 108 minutes.
Certificate: 18.
Synopsis: Jimmy Vickers (Danny Dyer) returns home from serving his country to the news that his parents have been brutally murdered following his father’s attempt to stop a robbery on the streets of east London. Intent on bringing their killers to justice, Jimmy takes the law into his own hands, willing to do anything it takes to avenge the family he has lost.
It is fair to say that Danny Dyer has had a bit of a rough ride over the past few years. Despite a huge following, the actor has endured criticism after criticism for box office flop after box office flop. Such films as AGE OF HEROES, DEVIATION and RUN FOR YOU WIFE have all underperformed, with the blame thrown right at the feet of the actor. It would be very easy to dismiss this as another one of those movies before it has even seen the darkness of the inside of a theatre or the tray of a DVD player, but VENDETTA sees the actor finally showing some of what he’s made of and the talent that we haven’t witnessed for a very long time.
Dyer assumes the role of Vickers and with it shows signs of maturity as an actor. It’s a more serious role which you could liken to many of the characters that we’ve seen Jason Statham play during his rise to international fame and almost across-the-board acclaim. There are a lot of characters to keep up with in this and a lot going on within the 108 minute running time, and, while the story drags in a number of places and a few subplots and more cartoon-like characters seem a little out of place, Dyer holds his own in a moody and subdued performance that is possibly his best since the superb Christopher Smith film, SEVERANCE.
Stephen Reynolds also makes a solid directorial feature debut, the action moodily shot with menace and foreboding threat that attempts to pay homage to the likes of GET CARTER, DEAD MAN’S SHOES and DEATH WISH during the first two-thirds, through to something completely different in the closing act. This is sometimes a hard watch, violent from the outset, and sometimes seemingly gratuitously so, but a massive step up and away from the slew of British football hooliganism, slapstick comedy and gangster themed, London-set movies that we’ve seen in the last ten years, some of which Danny Dyer has been seen in.
VENDETTA is a brutal revenge thriller that will inevitably find itself more at home on the DVD and Blu-ray markets, for which it’s perfect Friday night fodder.
VENDETTA is released in selected UK cinemas on Friday November 22nd.
