Woodyanders A group of white collar college student criminals led by the charismatic Sam (smoothly played by Ed Speleers) live high on the hog by stealing credit cards and identities from rich folks. The group find themselves in a serious bind after they inadvertently cross sadistic crime boss Marcel (a nicely ruthless portrayal by Thomas Kretschmann), who forces them to come up with a payment of two million dollars in two weeks time or else. While director/co-writer Julian Gilbey keeps the reasonably enjoyable story moving along at a brisk pace, brings a cool slick style to the proceedings, and stages an exciting climatic shootout with flair and skill, he nonetheless crucially fails to generate much in the way of tension and lets the plot become more increasingly preposterous as it unfolds. Moreover, the spoiled and arrogant thief protagonists are decidedly less than likeable and appealing due to the lack of any essential deep characterization. On the plus side, foxy blonde Emma Rigby looks absolutely smashing in a bikini, Alfie Allen smarms it up well as shifty rotten apple Yatesey, and Graham McTavish amuses as a horny diamond broker. Both Chad Hobson's pulsating score and Peter Wignall's glossy widescreen cinematography are up to speed. An okay diversion.

ksf-2 Sometimes hard to understand what the heck they are saying, especially near the beginning. Not sure if its the Brit accent or that thy are speaking SO FAST. The story is pretty typical. Some local small time thugs are running schemes to make extra cash, but this time they rob the wrong guy; he's a big time crime boss, and demands a HUGE sum to go away. Actors Ed Speleers, Will Poulter, Alfie Allen, and Sebastian DeSousa have to come up with a way to raise money fast. They enlist the help of "Frankie" (Emma Rigby) and they are off to Miami to find some big fish to fleece. This film is all about using hot credit cards they have lifted, and it seems to me that the credit card companies would have shut off the cards quicker than they do in our story. But... I guess one has to buy into the plot. or not. It's not bad. Not a lot of chemistry between the actors. Lots of topless females and cussing. All kinds of bloody, violent shootings. Some humor, but not much. The story overall is pretty good. Directed by Julian Gilbey. Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

CelluloidDog Reel Score: 4.3-4.6/10 Not really a bad film but the reviews here are 5.9/10 which must be a joke. So giving a 4/10 lowers it. But on a given day, I could even give it a 5/10 which is still below average (5-6) for me. Given it's a film from UK, that's not good news since there are plenty of solid films coming from the British Isles lately.It's hard to find something really likable about this film other than Frankie played by Emma Rigby. Alfie Allen who plays Yatesey is a bright spot. The extra nuts in the private jet was actually a bit funny, but there wasn't much to laugh about for the entire film except laughing at it. The film claims to be base on a real story but it's about 95% fictionalized except for the car crash taken from Graff Diamonds Robbery which was UK's largest in 2009. Other from that, there are no justified claims of reality. Acting is average, script is weak. We are supposed to believe a group of young men who can barely grow facial hair are responsible for raking in cash from a sophisticated fraud ring before trying to pull off a major heist. It's rather simplistic, aiming at a young audience. Speed, sex, violence are all part of the unoriginal formula. It's like a teenage horror film meets Ocean's Eleven.There are dozens of better capers and this film doesn't fall among them. Still, it's passable if you have nothing better to do as it's not horrible, but it does fall short.

Neil Welch Four young London men, seeing their future limited by poor job prospects, develop a cottage industry of cloning credit cards. When two of them extend their activity to stealing a briefcase from the accountant of a rather unsavoury gangster, the four of them find that they have inadvertently incurred a rather large debt which carries with it the promise of severe physical retribution. Their only hope is to recruit a young woman who works for a credit card company and go for the cards of big spenders. In Miami.The character dynamics in this tale (allegedly based on a true story) contain no surprises - we have the hero-type, his decent back-up guy, the dozy one, and the unreliable and somewhat duplicitous one. But the plot roams all over the place, and you are never quite sure how it is going to end up. The young cast does quite well.I quite enjoyed it, although I think some aspects of the story don't bear very close examination, and I can imagine that there are those who will be annoyed by it. There is a lot of swearing and a bit of nudity and drug taking. Oh, and of course there is a fair amount of violence and crime.