Spencercollins I actually cannot believe what I have just seen. The acting was utterly appalling. Pat Tate was a man mountain that commanded respect, a steroid driven hulk. The guy playing him looks like hes never even walked past a gym let alone been in one. And tony tuckers character???? he'd be spinning in his grave. Id be more scared if my Nan piped up at me. and whose narrating this?? someone just wasted a whole bunch of money shooting this crap. its billed as the true story but anyone who knew the boys, or at least a basic knowledge of how the story goes will know that this movie is filled with more holes than a teabag. what the hell was the Amsterdam scene about?? when did that happen? and since when did mickey Steele supply the pills that put Leah in her coma. if the terrible, completely unbelievable character acting don't seal its fate, the atrocious production, editing and lighting certainly will. the only thing this DVD came in useful for was to De-ice my car windscreen. avoid it like the plague or spend an hour and a half of your life that you'll never get back. 1 out of 10

Si H Where do we start. If you really have nothing else to do, you could do worse.Paul Tanter is an up and comer, but he is in danger of "pigeon holing" himself in this genre of gritty crime dramas. He is obviously talented and his past work with Simon Phillips and Nick Neverne is worthy of inspection. Phillips in particular was under used in the acting sense for this picture.OK the story - Same old, same old. with a couple of extra twists, which if you believe the front cover/poster, will enlighten us as it is the "only true Essex Boys movie". If you do, you'll be disappointed. Some characters were depicted with their real names, other were complete falsehoods, like the poor girl who tragically died. I am sure that there are reasons why real names were not used. Same format, different actors, apart from poor Kierston Wareing, who has now played Pat Tate's downtrodden lady in at least three films. Now Kierston is good, a very good actress, but she really must either live in Southend, close to the pier, or Alex Kingston sold the exclusive rights to the part, once she saw how bad Essex Boys turned out. Kierston, all that breeze coming off the North Sea is beginning to make your cheeks very rosy. Get inside and have a cup of hot tea!The main protagonists - Jay Brown I like, but in this part (Tucker)he seems to have been told to walk around like he was in a Mr Universe pose-down. He is so much better than that. The script obviously did not allow him to play the part with the charisma of Terry Stone who played the part on a couple of previous occasions. Pete Barratt swears his way through the move, as all previous Tate incarnations have to do. Unfortunately he doesn't look the part, like the hulking Tamar Hassan or have the presence of the charismatic Craig Fairbrass who I think is best actor to capture this hoodlum. (although you could argue that Hassan and Fairbrass gave Tate a comedic turn also, however warped that sounds.)The police detective was solid and Ewan Ross was believable. Unfortunately the scenes where he was the central character, gave him little to work with in terms of antagonist to converse with and develop his character more.There must have been investment from someone and I love the fact that people are still investing in UK film. Maybe this was a tax break, because if I was a serious investor - I would be upset with my end product.The story has been done and has been done better, much better. The worst of the films depicting this infamous story. It is time it was left alone now. I do not blame the actors. I blame a weak script and blasé production.3/10 - Could do better, but please do not try with this story again please.

Karl Self There are now three movies on the 1995 Rettendon murders, if I have counted correctly. In chronological order: Essex Boys, The Rise Of The Foot Soldier, and now The Fall Of The Essex Boys. The former is a conventional feature movie (starring Sean Bean), the latter two use a documentary-style approach with first-person narrators. The Fall Of The Essex Boys tries to be the hardest of them all, it almost feels as if the narrator is spitting into your ear ("It didn't take long for the near gear to spread frough Essex like an effing virus.") The actors are all trying a bit to hard to appear tough as nails and their overdone Cockney accents quickly begin to grate. At the same time, it does a bad job at recounting at least a semblance of a plot. All three movies revel in machism and violence. If that's your cuppa, I recommend The Rise Of The Footsoldier, to which The Fall Of The Essex Boys has nothing to add (except maybe more plump-breasted birds).The fact that a fairly conventional triple gangland murder still spawns movies twenty years later tells you what a quiet little place Old Blighty really is.

dgh180 A truly awful film,there are numerous mistakes,Michael Steele is portrayed here as supplying the ecstasy that killed Leah Betts which is completely untrue.Also it relies on imaginary events such as the Essex Boys whacking 3 drug dealers in Amsterdam,anybody who has even a basic knowledge of what happened in Rettendon in 1995 will laugh their heads off,i was simply gobsmacked at how this even got released,it is not even good enough to go straight to DVD.Kierston Wareing was great in previous 'Essex Boys' films but should really have known better,the acting is so over the top and the worst thing for me was the talk over by some idiot trying to sound threatening but actually coming across as a prize chump.