Geezer 1 : You ****** slag
Geezer 2 : You ******* Muppet!
Geezer 1 : You calling me a muppet? You ****
Geezer 2: I’ll stitch you up like a ******* kipper
Geezer 1: You and whose army you ******* slaaaag!
Geezer 2: You ****** slag!
Geezer 1: You ******* Muppet!
Geezer 2: You calling me a muppet? You ****
Geezer 2: I’ll stitch you up like a ******* kipper
………Repeat ad nauseum for 90 minutes interspersed with extreme violence!
Back in the mid 00’s when these Essex gangster films began this was something of a script template but the Rise of the Footsoldier films have gained a huge following and it’s fair to say they have evolved quite dramatically since 2007 and the 2021 Origins film (reviewed HERE) was the most successful to date with a decent interweaving story interspersed with the franchise’s trademark brutality. Well now Craig Fairbrass returns as Pat Tate in the sixth consecutive film and this, much like the third film centres on the violent Essex gangster with a trigger hair temper most readily associated with PTSD suffering Vietnam vets going through a divorce so with a film titled Rise of the Footsoldier Vengeance its inevitable that this is going to end badly for someone if not all of them.
When Pat and his sidekick Kenny ( Josh Myers) carry out a cash in transit armed robbery it goes awry firstly when Kenny has his balaclava pulled off by the security guard and is compounded further when they open the cash box only to find their haul dramatically smaller than they had been led to believe. It quickly escalates when Kenny decides to get in to the drugs game with some shady East Europeans working from a seedy Soho clip joint with the film set in an era before the area was cleaned up. It soon becomes clear that Kenny’s misunderstood what he’s got himself into in the same way that Prince Andrew confused Jeffery Epstein with a PDF file and it goes tragically awry for Kenny resulting in him turning up at the coroner’s office looking like a colander at a Halloween fancy dress party.
So when Pat finds out what’s happened to him he goes on the proverbial roaring rampage of revenge as he tries to find out who killed Kenny and why. But in his pursuit of the guilty party he finds himself pursued by police suspecting him of the earlier armed robbery and also boss David Hexell (Phil Davis), who has financed a deal with Pat, is calling in the loan. He’s not the only one in pursuit of Pat with scrap yard dealer Fergus (Stephen McCole) on his tail too with his own grievance against Pat. Added to this are other characters who come out of the woodwork and Pat’s shady past. The odds are far from being in Pat’s favour and the likelihood that someone will get to him before he gets to Kenny’s killers.
Written again by Andrew Loveday along with Jason Maza, Rise of the Footsoldier Vengeance doesn’t quite have the intriguing labyrinthine threads of Origins but when Tate says, ‘ I’m going to bathe in their blood’ there’s little doubt he means it. Having played the role five times now the role of Pat Tate fits Craig Fairbrass like a glove or at least a bloodied knuckleduster though the violence here is not the visceral violence we have seen previously with snooker balls and fire extinguishers used to ecscrutiating effect on those who cross his path and it’s vehicles that should quake in fear because cars, black cabs and caravans become an insurers nightmare after Pat’s been near them. Increasingly with the franchise the cast is including old school stars that’s always good to see them back on screen and here we have Tara Fitzgerald looking like Roisin Conaghty’s ropey cockney sister, Phil Davis oozing untrustworthiness as a mob boss and Jamie Forman returns as Tate’s happy to help mate
Rise of the Footsoldier Vengeance is far more plot orientated with call backs to previous characters popping up in crucial roles but the film doesn’t quite gets its era locked down where a soundtrack (and it’s a great soundtrack) has an 80’s vibe with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Soft Cell yet there are police cars with phones rather than radios and characters using tiny mobile phones ahead of their time rather than the breeze blocks we had then. Pretty Woman plays in a West End theatre before it was a play and lap dancing club Platinum Lace appears before it ever came into business…… um…. or so a friend tells us. Equally the police investigation side of the plot is full of plot holes with a stereotypically bad cop Detective Chief Inspector who goes after Pat barking at her subordinates to get an arrest warrant when it’s not needed and lines of enquiry, forensics and such like are ignored.
But this is very much Pat’s film with a gruesome ensemble that will not come out of this well. Not as potty mouthed and bone crunchingly violent as previous films in the franchise the end very much makes it clear that there will undoubtedly be a follow up film and fans are unlikely to leave disappointed.
related feature: Craig Fairbrass talks about Rise of the Footsoldier Origins
related feature; Terry Stone talks ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ franchise, porn stars and THAT wig!
We chat to Craig Fairbrass about the making of Rise of the Footsoldier Vengeance…..
Here’s the ‘Rise of the Footsoldier Vengeance’ trailer…
