Review of Brighton Rock (2010) by Mikey M — 10 Jul 2011

Hugely disappointed by a remake that has flat characters and just felt overly stylised to be truly engaging. It's overwhelmingly bleak in the telling and Sam Riley was on a hiding to nothing trying to fill the shoes of Pinkie, a character previously played to such devastating effect by Richard Attenborough.

This Pinkie just plain lacked charisma and the cinematic progression lacked the 'little bit larger than life' beats that were required to best motivate Pinkie's character arc from hoodlum to wannabe organised crime boss.

There is just enough about this to make it interesting because the Helen Mirren character is a huge improvement, but unfortunately most of the interest for me came because it was a remake - I probably might've given this half a star less if it wasn't.

I'll be perfectly honest and say that I wish I could've reviewed this without referring to the Boulting version, but if you are going to remake such an iconic British film then you have to take the comparison and live with it.

...in truth, the addition of the Mods and Rockers backdrop was contrived, the film on the whole lacked dynamic, and it was ultimately insignificant against the original.