Vendetta 2013

23 Jun 2021 by John Chard

We have got a generation of offenders we don't know what to do with. Special ops interrogation officer Jimmy Vickers (Danny Dyer) is out for serious revenge on the gang who violated and killed his parents. As he goes about his business, he has to stay two steps ahead of the police and his military employers who want their lethal weapon back. Slow justice is better than no justice. OK! Lets cut to the chase here, this is ultimately a gruesome revenge picture, the only thing new on offer here is the methods of the executions administered by the seriously brooding Jimmy Vickers. This adherence to formula, a basic modern update of the Death Wish filmic telling of a tale, is enough to send many critics scurrying around for their most poisonous pens with which to articulate their venom. Add in the Danny Dyer factor, a fella who strangely seems to rile so many in entertainment circles purely because of the genre branches of entertainment he works in, then Vendetta was never going to garner favourable reviews in many quarters. This isn't revenge. This is a necessity. Yet there's a question that springs to mind here, namely, what were they expecting? Tag lines and media headings said Danny Dyer enacts bloody revenge on the murderers of his parents because the law is an ass! Do critics and film fans really go into a film like this, one that isn't hiding under false pretences, expecting a scathing and intelligent observation on the lawlessness of Britain? Or a snarky aside to the failings of the law system? Seriously? Stephen Reynolds (writer and director) has put some thought into his picture, there are some potent passages of dialogue, even if they fall by the wayside as the kills come thick and fast, but it was never marketed to the highbrow seekers. You'll be demoted before you can say Katie Price is a virgin. Vendetta delivers the goods for those looking for a good night in with a beer and some blood and brooding on the screen. Dyer (a real nice bloke in real life) gives good value as a son hell bent on revenge, whilst he also doesn't look out of place in his fight scenes. Haider Zafar's cinematography is superb, the blues and golds magnetic in their visual appeal, and there's good and solid work done by the supporting cast. Vendetta has fans, it really does, so much so that a sequel is currently in production. That news is sure to send those critics sitting up there in their ivory towers at The Guardian and The Telegraph crying over their shrimp salads. But you can bet your last British pound that they will be going to view the sequel expecting a far different movie to the one the man and woman of the street knows they are going to get. Death by cement! Hooray! 7/10