BONDED BY BLOOD review; another f***ing derivative British gangster film.
rating: 1
C**t. There was a time, not too long ago, that the blurting of this expletive in a derogatory sense was considered a major taboo and carried strong dramatic effect. While I have no doubt that British gangsters such as those concerned in this piece probably do deploy it in every other sentence, the fact remains the more you hear something the less effective it becomes. I lost count of the number of times this curse was spoken in Bonded by Blood, just like I have lost count of how many shoddy, British gangster movies I have watched in the post-Lock Stock years, hoping with fading optimism that I just might be in store for the next great one. Either a Lock Stock that will redefine the British gangster flick and start a new wave, or simply a satisfying story, masterfully told, ala The Long Good Friday. Bonded by Blood was neither. Bonded by Blood charts the rise of career criminals Tony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe, who in the early 90s controlled the drug trade in South East London and ruled under a regime of fear, violence and torture, before being gunned down in Rettendon, Essex in 1995. Sound familiar? Well apart from bearing close resemblance to almost any other gangster biopic, it is actually a remake of 2000s Essex Boys, which starred Sean Bean doing the worst Essex accent Ive ever heard which itself was a flawed film. So why would anyone want to remake that? Well the story contains all the elements it would appear the modern gangster flick requires: violence, sex, drugs, night clubs, stabbings, shootings, sexy, scantily clad women, happy to receive wolf whistles and oi, oi, darlings, torture, prison scenes, and a swear word in every sentences at a minimum. But what the film lacks (and I cant believe anyone didnt notice this in the development stage; it boggles the mind) is a central character, someone who is seduced by the glamorous lifestyle of a gangster but has serious reservations about the gritty side of the world. Strangely it appears from the off that the character of Darren Nichols played by Kidulthoods Adam Deacon is going to be this protagonist. He is presented as the narrator and given a big introduction to the film, but then disappears for huge periods of time, is absent from much of the action and is always on the periphery of the film.
This is a huge problem, because in scenes of extreme violence I am troubled to discern what the filmmakers want me to feel. There is a decent torture scene where the three main gangsters played by Tamer Hassan, Craig Rolfe and Terry Stone force a terrified civilian to snort line after line of cocaine until he passes out and then they distinguish their cigarettes on his torso before urinating over him. This successfully establishes them as the mean pieces of work that they are, but all of the other scenes of violence concerning the three gangsters seem merely to reinforce the idea rather than develop their characters or progress the story. Had there been a central character, a Henry Hill from Goodfellas, involved in these scenes there would have been a much clearer understanding of what the intentions of the filmmaker were and more importantly would have added much needed depth to what were otherwise scenes of violence for the sake of showing violence. Although I would be first in line to cast a stone at other gangster filmmaker aficionado Nick Love Id probably queue for a week in a sleeping bag at least he recognises the need for this character to maintain the moral balance in a movie and give us someone who we can root for. Its the simplest of rules in filmmaking. And while I have no doubt, the makers of Bonded by Blood would quote Raging Bull as the contradiction, the fact is, this is not Raging Bull, there is no Jake LaMotta, and the acting skills of Robert DeNiro are not on show here. 
Director Sacha Bennett employs some nice camerawork throughput the piece; ambitious crane shots, dollying and long, single takes stop this from becoming a bland, static directorial outing. But you cant help but feel he should have devoted more of his time to the script and directing his actors than trying to distract the audience with flash cinematography, which although is respectable, can only ever compliment what we are seeing on screen; and when we are watching - for want of a better word shit, no amount of panning, zooming, craning or dollying is going to make it look any better than it is. As a gangster aficionado myself, it is sad to see yet another bland, uninspiring gangster film released to the masses. It would appear that gone are the days where deep, complex characters were constructed around a developed world; they have been replaced with a piece of derivative, regurgitated, remade tripe, simply to fill the DVD shelf and make a quick buck. And sadly, the constant insurgence of more and more of these cheaply made, poorly written and awfully constructed films suggest that the latter is very true these films make money. So in the interest of encouraging a new wave of gangster films that are worthy of viewing, please avoid Bonded by Blood in a sign of protest that we demand more! Bonded by Blood begins a limited run in U.K. cinema's today.