A New Breed of Criminal (2023) User Reviews

Awful

[daviddegiorgio · 3/10 · 23 September 2023]

I know nothing of this story and after watching this film I still know nothing of this story. Its what you call a poor poor man's rise of footsoldier, but one of the sequels cos the original was a good film.

I can forgive the bad casting, stupid accents, time scale, dumb costume, laughable fight sequences, wooden characters etc but at the heart of all this is the awful script. I see the lead character wrote this, and sadly it shows. This is my first time watching a Steve Wraith film and sadly it will be my last. The script was gcse level at best. Not one for slatting ppl in industry but this needs to be said... 'Steve, you may read this and think I don't understand the film you made, but I do and it was a badly made one. Sorry but it's true. Plus those who funded the film, are you on drugs?' Anyone who thinks this is even a fair film knows nothing about film so ignore any high reviews.

Makes no sense

[robertasmith · 3/10 · 23 November 2023]

Why do script writers always try to find excuses for hardened criminals. This film tells the story of some very nasty people and excuses their behaviour by focussing on their hard upbringing and environment. Trouble is, it doesn't tell the story very well. The acting is average at best with the exception of the wonderful Nicholas Ball. The prize for the worst acting goes to the actor playing Detective Scott. He uses the strangest attempt at an American accent I have ever heard but why attempt it in the first place. He is from Newcastle playing a Newcastle detective. Did I miss something. Is he supposed to be on secondment from the NYPD? Was the explainer cut? As for the rest of the story it just glosses over these real life criminals making them out to be some sort of urban heroes. They are not.

Total garbage from the very start

[flah-40413 · 1/10 · 15 September 2023]

The worst film I've ever seen. Bad lighting, bad acting. Smart phones in the 70s 😂 along with modern police cars and uniforms. Diabolical camera work. Why was there a narrator throughout it just made me cringe with embarrassment. Wraith simply cannot act and should never act again. The judges wig looked like something from the joke shop on the Queyside. Avoid at all costs. The police actors were laughable and I just simply could not take them seriously. The fight scenes were absolutely completely ridiculous with no realism whatsoever. Spent your money on something entertaining rather than watching this tripe.

Can I leave 0/10

[martio-85093 · 1/10 · 20 September 2023]

Bless Steve Wraith , the lad so wants to be an actor ....but he's not .Ive seen him in a few things and he's more wooden than Pinocchio's left leg .He seems to stiffen up whenever he has to move .I found myself questioning the actual point of 99% of the film and after sitting through the whole film (in 3 separate sittings) I feel I should punish myself , especially after paying for the privilege. I have an old rusty tin opener in the shed and later on today I will gouge both of my eyes out in an attempt tempt to cleanse my body and what's left of my soul. It makes Rise of the Footsoldier 7 look like Gone With The Wind. I feel I should mention the accent of the lead detective , I can only describe it as sounding like An American Joe Pasquale being violated with a cattle prod. All in all possibly thee worst thing I've ever watched in my life and that includes watching my workmate sneeze in the van causing a large bloodied snot to land on the dashboard.

So bad it's comical

[stevenpercival · 1/10 · 26 September 2023]

Believe me when I say this is possibly the worst 'film' ever made.

The acting is atrocious and makes me cringe.

Don't get me started on Steve Wraith. He cannot act, it's depressingly bad to witness and he needs to accept that.

The American cops accent was hideously poor, how it got past the edit just shows you how amateurish this whole venture was.

One thing I did enjoy though was the choreography on the fight scenes, absolutely hilarious, as if it was done by a couple of 12 year olds in their drama class or even still at break time.

Basically to sum it up, I'd recommend this to nobody...

Terrible film

[FatWasteman · 1/10 · 15 September 2023]

The filum reminds me of a home movie a group of friends have made for a Community Service project, Wraith is as intimidating as a Greggs Steak Slice in the lead role.

The rest of the filums "stars" are are right motley crew of strays and you can certainly tell that the only previous acting they have done has been at their PIP assessments or other DSS related blags.

Delving a little deeper into the people who the filum is about opens a huge Pandoras box, especially considering recent events in the NE involving Hearses, St James's Park, box vans and properties being attacked with tins of black paint.

It's obviously a completely fictional account and should be seen as such Don't bother.

Don't bother

[Evie123 · 1/10 · 22 September 2023]

From the opening scenes and bad lighting, knew this wasn't going to be great.

The narrator even pronounced Elswick with the emphasis on the W, Els Wick, lol

Kept with it hoping to spot places I knew. No nothing to see here, drone shots of the Tyne and a random pub in Consett?

Acting hilarious, at one point thought it was a comedy, it's that bad.

Then realised who Vic was supposed to be and that definitely confirmed it was a comedy.

At one point thought they must of had a Time Machine. Mostly set in the 80's with licence plates of present day and everyone using an I phone.

Save your time and don't bother.

Absolutely horrendous!

[samuraiwarrior-97412 · 1/10 · 7 October 2023]

The worst film i have ever seen...Steve wraith is the worst actor iv ever seen and the rest are no better..80s/90s and they have modern cars made decades later 1 landrover even had a chrome wrap!?? They are also using touch screen android phones when they weren't even invented!..everything in this film is bad....i dont understand why it was even made..its about a north east criminal who wasn't very successful and spent a lot of time in prison...don't waste your time.. its boring.........Newcastle is a great place with lots of great people and this movie just shows a dark side that people dont really care about.

Farcical Rubbish

[daddathegutt · 1/10 · 28 September 2023]

Ok so first, this is set in 1980s/90s, yet everyone has a smartphone, silly mistake but that' sums this up from start to finish.

The lead who plays Stephen is beyond wooden, and it's hard to decide what's worse, the casting or the script.

The Duffer died after a fight at a blues party, stabbed in the armpit. Yet in this he dies walking the town in broad daylight.

The portrayal of Vic or Viv who it's clearly meant to be is again inaccurate.

There's no mention of Stephen and Vic/Viv and the Hobos nightclub incident for which were both jailed for and friends at the time.

The plot jumps around and tries to cram in as much as possible in as short time as possible and the end result was laughable.

Please do not ever write a script again or cast the actor in anything other than an extra role, to help me and others from wasting time and pain.

A film about the north east wouldn't be complete without including Ernie, Big Billy, Panda, Conroys, but through pettiness it seems they've excluded all of the characters that could have made this script better.

Even the use of Duffy was strange and random, and a wasted opportunity missed by amateur writers.

Like to see someone have another try at a true crime north east film, but stay clear of all involved in this when doing so.

Embarrassed for some involved, not all, as 1/2 seemed like cameos for fiends and associates.

Even the ending with Charlie Kray was misleading, Charlie was a loveable rogue, a deal boy, not a gangster, it's disrespectful to his memory to give that impression, but it was also disrespectful to Vivs family how the facts were left out about why they turned on Viv, simply because Viv turned his back on them, came across as petty, like most of the film.

A very good fast moving film based on a true story

[babingez · 10/10 · 18 September 2023]

I really enjoyed this film. It is mostly filmed in the north east of England it charts the rise and fall of Stephen Sayers and his brothers. It is full of action and features many new actors from the north east. The film opens showing Stephen as a young boy and his constant training by a brutal father of how to act if he was arrested. It shows how hard his home life was and how his disrespect of the law was culminated. Starting with petty crime he rose to the really big crimes in the north organising and undertaking some of the biggest robberies in the country. It also shows however no matter how well organised his crimes were they could fail on the smallest of oversights. This film is a good watch throughout and shows that crime really doesn't pay in the end.

Decent

[Jescaq · 7/10 · 11 October 2023]

Overall the movie is actually pretty good. The acting is not as bad as everyone says, however, the camera man might need to find himself another hobby. I enjoyed the movie and honestly found the poundshop wig quite funny. The tribute at the end was also lovely. If a second movie is to come out, I look forward to seeing it. They all played their roles well and I wouldn't say that they did the sayers dirty in any way shape or form. I like how they used us locals in the film too, it makes it more authentic in my opinion even if it feels a little odd as we are so used to having American actors on our screens.

Dont bother

[astracoupe89 · 1/10 · 22 September 2023]

Waste of time. Very amateur filming and I understand having to not use proper names but to have 'vic' portrayed as a skinny cockney is emabarassing when anyone who knows the story will know who the real man was and he was a monster in size. Steve wraith isn't an actor he should stick to what he knows. Venis seemed a good choice to play Duffy would love to see a full blown movie on his story. Some of fight scenes are comical air punches is an understatement.could have been something brilliant if the base story was impartial to include the whole of the Tyneside criminal story. From Duffy viv the conroys etc shame.

Terrible

[anfieldrap-51205 · 1/10 · 24 September 2023]

Could not watch the entire movie, but what I did see was terrible. Poor acting. Poor costumes.

A new breed, military procission. This a jackanory story. If you know you know.

So not pay to watch this wait till its free to watch if indeed you want to watch atall.

I know this movie was made on a small budget with the most of the cast having to for pay there parts, I would not class myself as an actor, but feel I could have done a better.

The police outfits, the judges wig. The smart phones a cars used that where not around back when this so called notorious (🤣) family where talking the police!

Fairly awful

[jsmith-96286 · 1/10 · 22 September 2023]

A genrally awful film that is ot worth watching. There are lots of movies like this and you don't expect them to be great, but's it not hard to generate some sympathy with the villain or at least interest in their fate to pass an hour away. Not here. Dull, unexciting, and completely souless. Who could care how it ended?

T is realIy is amazing to see people award it a 10, have these reviewers ever seen any other "films"? To consider this a 10, or are these planted reviews?

Six hundred characretrs is far too long a limit ofr a minimum review, it s just tedious to fill in the extra chracters when a movie is so awful.

Embarrassing

[ftm-58072 · 1/10 · 3 November 2023]

I don't know how any company even accepted the script for this.

The story and timeline are non sensicle, the filmography is terrible and the acting is from a school pantomime production.

For example the story is supposed to begin in the sixties or seventies yet the cars are 2020 plates. The same 20 plate citroen was used in multiple robberies and Newcastle must only have three or four Police on the force. Why was there a detective with a American accent?

I don't know where else to go with this review the film really is that bad and the acting is absolutely woeful. Fight scenes are the best/worst example of this.

It's so bad it compelled me to watch until the end.

Hilariously Poor

[adamaniac · 1/10 · 29 September 2023]

Personally, I don't know which is a bigger indignity to the North East of England: the felling of the tree which once occupied Sycamore Gap; or this film. Both could be described as mindless acts of cultural vandalism but, unfortunately, whilst one perpetrator will undoubtedly feel the full force of the law buoyed on by the baying mob, the other will escape unscathed with, perhaps, a little bit of money in their pockets.

Because this movie is hilariously bad in every respect, I can foresee it becoming a 'cult classic' in a few years time. A clinic in what not to do for budding students of film everywhere.

Time Travellers

[jwp-92846 · 1/10 · 28 September 2023]

Modern cars, football kits, police uniforms and phones in what I think was the 90s, no idea what so ever what the timelines were meant to be.

All the police uniforms look like they were bought off amazon and the whole films budget was spent on a trip to tenerife.

Fight scenes were comically slow and laughable. All the action scenes could of used my gran as a stunt double.

Silly accents and bad acting all the way through, didn't care about any of the characters or actually who they even were at some points.

The original story deserves much better than what's been dished out. I've seen some bad British gangster films over the years and this is by far the worst.

Dont waist your time

[fretwell-04051 · 1/10 · 1 October 2023]

I dont know were to start. The acting was the worst I've ever seen, the story was ridiculous. If the start was ment to be set in the 70s they didnt use anything from that era to make it at least half believable, the clothes they had on didnt fit the era. Then it shifted to the 90s, and nothing changed, the clothes, cars, gadgets etc weren't from that era, but I suppose it wasnt as noticeable as the 70s part of the movie, but it's just laziness not to try and make a movie realistic. The main actor was horrendous, I think I could of done better, and I've got zero acting experience. The whole thing was a absolute mess. Avoid at all costs.

If you like rubbish, you'll like this

[contactmaz · 2/10 · 21 September 2023]

Like the title says; if you like rubbish, you will certainly like this! What a load of poop.

The acting in this film was hilariously bad. The punch-ups, i.e., The one in the prison, and the one outside the pub was so bad that words actually fail me. The police chief with his ridiculous American accent. Okay guys and girls, I've done the hard work for you I watched this film so that I can warn you "not to watch".

Like the title says; if you like rubbish, you will certainly like this! What a load of poop.

The acting in this film was hilariously bad. The punch-ups, i.e., The one in the prison, and the one outside the pub was so bad that words actually fail me. The police chief with his ridiculous American accent. Okay guys and girls, I've done the hard work for you I watched this film so that I can warn you "not to watch".

Absolutely belta and love it! Thank you!!

[paul-graham-11-872345 · 10/10 · 22 September 2023]

"A New Breed of Criminal" is a captivating crime drama set in the heart of the North East, skillfully portraying the city's criminal underworld while respecting the rich culture and spirit of Newcastle upon Tyne. With stellar performances and an authentic Geordie touch, this film immerses viewers in the gritty charm of the region. While it could have showcased more of Newcastle's fantastic people and culture, so much reminded me of Get Carter from the 1970's .. it's a must-see for its ability to entertain and pay homage to this / our remarkable city and its inhabitants. Would have loved to see more of Toon being featured.

I grew up in the West End .. I knew of the Sayers and their adversaries .. brilliant stuff! Good to see Lee and Brian featued. Brought back so many special memories.

Ignore the 0/10 from the NE4 rivals.

Great story, look forward to the next instalment.

Just awful, don't bother

[rdnu-49698 · 1/10 · 26 September 2023]

A terribly written and acted portral of what could have been a good film.

The north east gangland story throughout the 80's & 90's is a fascinating one and this film is a biased account and done zero justice covering the many aspects and rivalries at the time. It would make a good film if done independently with a good script and a half decent production. All things this film lacks.

The inconsistencies in the timeline, poor staging, terrible/repeat use of props across different decades, bad actors, butchering real life characters, awful narrating, jumping to different points in time and events with zero context or relevance all lead to 2 hours of my life I'll never get back!

I realise budgets were tight during production, but there is no way it could have made it past the edit room and for those involved to be happy with it.

I seriously wouldn't bother, and is definitely not worth the money to rent / buy.

Possibly a tax avoidance scheme

[vsdcrrphb · 1/10 · 21 November 2023]

Story is about some tin pot regional gangsters who haunt the council estates of any English town. The script would be a decent first attempt by a Sixth former with an obsession with local hard men but a bit embarrassing for a man in his 40's/50's.

Was a brave choice to use amateur actors and I had they all had a lovely time trying something new but fair to say there's been no rough diamonds uncovered.

The director doesn't seem to be concerned with trying to align the period the flashbacks are set in with what those times actually looked like and didn't really bother with things like ambiance or nuance. Looking at his past work, I'm assuming this was a 'side of the desk' project or maybe he lost a bet.

Over all, it's amazing this script was even seem worthy of printed copies let alone actually getting funded so I think it needs to be investigated as some kind of money laundering scheme or tax avoidance.

Please, please save yourselves from even watching it on Prime because even the three minutes you'll spend confused before switching it off would be much better invested in literally anything else.

New breed of bulls--t

[leet-77326 · 1/10 · 12 November 2023]

What can I say..budget of ,£40.....smart phones??...modern police cars..2020 car reg plates driving about.shite acting .. poorly put together....more like rise of the toy soldier🙈..actors nowhere near resembling there namesakes...this was supposed to happen in the 80-90s...settings are all modern.no attempt to hide ..doormen took out by a sniper??poor fight scenes.the bairn does better fight scenes than these.watch the bare knuckle boxing match..these must all have been filmed in one take who put the money up for this movie?... easily the worst gangster movie ever...watch it at your peril..save your 90mins for watching paint dry.

Smart phones... Funko pops... And CR7 celebrations

[ianwilliamswandh · 2/10 · 12 November 2023]

It was a bad start when kids playing football are doing CR7 goal celebrations in what is ment to be the 70s. Moving through the film the was no thought to generational props. Smart phones and cars with 2022 reg plates in what should have been the 90s early 00s. I'm sure they could have pushed to boat out and got a Nokia 3210.

For me the only redeeming features were.

The lad that played John. I thought he played the part well.

And the final arrest scene I quite liked how it goes back to the childhood scenes.

Other than that it was very week acting there are plenty of north east actors that could of been cast to make this a more believable and well rounded film.

In terms of British gangster films this has got to be 1 of the worst. Which is disappointing as all the books written about the northeast gangland in this era are very good.

Very poorly executed....terrible

[sebjobs · 1/10 · 28 September 2023]

Was very excited to watch this film as i read the stories about all this people but from the opening scene know it was going to a shocker, this film struggled with its era was like watching a young sayers growing up.in 2000s .

Lee duffy rest in peace his death in this film was a disrespect and the guy they got to play Viv greamhe was shocking.

This film has gotta be the worst film in its genre ....the Sayers brothers can't be happy with crock of s**t....... I was extremely disappointed with this film 😒

Wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

A film about Lee duffy or Viv would be a better choice but atleast put some effort in with setting the scene mext time.