Renegades - Review

****

Screenplay by Tom Jolliffe and Jonathan Sothcott

Directed by Daniel Zirilli

Set in London, Daniel Zirilli’s Renegades is a tightly told story of Goram (Louis Mandylor), an evil gang boss, biting off more than he can chew when he comes up against a band of fiercely loyal, battle-hardened, special forces veterans.

It all kicks off when an American vet, Major Carver (played by Lee Majors – yes, the Six Million Dollar Man) is brutally murdered, stumbling across Goram’s patch. Carver had led a self-help group of vets, working their way through civvy-street with varying degrees of success. Some of the old soldiers are battling PTSD and the love and respect that they feel for the Major is tangible. Without getting sentimental, Sothcott and Jolliffe’s storyline picks out some fine aspects of camaraderie and friendship.

When this ageing band of brothers get to learn of Carver’s gruesome fate they galvanise themselves into action, dredging up whatever weaponry (crossbow anyone?) they’ve held onto over the years, and cooking up a wonderful piece of deliciously vicious hokum that sees Goram’s gang dismantled, mainly through the use of well aimed head-shots.

That the actors playing the veteran good-guys include Sothcott’s (who also produces) hardy perennials of Nick Moran, Ian Ogilvy and Billy Murray only adds to the fun. Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott puts in a fine turn as a cop, while stealing every scene he’s given is the ridiculously brilliant Paul Barber whose cynical, gnarled Scouser marks him out as one of the finest character actors around. There’s even room on the cast list for Patsy Kensit as Carver’s daughter and keep your eyes peeled for the briefest of cameos from Michael Brandon in the finale.

A great night in, Renegades is 90 minutes of bloody brilliant entertainment.

Streaming from 30th January and available on DVD from 13th February

Nemesis - Review

****

Screenplay by Adam Stephen Kelly

Story by Jonathan Sothcott and Adam Stephen Kelly

Directed by James Crow

Billy Murray

Nemesis is the latest offering from producer Jonathan Sothcott. Evidencing his canny eye for today’s zeitgeist, Sothcott’s picture delivers 90 minutes of unpretentious, thinly-plotted movie brilliance that’s guaranteed to cheer-up a locked down evening!

Character hardman Billy Murray, he of The Bill and EastEnders fame but with a string of cockney credits in TV and film stretching back to the 1960s, is London gangster John Morgan, recently exiled to Turkey. Flying in from his sun-drenched villa accompanied by moll/wife Sadie (ably performed by Sothcott’s real-life missus, Jeanine Nerissa), Morgan’s trip to London is ostensibly for he and Sadie to be introduced to Zoe (played by Lucy Aarden), the girlfriend of their daughter Kate (newcomer Ambra Moore). Of course as the plot spins out one learns that there is much more to this long-term villain, together with his nearest and dearest, than meets the eye.

Sothcott has assembled a cracking cast to flesh out his story’s deliciously two-dimensional characters, with family vengeances proving to be a recurrent theme. Nick Moran plays second-generation copper Frank Conway, an alcoholic who blames Morgan for his father’s death. And giving what turns out to be a very brutal twist on sibling rivalry, Frank Harper puts in a grisly performance as Morgan’s brother Richard, transforming a family get together around the dinner table into a charnel house of slaughter that would make Titus Andronicus blush. James Crow deftly directs and with a hint of 21st century noir thrown in, the story makes for a ripping (literally at times) yarn.  

Some of Nemesis' photography captures London in those heady pre-pandemic days (was it barely a year ago?) when the city’s streets teemed with activity, double-decker buses bustled and London was just, well, London. One can only pray for those days to return….

Until then, Nemesis will have to remain a home-viewed thrill. And with pop up cameos from the venerable and always classy Julian Glover, together with the Capital’s original Flying Eye Russ Kane, what’s not to love about this blood-drenched treat of a movie.

Available on DVD and digital download from 29th March