He Who Dares: Downing Street Siege (2014)

From the start my suspicions were that it was not going to be what I had hoped. The moment the SAS trooper turned and knocked on the door of No10 I was reaching for the off button. "Major" Lowe (?) turned up in a Corporals uniform from what looked the Medical Corps (the RAMC serving or veterans Will be mortified) he was immediately referred to as Major despite his shiny white two stripes on his arm, he strode into meeting of some dodgy characters reading their lines from hidden notes and cast up a salute while his cap was under his arm. To make matters worse the salute, if it could be called that was rather like one made by John Wayne about the US Cavalry! This film is a travesty, it lack authenticity, a script or even a shred of credibility. Avoids it at all costs before the SAS come calling which they may do when searching fir the director and script writers.

I don't usually write reviews, but for this very special film I'm going to make an exception.'He Who Dares: Downing Street' is by far one of the most awful films I have ever seen. It has superseded many other terrible, terrible films because it is truly, genuinely dreadful. Most bad supposedly adrenaline-fuelling, action/crime films have some redeeming features but not this one (save a few glorious seconds towards the end I will elaborate upon), some actual entertainment value, even if it's just funny to laugh at.It is no surprise that the plot is inconceivably bad, full of plot-holes and makes little sense throughout. The special effects are cringe-inducing - especially the blood whenever someone is shot, which is not infrequent in this horribly unoriginal shoot'em up - and the direction (combined with cinematography and plot) feels as if a particularly stupid 15 year old has just watched 'Die Hard' for the first time and written his own version set in Downing Street.The acting deserves particular recognition. The almost universally miscast actors are reliably wooden, irritating and make already poorly written characters even more unlikeable than they already were. From the (obviously) Conservative MP whose last words are to call the main villain a 'Pleb' to the main villain himself; Simon F*cking Phillips.Simon Phillips, who I last had the displeasure of watching in 'Meet the Firm: Revenge in Rio' is wholly awful. In-between bouts of not being very scary whilst threatening and murdering people he sometimes switches into 'comedian' mode, joking and wise-cracking (badly) whilst threatening and murdering people. Those few seconds of glory I mentioned before come when we witness Simon Phillips shot, not just once, but twice!!Unoriginal, awful, just bad, 1/10

He Who Dares: Downing Street Siege - One would have thought that when making a movie with the main character allegedly being a "Major" in the SAS, that Paul Tanter would have ensured that at the very least he got the uniform correct! Not only does "Major" Lowe appear wearing the uniform of a corporal, whilst all and sundry address him as major, the medals on his uniform are completely incorrect as well. And then, to top it all, the so-called "Lieutenant-General" in the Cobra room is wearing the rank markings of a major, and just to be sure, he's wearing them as collar dogs as well! Poor plot, poor directing, and generally as waste of time to watch.

Simon Phillips acting was very good along with a future star in Marissa Porter. In deed they looked to have stepped off a higher value movie.I remember the Exploding downing street door from a vine on the internet some time ago related to safety in film production. But it did look bloody good.Some of the writing was clever but it looked like a first draft not much research done.if the production team read this. please don't make a third we don't need a British die hard trilogy set at these values.If there is a next time please make sure you have a military consultant, there are plenty out there.