Assassin (2015)

Jamie (Danny Dyer) is an assassin for hire who does a job for brothers John & Lee Alberts (Gary & Martin Kemp respectively). The brothers bought a plot of land to build a club on and were given the assurance from council big-wig Tony Boyd (Robert Kavanagh) that there would be no issues in getting the required planning permission that they needed. When they learn that Boyd is not willing to complete his end of the bargain (after the brothers have already paid him £100,000) they decide that he needs to be taken care of and hires Jamie to complete the task. Complications ensue when Jamie falls in love with the daughter of the man that he's killed and he takes it upon himself to protect her from the brothers who will do everything they can to silence her.Assassin makes the bold claim on its poster that it is by 'The Makers of Goodfellas' and indeed this film does share one thing in common with Goodfellas and that is that both film share the same executive producer (Barbara De Fina). I suspect that this was a marketing tool employed to try to sucker more people into watching the film or buying the DVD. All I'll say is that Assassin & Goodfellas may share the same producer, but they are worlds apart in terms of quality....The problems really start with Danny Dyer and to say that his acting is weak would be putting it kindly, but even for him this was bad. He is lifeless and unenthusiastic here and looked as bored as I was through the entirety of the film. It isn't all Dyer's fault though - the script is rather weak and has very little drive to it. It was one of those films that seemed to establish story arcs, but then decided not to follow them through (such as the money held in the dodgy offshore account). The film also features The Kemp brothers who are basically just playing the Krays twins all over again. In itself this doesn't sound too bad and had the film had the brutality and the engaging narrative that The Krays offered then it probably would have made for a much better film. As it is screenwriter J.K Amalou fails to develop John and Lee as characters and gives the Kemps very little to work which results in them almost resorting to self-parody. I also thought it was interesting that a big deal seemed to made about the fact that John was ill only then to find that we're not told what illness he was suffering from or how he injured his leg? These things aren't really important to the story, but it would have been nice if some background had been afforded just to flesh the characters out a bit. In terms of performances, no-one else really made much of an impression on me here although Holly Weston was quite effective in some scenes.I think the worst thing about this film is that it fails to actually have one strong or effective scene; it's a thriller without thrills and really is just a boring non-event film. Although it's a terrible film the only saving grace is that I only wasted 80 minutes of my life watching this film. Please don't waste any of your own time watching it.

I've enjoyed other movies with Danny Dyer as the lead, but Assassin is different.Whilst the story had potential, it became both predictable, and laughable. Irritatingly, the audio mix became too heavy on the background music, to the point where speech couldn't be understood. This wasn't helped by Danny's predilection to mumble his words. The primary two female characters in the story were acting without any real or believable emotions. It's as if they were reading the script out loud for the first time.Laughably, the continuity was beyond belief with regards to Danny's Motorbike helmet, which switched from black to silver throughout the movie, and even within single riding sequences. Maybe the movie budget couldn't stretch to buy two black helmets if one was damaged during the filming.Then there's an unbelievable sequence where two thugs attempt to break-into Danny's hide-out. After Danny kills the thug who inexplicably appeared to be able to get upstairs in the small house, Danny then fires 10 shots into the other thug, at almost point blank range as he runs out of the hallway unaffected by being hit by 10 bullets.When Danny confronts Gary Kemp, Garry shoots, grazing Danny's leg, yet the large pane of glass behind Danny is unaffected.The ending is truly yawn inducing. This has to be one of the worst films I have endured.

I enjoyed this movie for several reasons. I found this to be a well written story. The movie is only about 80 minutes long, with a tight script. I appreciated seeing a different performance from Danny Dyer. He keeps a low profile and has a quiet menace about him. When his character Jamie snaps, it's very visceral. Yet when he opens himself up, it's very touching to see him risk being vulnerable. I also enjoyed the Kemps. Their relationship is one of the best things about the movie. This was my first introduction to Holly Weston and she is a very good actress. She and Danny Dyer have good chemistry together. The killing and fighting scenes are well done. They feature not only Jamie's fighting skills but also his cunning and his planning abilities. The score is a great pulsing synthesizer sound which works to thrill the audience. This movie reminded me of The Samarai, The American, and Drive. Since I saw and am a fan of Deviation, I had high hopes of enjoying this repairing of Danny Dyer with the director JK Amalou. I wasn't disappointed. You should definitely see Amalou's Hard Men for another good crime caper. 3.5/5 stars.

I give this movie a 2 out of 10 just because it was mercifully short and I also liked the dynamic between the 2 brothers. But believe me, this movie stinks. This movie has been done numerous times where the assassin falls in love with his target and can't kill her. The huge problem here is the chemistry between the assassin and the female he falls for. There is absolutely no chemistry here at all. There is not one reason why either would be madly in love with the other. It is so bad it destroys this film, you just don't care about either of them.Also, there is not one good action scene or line thru out the whole movie. Even though I found the brothers interesting, they were not menacing villains. It fact, no one was. Though when his girlfriend does get killed, the assassin does dish out revenge very quickly. I think all the main players were killed within 2-3 minutes(in different places). No tension whatsoever and way too easy for the assassin. The ending is a yawner. This movie is a bore, don't waste your time.