When we weren’t paying attention, the 2007 low-budget, lo-fi gangster flick Rise of the Footsoldier somehow spawned a franchise, with the sixth film currently waiting to tempt you with its tale of internecine gang warfare and brutal violence.
How to watch Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance
Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance is in UK cinemas now.
Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance
What is Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance about?
Extremely loosely based on real events, this latest offering from director Nick Nevern, who also helmed the previous film, Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins, follows on from that film in relating the increasingly brutal exploits of career criminal Pat Tate (footballer-turned-actor Craig Fairbrass) as he seeks, well, vengeance following a bungled armoured car robbery. Being set in the ’90s, it counts as a period piece—a fact that should make Gen X viewers feel appropriately decrepit. Shootings, stabbings, beatings, and all manner of unpleasantness unfold as he rampages through the streets of Soho in search of payback.
The cast of Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance
In addition to Fairbrass, we get Jamie Foreman, George Russo, Ben Wilson, Stephen McCole, Sadie Frost, Tara Fitzgerald, ArrDee, Josh Myers, Emily Wyatt, Geoff Bell, Anthony Skordi, and Phil Davis rounding out the ensemble of villains and vixens that populate this grimy take on London’s gangland demimonde.
Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance trailer
What are the critics saying about Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance?
Loud, laddish, and largely devoid of laughs, Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance has not exactly endeared itself to the critical fraternity. Over at The Guardian, Leslie Felperin grudgingly awarded it a middling review, noting that although it’s an improvement on previous instalments in the surprise franchise, it’s so dour and joyless that it may have well been titled Rise of the Footsoldier: Blokes With Guns, or Rise of the Footsoldier: Nobody Smiles. Still, if you’ve worked your way through the last five films, what’s one more?
