"Brutal
even better than Rise of the Footsoldier", said one critic about "Bonded by Blood", no doubt while counting the pound notes inside a vanilla envelope.
Lot of critics have shredded Rise of the Footsoldier", the second film about the infamous Rettendon Range Rover killings: too brutal, too many drugs, too much swearing and a rather inconsistent storyline. However, friends of violent British gangster / hooligan films have declared "Footsoldier" a cult-movie and wondered why there seemed a need to have the story filmed a third time.
The main reason why a "Footsoldier"-fan would want to watch "Bonded by Blood" is the return of many actors from the first film: Terry Stone reprises the role of the foul-mouthed Tony Tucker; albeit a somehow polished version, without the ludicrous wig he had to wear in "Footsoldier", replaced with a cheap suit looking like a leftover from "Goodfellas" and a Terry Stone who at all times looked uncomfortable, not sure why he was there in the first place. Neil Maskell, having a minor role as Darren Nicholls in the prior film, plays Craig Rolfe; physically more accurate in "Bounded for Blood", his character pales in comparison to the slimy, malicious Rolfe that Roland Manookian had played.
Jack Whomes, in both films the man who fires the first shots into the Range Rover, is played by Dave Legeno, who had a small role as hooligan in "Rise of the Footsoldier". Prior Ben Harper played Whomes as a psychopathic henchman, his final scene giving the viewers chills, but the Whomes of this movie is no more than a robotic hulk with a shotgun. And while we're on the topic of miscasting: whatever gave the producers the impression that Pat Tate was Turkish? A highlight could have been Vincent Regan, whose hawk-like eyes and chiselled features made him one of the more memorable characters in Zack Snyder's "300". Alas, Regan playing the burned out gangster Mickey Steele, is wasted in this role, looking all the while as if he just hadn't slept enough before shooting.
If you compare "Rise of the Footsoldier" to a hooligan on steroid-rage, "Bonded by Blood" is more like a backdoor-dealer on tranquilizers: there's plenty of pointless talking, occasional cussing, beatings and shootings, bits of nudity and bits of drug-taking. About midway the viewer stops caring for the one-dimensional characters, waiting for the infamous Range Rover shooting scene, the bloody and very realistic highlight of "Footsoldier". The scene comes, shotguns are emptied (more or less in the off) into the occupants of the Rover and the viewer is left with a distinct sentiment of "so what".
In Germany, "Bonded by Blood" has been released under the moniker "Footsoldier 2", hoping to rehash the success of the 2008 film but personally, I hope that the "Footsoldier"-fans won't fall for that promotional gimmick – unlike me, who naturally pulled his wallet when the film hit the shelves.
I'll give it a well-meaning three points out of ten but if I had to watch the film again, I'd probably reduce that to two.
