Essex Boys (2000)

Mafia movies are always somewhat confusing. They move very quickly, so it's hard to keep track of the timeline, and they introduce characters so quickly, that at times it's hard to keep track of who's who. Sometimes you have to watch a good mafia film a couple times, just so you can pick up on everything, but with Essex Boys, you'd be lucky to make it through the film just once. If the fast pace of the movie and large cast weren't confusing enough, add thick British accents to the mix, and it's hard to know what's going on. Sean Bean is a favorite of mine, especially when he's playing a bad guy, but there is so much back and fourth between different factions in this film, that I'm not so sure he was the bad guy. In fact, I'm not too sure of anything with this film. To me, Essex Boys was just one big confusing mix of gangsters double crossing and shooting at each other, the whole thing just didn't make a whole lot of sense at all. It really was a difficult film to watch and apparently, according to the other poor reviews, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Despite all that, not one, but two sequels have been made to this film. I am just bewildered by the whole thing, and my best advise is that even if you are the biggest mafia movie virtuoso in the world, this is a film you should definitely skip.

essex boys is a gritty and voilent movie about drug dealers in the essex underworld and is told through the eyes of their driver. the story is inspired by the rettendon range rover murders, but those looking for the real facts go watch rise of the footsoldier(brilliant film) but never the less the basic storyline is pretty much the same, they haven't used real names and they have included a few things of their own, but it's still pretty much the story of how and why these 3 gangsters were found in a range rover one morning, its no masterpiece but it delivers the goods you would expect from a British gangster movie, and if you are interested in the rettendon range rover murders its definitely worth a watch, however if you want to see the real true story of the essex boys go watch rise of the footsoldier its accurate in every detail, and possibly the most voilent gangster movie ever made. there are three other movies based on the essex boys and the range rover murders namely 2007's rise of the footsoldier, 2010's bonded by blood and 2013's the fall of the essex boys

This shows the life of three gangsters through the eyes of their driver as they meet their untimely death.The film is a British gangster classic and captures the hard and gritty life of the Essex drug gangs, the film captures Jason Locke an ex-con who has come out of prison ready to start up his empire. The characters lack depth and seem to only love violence and drugs, then again thats all gangsters; the shoot out in the Land Rover however was an eye opener and kept me watching...There are odd appearances from veteran British actors every now and then which keep the film going....All in a ll a violent gangster movie...nothing more.

An entertaining work despite trying to do too much.They are trying to do a story based on an actual event then fictionalize it then try to make it in the stylized version of the U.K. gang films.There is an abundance of accents and moments that seem very familiar (as if they've been inspired by other movies).There is no lack of violence, nudity and swerves as required for a gangster picture but in all, I enjoyed watching it.It's not a classic but it's better than a lot of gangster flicks out there.I'm glad I gave it a shot.