4 stars ****

A tremendously gripping Brit movie with low budget flying at you from all angles, except the acting and direction which was purely, high budget. Only the title gives you a clue how this kidnap will finish for Alice Creed.

So what’s it all about?

Two men fortify a nondescript British apartment so it can serve as a prison, and then kidnap a woman and tie her to a bed. Before there’s even time to react, we’re plunged into a very nasty situation, but not a simple one.

Director J Blakeson also wrote the screenplay. He knew he was heading for low budget so he took age old advice; keep the locations few and small; keep the case small and don’t spend on effects. He proved that a bigger budget wouldn’t have warranted a grittier outcome.

Eddie Marsan as chief thug delivered his lines resembling personal expertise running a kidnap gang. He even made you sorry for him when he took a bullet and gave a good deed when gunned down.

Gemma Arterton surprised me. She played the part very well. I say surprised because I’d only seen her in movies like St Trininans and briefly in the Bond movie, dressed and killed in gold paint. She was brave to put herself through the harrowing kidnap and strip scenes. I see some bigots have complained that her breasts droop and she’s a little thick around the middle. Note to those idiots: it’s not only catwalk models that get kidnapped. Second note to bigots; you need glasses; she looks real fine,clothed and naked. To the top idiot who complained at the way she was dressed; she didn’t choose how to dress in a movie, she’s an actress. People dress her. She wasn’t there to wear catwalk clothing while under the threat of murder.

Don’t be put off by the low budget. The three person cast, the single location for 95% of the movie and the low spend on effects combine well. The twists and turns will surprise you; the villains are a touch too believable and the ending leaves open a police investigation. The Brits do these films so well.

4 stars****

This franchise continues Guy Ritchie’s excellent direction. If this film is successful (figures show it already is) then he’ll follow up with ‘The Real Rocknrolla’ and finally the trilogy closes with ‘Rocknroll Suicide.’ He’s the master of Brit mobster movies, even if he does have the occasional disappointment.

Stepping aside from Guy Ritchie’s directing work; he is a masterful screenplay writer. This is another of those movies where you can pick up a copy of the screenplay and put the movie into your mind as you read it. There’s a fair chance that you’d end up with the same movie these guys came up with.

While the Academy almost certainly won’t put this Guy Ritchie comedy/mobster screenplay on their final list, it does deserve to be at least, close. You can see that he has dissected every word that he crafted to leave just the bare bones, which means that every word counts.

Tom Wilkinson won applause for his ‘Full Monty’ performance and most definitely for the extraordinary ‘In the Bedroom’ with Sissy Spacek. In this movie, he deserves more praise; his portrayal of a mobster boss who doesn’t appear to essentially be involved directly with his squad’s interrogation techniques, is close to perfect. He may give the orders, but he talks to others.

Thandie Newton, one of many stars in both ‘Crash’ and ‘Mission Impossible II,’ demonstrates an outrageous charm as she fiddles the books for whoever will pay her as an up market accountant. She’ll steal from them by employing low level thugs and then go back for more. If she did make it to the end of the movie (and the gloves being worn by one of the Russian thugs suggests she won’t be) her role could become additionally riveting in franchise part 2.

I’m disheartened that I virtually missed new Bond girl Gemma Arterton as ‘June’ as I wondered what her skills were like before I see the new Bond movie next week. I’ll have to wait and see.

We saw the immense Gerard Butler in Nims Island earlier this year. This actor’s role was so far removed from his previous task, so as to prove his acting abilities show no boundaries, while Mark Strong knows that with his second in command performance, he’ll be back in charge in franchise 2 and, if he lives long enough (in the movie no-one is safe), in franchise 3.

The only person missing was footballer Vinnie Jones, although his acting years are becoming close to his football years, so we will at some stage call him actor, Vinnie Jones. Vinnie was a major player in early Guy Ritchie films, especially the film of 1999, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Two final points of major interest then:

One; no definite violence is in fact, seen. Show and not tell is used to mammoth proportions. You see the golf club going down on the man’s legs. You don’t see it really hit the legs, but you do know his legs will be broken. You may see the blood hit the wall, but you don’t see the bullet going into, through and out the opposite side of the soon to be corpse.

Two; Guy Ritchie, via both films schools of high note (Dov S-S Simens and Elliot Grove’s Raindance) is an excellent screenplay writer. This script is one of the best in years. It’s an excellent example of how to re-write until you assemble all that the experts will charge you to find out. It’ll be used as an illustration of clear writing at future film schools.

I hope his divorce from Madonna doesn’t slow down his output.