10 Critically Abused Films That We All Loved Anyway (And Why)

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 14%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 83%

Rise of the Footsoldier documents one man’s transformation from a small-time football hooligan into Britain's most notorious drug dealer. 

Julian Gilbey's fact-based crime saga follows West Ham United fan Carlton Leach (Ricci Harnett) as his narcotics business blossoms over three decades, though as the characters he deals with become increasingly unsavoury, he is forced to consider whether enough is enough.

What The Critics Said:

Many top critics took issue with Gibney’s somewhat sadist direction, owing to the pleasure he apparently gets from filming violent scenes in extreme close-up. 

The film was labelled a decidedly ordinary addition to the British thug genre, with Time Out’s David Jenkins calling it a soulless gangland romp in which a Neanderthalic cast get tooled and knock ten bells out of each other for just shy of two hours.

Why We Loved It Anyway:

Rise of The Footsoldier is referred to as an ‘English Goodfellas’ in more than one Rotten Tomatoes Audience Review, and while it might not be a match for Scorsese’s film in terms of quality it certainly keeps pace with it violence wise.

Gibey’s film was tarred with the same brush as the handful of forgettable football hooligan films that came before it, but was far more entertaining when looked upon as a biopic of real-life criminal Carlton Leach. The last half hour of the movie was perhaps a tad superfluous, but up until that point it serves as a hard hitting and thought provoking gangster flick.