Paul Evans You couldn't wish to put together a film with such brilliant assets, a great story, superb production values, Brighton looking incredible, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, John Hurt...Sadly overall it's just average, I hadn't seen it for years and thought let's give it another go, and my opinion hasn't altered, a film that should be superb on all fronts, sadly falls short, it's watchable, it's well acted, it looks fantastic, it just fails to engage, what should be exciting is a little dull. On the plus side, the acting is superb, excellent performances all round, most notably from Sam Riley, who is compelling. The visuals are the films strengths, it looks great, the scenes involving the mods and rockers look so good, they truly managed to capture the era.Maybe my expectations were too high, it always leaves me disappointed. 6/10

Nozz Evidently in order to simplify the plot, this version of BRIGHTON ROCK starts off on the wrong foot and never regains its balance. The start of the book (and of the 1947 movie) shows us the murder of an innocent man. An impecunious, promiscuous middle-aged woman with an innate sense of justice refuses to let the murder go unsolved. In this new movie, the murder victim is a violent thug and the middle-aged woman is a friend of his, so the pure and disinterested quest for justice is muddied up by the woman's personal motivation and the victim's own culpability. Moreover, she isn't wanting for money, so her quest for justice, while still dangerous, is less quixotic.There is also a problem with the young gang leader and his girlfriend. The book contains certain extremes of characterization that the movie might indeed be excused for avoiding, especially in the 21st century. The gang leader is supposed to be in his mid-teens, while his gang members are adults, and if that were on the screen before your eyes it would be harder to believe than in a book. Still, although both movies used actors out of their teens, this time the fellow scarcely looks boyish; he's balding deep at the temples. And his girlfriend in the movie makes less of an effort than in the book to turn her attention away from his evildoing. It's understandable that a movie in 2010 would not want her portrayed as hiding her head in the sand; but by reducing her naiveté, as in taking away the innocence of that murder victim at the beginning, the movie becomes more a tale about those other people, the criminals who are unlike you and me, and less a story where we can find people to identify with.

josh-fielding First off, I have not read the original novel by Graham Greene. I am however, familiar with his short story collection "A Sense of Reality". He is lauded as a talented writer and I look forward to familiarizing myself with his works. Now to the film. I went into Brighton Rock with a sense of high expectation and was immensely satisfied. The film is well-paced and involving and it raises a lot of questions about love and war. BRIGHTON ROCK reinvents the original story to be set in the 60's and includes the war between the Mods and the Rockers. This is done extremely well and contributes to the story. Our story (or Graham's if you will) begins on the pier near what my father called "one of the worst beaches in the world". You can tell. One man is killed and another assaulted. We meet Pinky (Sam Riley), name not yet given. He is panicked over the events that have just occurred. Later, he bumps into Rose (Andrea Riseborough) on the pier. A photographer snaps a picture of them in a tense moment and this starts off a self-destructing chain of events. I should not forget that when we meet Helen Mirren she is talking to Phil Corkery (John Hurt). I rather like John Hurt after seeing him in HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 and 2, ALIEN and TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. Ida (Helen Mirren) is Rose's boss at the diner and she does not approve one square inch of a fraction of a second of the tick of a clock, so to speak, of Pinky and Rose's relationship. This causes much friction, especially when she masquerades as Rose's mother to talk to her and fools Pinky's friend that she is indeed concerned about Pinky (the friend does not know her). There is also friction between Pinky and Colleoni (Andy Serkis) a rival gang lord. Serkis gives a spot-on performance. After a confrontation between Pinky and Rose, Ida and Dallow (Nonso Anozie), at the climax of the film, Rose is in the infirmary and goes to play a "love" record which Pinky made for her earlier in the film. The record actually details how much he dislikes her and never loved her, quite nastily. However, the record gets stuck and says the words "You have asked me to make a record saying that I love you." and then repeats "I love you." over and over again. I will reserve the final part of this review for the camera work, which is breath-taking. I felt swept along the story by the camera movements, which are perfect and beautiful. This is a great looking film, and when I witnessed this during the beginning, in which there is a scene in a bathroom where Pinky assaults Spicer (Philip Davis), I loved how it was done. And so I conclude this review by giving credit to the cinematographer John Mathieson, who has also worked on X-MEN FIRST CLASS, AUGUST RUSH, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and ROBIN HOOD among other things. Brighton Rock is a chilling and thought-provoking foray into Graham Greene's dark world of love, murder and revenge which captured me from the very beginning.

willmossop1 I am so pleased I did not go to see this film. I would much rather have watched the original black and white version again and would recommend anybody else to do the same. Every part in this new version was acted better in the original. Hermione Gingold any day over Helen Mirren. The sound quality is very poor. Most people seemed to mumble their way through and clearly the director was not concerned in the least. The only bright spot of the film was the performance of Phil Davis' as Spicer. Though to anyone with knowledge of the book and the original film version the parts of Dallow and Spicer have clearly been switched. It is an intentional and convoluted switch for "politically correct" reasons which leaves the character of Dallow (played by Nonzo Anosie), central to the book and the original film, still in place for the final sequence despite Anozie's inability to carry the significant part of Dallow; hence the switch and Davis' part of Spicer being enhanced to cover it. Sam Riley tried his best, no doubt, as Pinky but frankly he wasn't a patch on Richard Attenborough's performance.