Lisa Palfrey: Sex Education (TV), Line of Duty (TV), Under Milk Wood (2015), Pride (2014), Maybe Baby, Guest House Paradiso, House of America, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, James McArdle, Joe Alwyn, Adrian Lester, Martin Compston, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Ian Hart, Izuka Hoyle, Maria Dragus, Eileen O’Higgins, Liah O’Prey, Brendan Coyle, Gemma Chan, Simon Russell Beale with David Tennant and Guy Pearce
Saoirse Ronan: Ammonite, The French Dispatch, Little Women (2019), The Seagull, On Chesil Beach, Lady Bird, Loving Vincent, Brooklyn, Lost River, The Grand Budapest Hotel, How I Live Now, Byzantium, The Host (2013), Hanna, The Way Back, The Lovely Bones, City Of Ember, Death Defying Acts, Atonement
Margot Robbie: Barbie, Birds of Prey 2 – Gotham City Sirens, Suicide Squad 2, Peter Rabbit 2 (voice), Bombshell, Birds of Prey, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, The Lego Movie 2 – The Second Part (voice), Slaughterhouse Rulez, Terminal, Peter Rabbit (voice), I Tonya, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Suicide Squad, The Legend of Tarzan, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, Focus, Z is for Zachariah, Suite Francaise, The Wolf of Wall Street, About Time, Neighbours (TV)
James McArdle: Ammonite, The Chamber, On the Road – Wolf Alice
Joe Alwyn: A Christmas Carol (2020)(TV), The Souvenir 2, Harriet, Boy Erased, The Favourite, Operation Finale, The Sense of an Ending, Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk
Adrian Lester: Curfew (TV), London Spy (TV), Jimi – All Is By My Side, Hustle (TV), Doomsday, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, As You Like It (2006), The Day After Tomorrow, Dust, Born Romantic, Maybe Baby, Best, Love’s Labours Lost, Primary Colours, Up On The Roof, La Soeurs Soleil, Silent Witness (TV)
Ismael Cruz Cordova: Miss Bala, Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk, Ray Donovan (TV), In The Blood
Ian Hart: Noughts + Crosses (TV), Escape from Pretoria, Modern Life is Rubbish, God’s Own Country, Dough, Urban Hymn, Boardwalk Empire (TV), Hard Boiled Sweets, Morris – A Life With Bells On, A Boy Called Dad, Breakfast On Pluto, A Cock and Bull Story, Rag Tale, Finding Neverland, Blind Flight, Killing Me Softly, Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone, Strictly Sinatra, Born Romantic, Liam, Best, The Closer You Get, The End Of The Affair, Wonderland (1999), This Year’s Love, Enemy Of The State, B-Monkey, Mojo, The Butcher’s Boy, Michael Collins, The Hollow Reed, Nothing Personal, Clockwork Mice, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Land and Freedom, Backbeat, The Hour and The Times
Brendan Coyle: Downton Abbey, Me Before You, Noble, Downton Abbey (TV), The Raven, Lark To Candelford Rise (TV), Perrier’s Bounty
Gemma Chan: Eternals, Captain Marvel, Watership Down (TV)(voice), London Fields, Crazy Rich Asians, Transformers 5 – The Last Knight, Humans (TV), Stratton, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Jack Ryan – Shadow Recruit, Pimp, Exam
Guy Pearce: Bloodshot, A Christmas Carol (2020)(TV), Domino (2019), Jack Irish (TV), Swinging Safari, Alien Covenant, Brimstone, Holding the Man, The Rover, Breathe In, Iron Man 3, Prometheus, Lawless, Lockout, Justice, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, The King’s Speech, Animal Kingdom, The Road, Hurt Locker, Traitor, Factory Girl, The Proposition, Two Brothers, The Hard Word, The Time Machine (2002), The Count Of Monte Cristo (2002), Memento, The Rules Of Engagement, Ravenous, L.A. Confidential, Dating The Enemy, The Adventures Of Queen Priscilla Of The Desert, Home and Away (TV), Neighbours (TV)
Cast: Camille Rutherford, Sean Biggerstaff, Edward Hogg, Aneurin Barnard, Mehdi Dehbi, Bruno Todeschini, Roxane Duran, Gaia Weiss, Zoe Schellenberg, Penelope Leveque, Sylvain Levitte, Stephan Eicher, Clive Russell, Ian Hanmore with Joana Preiss and Tony Curran
Gaia Weiss: Judy, Vikings (TV), The Legend of Hercules
Clive Russell: Doc Martin (TV), Supervized, Curfew (TV), Outlaw King, Rellik (TV), The Limehouse Golem,The Hatton Garden Job, Ripper Street (TV), Game of Thrones (TV), Still, Thor 2 – The Dark World, Outpost 2, The Wicker Tree, Sherlock Holmes 2- Game of Shadows, Sherlock Holmes (2009), Coronation St (TV), The Wolfman (2009), Ladies In Lavender, Festival, Mr In-Between, The 13th Warrior, Oscar & Lucinda, Margaret’s Museum, The Hawk, Neverwhere (TV), Soft Top – Hard Shoulder
Ian Hanmore: Game of Thrones (TV), The Fades (TV)
Joana Preiss: Raw, Dans Paris, Paris je t’aime
Tony Curran: Deadwood – The Movie, SEAL Team (TV), Ray Donavan (TV), Calibre, Outlaw King, Eat Locals, Race, Awaiting, Marvellous, Thor 2 – The Dark World, In The Dark Half,The Veteran, The Adventures of Tintin (voice), X Men – First Class, Red Road, Underworld 2 – Evolution, The Good German, Ondine, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Ultimate Force (TV), Blade 2, This Life (TV), Captives
Cast: Ella Hunt, Mark Addy, Sheridan Smith, Sally Phillips, Alexander Morris, Clive Mantle, Tom Davis, Tony Way, Rosie Akerman and Jo Brand with Ricky Tomlinson and Sheila Hancock
Mark Addy: Mary Poppins Returns (voice), Lies We Tell, Trollied (TV), Game of Thrones (TV), It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, Robin Hood (2010), Barney’s Version, Heartlands, The Time Machine, A Knight’s Tale, Down To Earth, The Flintstones 2 – Viva Rock Vegas The Last Yellow, Jack Frost, The Full Monty
Jo Brand: Damned (TV), Peppa Pig – My First Cinema Experience (voice), Getting On (TV), Jo Brand’s Cats & Kittens (TV), QI (TV), Horrid Henry – The Movie, Jo Brand’s Great Wall of Comedy, Human Traffic (voice), Absolutely Fabulous (TV)
Ricky Tomlinson:Gloves Off,Grimsby, Flutter, Northern Soul, Nativity!, The Royle Family (TV), Mike Bassett – Manager (TV), Once Upon a Time In The Midlands, Playing The Field (TV), Formula 51, Mike Bassett – England Manager, Nasty Neighbours, Mojo, Preaching To The Perverted, Cracker (TV), Bob’s Weekend, Butterfly Kiss, Raining Stones, Riff Raff, Brookside (TV)
Sheila Hancock:Edie, New Tricks (TV), The Boy In Striped Pyjamas, Yes, Love & Death on Long Island, A Business Affair, 3 Men and a Little Lady, Doctor Who (TV), Buster, The Wildcats of St Trinians, Carry On Cleo
Cast: Josh Whitehouse, Freya Mavor, Ian Hart, Tom Riley, Will Merrick, Daisy Bevan, Jessie Cave, Matt Milne, Tallulah Haddon with Sorcha Cusack and Steven Mackintosh
This romantic drama has a plot that sticks firmly in its groove. Like the vinyl records and CDs this film waxes lyrical about, this also goes round and round a mulberry bush we’ve all visited too many times, so many times a deep holloway takes us neck deep into the cliche. However, as determined as this film is not to distinguish itself in anyway, there are faint signs of life at its heart.
Liam (JOSH WHITEHOUSE – TV’s POLDARK) and Natalie (FREYA MAVOR – CEZANNE ET MOI) are breaking up. Whilst dividing their beloved record collection they revisit moments from their past – will music bring them back together. We see Liam’s attempts to become a rock star in the age of free MP3s and dead record shops flounder badly and the relationship crashes on to the shore because of a lack of wages, committment and common sense. Natalie seems to be fixated on the basic dream of having a nice house, a marriage and children. She even demands that he provide this at one point. Liam’s band meet The Curve (IAN HART – BACKBEAT) a music guru who might just change their fortune but is it all too late for Liam? Well, it would seem that the only way to get Natalie to come back to him is for him to become an overnight sensation, which he does? And what does he do – he throws it all away to become a dad. Wow.
Likeable lead performances save this for being completely boring, and its well made in a workmanlike sense. Nothing offends and the film bends over backwards to appeal to the least discerning of film fans. The soundtrack, although good, won’t win awards for digging deep, but whilst it loves Blur, Oasis, Radiohead and the top 3, somehow Liam’s characters gets you on his side, despite some dodgy decisions, it’s a shame the girlfriend is so ordinary, underwritten to the point of being a Sindy doll, and ultimately mechanical and self-serving.
The supporting cast of Tom Riley (TV’s DA VINCI’S DEMONS), Steven Mackintosh (LONDON KILLS ME), Sorcha Cusack (ANGEL) and Will Merrick (TV’s POLDARK) are all solid but even the films attempts at being wacky come across green, and that’s when you realise that this is the music industry as envisioned by squares.
4 out of 10 – Too square to be a lot of fun. It’s like your Mum & Dad rapping Public Enemy at the Karaoke. Some nice touches don’t rescue this ‘safe’ bet.
Ian Hart: Mary Queen of Scots, God’s Own Country, Dough, Urban Hymn, Boardwalk Empire (TV), Hard Boiled Sweets, Morris – A Life With Bells On, A Boy Called Dad, Breakfast On Pluto, A Cock and Bull Story, Rag Tale, Finding Neverland, Blind Flight, Killing Me Softly, Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone, Strictly Sinatra, Born Romantic, Liam, Best, The Closer You Get, The End Of The Affair, Wonderland (1999), This Year’s Love, Enemy Of The State, B-Monkey, Mojo, The Butcher’s Boy, Michael Collins, The Hollow Reed, Nothing Personal, Clockwork Mice, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Land and Freedom, Backbeat, The Hour and The Times
Will Merrick: Poldark (TV), About Time, Skins (TV)
Jessie Cave: Trollied (TV), Pride (2014),Great Expectations (2012), Harry Potter 8 – The Deathly Hallows 2, Harry Potter 7 – The Deathly Hallows 1, Harry Potter 6 – The Half Blood Prince
Sorcha Cusack: Father Brown (TV), The Flag, Mrs Brown’s Boys – D’Movie, Mrs Brown’s Boys (TV), Coronation St (TV), Snatch, Casualty (TV), Angel, Jane Eyre (1973)
Steven Mackintosh: Lucky Man (TV), Urban Hymn, Set Fire To The Stars, Robot Overlords, Gold (2014), Kick Ass 2, The Sweeney,Elfie Hopkins, Luther (TV), The Escapist, Underworld 3 – Rise of the Lycans, Underworld 2 – Evolution, Land Girls, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, House Of America, The Grotesque, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Blue Juice, Princess Caraboo, The Buddha Of Suburbia (TV), London Kills Me
Cast: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward, Martin McCann, Eileen Walsh, Aaron Monaghan, Niamh McGrady, Ross McKinney, Elva Trill, Tim Creed, Cillian O’Sullivan, Patrick Buchanan, Sean T O’ Mallaigh, and Lalor Roddy
Solid film rendering of the 1983 Maze prison break that could have been a tiny bit more dramatic and involving. However, there is a lot here to keep you watching, and after seeing one or two films that have dramatised the same year’s hunger strikes which saw ten IRA men die as a result of their participation in a hunger strike, this is new territory for me. To show that the IRA had not been defeated some Catholic inmates decide to plan a prison break. Masterminded by Larry Marley (TOM VAUGHAN-LAWLOR – AVENGERS 3 – INFINITY WAR) he realises that its a taller order than anyone may have expected to get nearly 40 men over the wall of one of the best fortified prisons in the world. Find a flaw in the Maze Prison’s armour he did though, and with some loss of life, 38 men broke free.
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor does some fine work as the steely, cunning Marley, and he’s well matched by Barry Ward (BYPASS) as the head warder in H2. Beginning a shakey friendship through necessity in order to glean information that may aid an escape, you begin to see how without politics and life-threatening religious divisions how alike these men are to one another. It’s human nature to lower your guard when someone is good to you or shows and interest and its a wonder to see one man fall under the other’s spell to such an extent where his integrity is put up for tender.
The boredom of jail isn’t so much lost on the makers and understood and weaved into the story. So its a thin line between seeing boring things happen, and getting bored yourself. It’s lucky that this is an actors film and they lift the material above the pedestrian script which does little more than connect a series of well-telegraphed polot points. The ending has a written footnote about five pages long – which could be a record but still makes for interesting reading and could have made for a more interesting filmm about how some of the escapees evaded capture for so long.
An interesting story waiting for the quintessential dramatisation that it deserves. This will do but as it stands its an above average made-for-TV special rescued by a grand cast.
5.5 out of 10 – An average period drama about the IRA Maze Prison break in the early 80s. A good attempt but ultimately, its little more than a plod through the incident report.
WHAT HAVE I SEEN THAT ACTOR IN BEFORE?
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor: Avengers 3 – Infinity War, Daphne, The Secret Scripture, The Infiltrator, Becoming Jane
Cast: Colin Firth, Rachel Weisz, David Thewlis, Ken Stott, Jonathan Bailey, Adrian Schiller, Oliver Maltman with Simon McBurney and Mark Gatiss
Writer: Scott Z Burns
WHAT HAVE I SEEN THAT ACTOR IN BEFORE?
Colin Firth: Kursk, Mary Poppins 2, Mamma Mia 2, The Happy Prince, Kingsman 2,Bridget Jones 3, Before I Go To Sleep, Kingsman – The Secret Service, Magic In The Moonlight, Arthur & Mike, The Devil’s Knot, The Railway Man, Gambit (2012), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,The King’s Speech, St Trinians 2, A Single Man, Dorian Gray, Easy Virtue, Genova, Mamma Mia!, The Accidental Husband, St Trinians, And When Did You Last See Your Father, The Last Legion, Nanny McPhee, Where The Heart Lies, Bridget Jones 2, Trauma (2004), Love Actually, The Girl With The Pearl Earring, Hope Springs, The Importance Of Being Ernest (2002), Bridget Jones, Relative Values, Shakespeare In Love, A Thousand Acres, Fever Pitch, The English Patient, Pride & Prejudice (TV), Circle Of Friends, The Hour Of The Pig, Valmont, Apartment Zero, A Month In The Country, Another Country
Rachel Weisz: The Favourite, My Cousin Rachel, Denial, The Light Between The Oceans, Youth (2016), The Lobster, Oz The Great and Powerful, 360, The Bourne Legacy, Dream House, The Deep Blue Sea (2011), The Lovely Bones, The Brothers Bloom, My Blueberry Nights, Eragon (voice), The Fountain, The Constant Gardner, Constantine, Runaway Jury, the Shape Of Things, About a Boy, The Mummy 1 & 2, Enemy At The Gates, Beautiful Creatures, I Want You, Land Girls, Bent, Chain Reaction, Stealing Beauty, Death Machine
David Thewlis: Fargo (TV), Wonder Woman, Anomalisa (voice), Regression, Legend (2015), Queen & Country, The Theory of Everything, Stonehearst Asylum, Zero Theorem, Red 2, War Horse, The Lady (2012), Anonymous, Mr Nice, London Boulevard, Harry Potter 3, 6, 7 & 8, The Boy In Striped Pyjamas, The Omen (2006), Basic Instinct 2, The New World, Kingdom Of Heaven, Gangster No.1, Whatever Happened To Harold Smith?, Besieged, The Big Lebowski, Divorcing Jack, Seven Days In Tibet, The Island Of Dr Moreau, Total Eclipse, James and The Giant Peach (voice), Restoration, Black Beauty (1994), Naked, The Trial (1993), Afraid Of The Dark, Life Is Sweet, Resurrected, Valentine Park (TV), Vroom
Ken Stott: Fortitude (TV), 100 Streets, Cafe Society, Man Up, The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies, The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey, One Day, The Chronicles Of Narnia – Prince Caspian, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Mighty Celt, King Arthur, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, The Debt Collector, Plunkett & Macleane, The Boxer, Fever Pitch, Shallow Grave
Jonathan Bailey: W1A (TV), Broadchurch (TV), Testament of Youth, Five Children and It
Simon McBurney: The Conjuring 2, Mission Impossible 5, The Theory of Everything, Magic In The Moonlight, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Jane Eyre (2011), Rev (TV), Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows – Part 1, The Duchess, The Golden Compass, Body of Lies, The Last King Of Scotland, The Manchurian Candidate (2006), Kafka
Mark Gatiss: Christopher Robin, The Favourite, Game of Thrones (TV), Dr Who (TV), Taboo (TV), Sherlock (TV), Denial, Absolutely Fabulous – The Movie, Dad’s Army (2016), Our Kind of Traitor, Victor Frankenstein, London Spy (TV), Wolf Hall (TV), Starter For 10, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (voice), The League of Gentleman’s Apocalypse, Sex Lives of the Potato Men, Birthday Girl, The League of Gentlemen (TV)
Cast: Frederick Schmidt, John Hannah, Ana Ularu, Struan Rodger, Lara Peake, Jack McMullen, Ian Sharp, Simon Lowe, Patrick Connolly, Barry Aird, Skye Lourie, Cosmo Jarvis, Juliet Oldfield with Cathy Tyson and Andrew Shim
Reminiscent of director Mike Hodges‘ best work like the classic Get Carter, and later efforts like Croupier and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, this is a sombre crime flick with an interesting lead character. We’ve been on these streets before though, as this looks could almost be a supernatural remix of the Craig Fairbrass vehicle Breakdown – in which a hit man develops a conscience and turns rogue against his handlers. Two other films, Assassin (starring Danny Dyer) and The Hunter’s Prayer (starring Sam Worthington) also follow the same arc. The difference being here is that it’s handled aptly, artfully and it’s virtually note-perfect – whereas the others were left struggling to convince or were plain boring.
Wrong-un Marley Dean Jacobs, has something in common with his Dickensian namesake, he also receives repeated spectral visits from a young woman (ANA ULURU – ANACONDA 3) he accidentally killed on a smash and rob raid on some fellow crims. Marley sees her everywhere, during his ten-year stretch in jail and on release where he is welcomed back to work for the same Birmingham crime family. Coincidence is a bitch, especially in fiction, where it turns out that the daughter of the ghost is now embroiled in some trouble involving his employers and life-long friends. To give away the twists and turns of the plot is a bit unfair to the makers and to viewers but to say it is very, very loosely based on A Christmas Carol should give fans of impressionistic, remakes a fair bit of enjoyment.
The locales and the characters that populate the film are well-etched and make this slow-burning and twisty crime film a must-see. The actors all excel, even John Hannah (THE HURRICANE) who I’ve always found hard to watch – he’ s rarely been better as Marley’s life-long pale. Old hands Cathy Tyson (MONA LISA) and Struan Rodger (DIAMOND SKULLS) are also excellent in their seedy and untrustworthy supporting roles. But this is Frederick Schmidt’s show – once again he proves to be the independent film scene’s best and brightest break out hope. With this and the similar Snow In Paradise, he’s laid down the foundations for a very promising acting career.
In a virtually wordless role, Ana Uluru conveys a world of pain and anger, goading Marley to kill everyone who had a part in her demise and her own daughter’s dangerous situation. It’s an acting master class in economy.
The pace is measured but this works in its favour as you get a real understanding of what the director Justin Edgar and his team were showing us. The devil’s in the details. He’s everywhere you care to look. This is a film of the different shades of evil and levels of salvation. It’s a shame that this is being distributed on DVD with a cover that looks like The Marker is yet another Steven Seagal slap about wannabe… It’s not, it’s one of the best UK gangster films of the 2010s.
8 out of 10 – Unnerving crime flick set in Birmingham, populated with extremely deadly characters and a vengeful ghost. Recommended whole-heartedly.
Review below by Matt ‘Joe Pesci II’ Usher
This is faint praise but THE MARKER is the kind of film which ought to be a good representative of the lower end of the modern British film industry. It’s better than at least 100 other low budget films I’ve seen in the last 6 years, but that just demonstrates how low standards are when technology is cheap and there’s no-one to say ‘Steve, that’s a terrible idea for a film, don’t do it’. But I digress; THE MARKER is a good film in many ways, but I didn’t like it much.
Our main character, played by Frederick Schmidt, is called Marley Jacobs, which might suggest the film is a cute variation on A CHRISTMAS CAROL. It is not. This is a film which strains strenuously to be edgy, bleak and grim. It’s quite successful at the edginess, bleakness and grimness but I’m not sure our hero’s repentance convinces me.
But what is Marley repentant over? Well, the poor lad has only gone and murdered – sorry – manslaughtered – a woman (Ana, played by Ana Ularu, which almost suggests they didn’t think the character worth naming) in front of her own daughter (Cristina), and now feels bad. The film doesn’t seem particularly interested in how Cristina feels about this, though she later becomes a significant supporting character.
But why is Marley in such a position? He’s a professional thug working (reluctantly as we later discover) for criminal mastermind Brendan Doyle (John Hannah in the second role where he’s played second fiddle to a character called Marley, after weird son-of-Rentaghost sitcom Marley’s Ghosts). For reasons that I’m sure were explained, they spend the early part of the film going around beating up illegal Romanian immigrants, including the unlucky Ana. Marley spends a few years in jail, where he gets beaten up by self-righteous prisoners operating in cahoots with dodgy prison officers. Fortunately Ana turns up as a ghost to keep him company. Whether her haunting him is the source of his repentance or a symptom of it is left enigmatic.
Marley leaves jail and decides to reform himself by returning to work for Brendan who has got a bit higher up the career criminal ladder. We also meet Brendan’s brother Jimmy, a businessman, charitable soul, pillar of the community and all-round good egg. But he’s played by Struan Rodger, possibly the owner of the cruellest eyes in Equity, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s not entirely honest. Jimmy has adopted Cristina, (an improbable development which is explained away reasonably), but Cristina’s now sixteen years old, and, like all sixteen year old girls in films, has absconded. The Doyles bizarrely think it’s a good idea for Marley to get her back.
Suffice to say, Marley does so, encountering some old friends and foes along the way (including Andrew Shim, an actor whose face is crying out ‘why won’t anyone give me a decent role?’), but then circumstances alter and Marley starts shooting people again, almost as if he hasn’t learned anything during his incarceration. But maybe that’s the point. And still guiding him along his path is Ana. At first the film really annoyed me as it looks like she’s there to help poor Marley deal with his guilt over killing her, and why didn’t she, you know, turn up to help her own daughter instead? But Ana turns out to be a bit more involved than the spirits who helped Scrooge along his way, though you have to wait for the film’s final shot to see that. Or, to put it another way, perhaps the film isn’t about Marley’s redemption so much as Anna’s revenge, which makes it more interesting than it seems on the surface.
This is unusually well-acted, well-written and imaginative for a bargain basement thriller. It focuses mostly on character and doesn’t dwell on blood and guts and unnecessary action (though there’s a subplot with a mad gunman), and should be required viewing for anyone wanting to make a film with little money. Frederick Schmidt appears to be an under-appreciated leading man, possibly because he doesn’t sugar-coat his performance – he’s happy to play the role as someone who you’d avoid on a dark night (or a bright afternoon for that matter). John Hannah (quite rightly) makes his hideous character as affable as possible, though you’re never in any doubt over how nasty he is. Ana Ularu does a lot with almost no dialogue.
In narrative terms, the problem with the film is the daughter. Lara Peake is given little to do beyond being a damsel in distress and a thorn in various gangsters’ sides. For the most part she operates according to plot requirements rather than as an independent, fully-formed character (though she does kill a significant baddie). Mind you, one of the film’s strengths is that she and Marley never bond, which would certainly happen in a more Hollywoodish version of the story. Even so, I get the feeling that in following Marley’s story the film-makers didn’t do enough about the characters surrounding him, which is a shame, and which means good actors like Cathy Tyson are wasted.
And I thought the film rather lathers in its own grimness. This is a film where everyone is bleak and despicable and no-one’s going to reach old age without getting lots of other people to stab each other in the back. It’s the sort of world where social workers are all corrupt (and corrupting), the police are almost entirely absent, the courts are lenient and even the sympathetic characters leave needles lying around for their kids to mess about with. Whereas A Christmas Carol is about alleviating misery, THE MARKER seems a bit too happy (if that’s the word) to wallow in squalor, its overall moral seemingly ‘first you’re miserable, then you’re dead, and even that might not be the end’. So let me try to shoehorn a bit of that Dickensian spirit into this review at least, and wish you a Merry Christmas, and God Bless Us, Every One!
John Hannah: Overboard (2018), Agents of SHIELD (TV), Genesis,Another Mother’s Son, Alleycats, Shooting For Socrates, Angel (2015), The Christmas Candle, The Wee Man, The Mummy 3 – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Before You Go, Rebus (TV), The Mummy 2 – Returns, Circus, The Hurricane, McCallum (TV), Resurrection Man, Sliding Doors, The Mummy, The James Gang, The Innocent Sleep, Madagascar Skin, Four Weddings and a Funeral
Ana Ularu: Alex Rider (TV), Siberia, Chosen, Camera Trap, Serena, Anaconda 3
Struan Rodger: Shetland (TV), Kill List,7Lives, The Madness Of King George III, The Innocent Sleep, Diamond Skulls
Cathy Tyson: The Fight, ChickLit, Mob Handed, Grange Hill (TV), Band of Gold (TV), Priest (1994), The Serpent and The Rainbow, Mona Lisa
Andrew Shim:Anti-Social, This Is England ’90 (TV), UFO (2013), Airborne (2012),Screwed (2011), This England, This Is England 86 (TV), This Is England 88 (TV), Once Upon A Time In The Midlands, A Room For Romeo Brass
Director: Roger Michell (Le-Weekend / Hyde Park On The Hudson / Morning Glory / Venus / Enduring Love / The Mother / Changing Lanes / Notting Hill / Titanic Town / Persuasion)
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin, Iain Glen, Holliday Grainger, Andrew Havill, Poppy Lee Friar, Katherine Pearce, Tim Barlow, Bobby Scott Freeman, Andrew Knott, with Simon Russell Beale and Pierfrancesco Favino
Rachel Weisz: Black Widow, The Favourite, Disobedience, The Mercy, Denial, The Light Between The Oceans, Youth (2016), The Lobster, Oz The Great and Powerful, 360, The Bourne Legacy, Dream House, The Deep Blue Sea (2011), The Lovely Bones, The Brothers Bloom, My Blueberry Nights, Eragon (voice), The Fountain, The Constant Gardner, Constantine, Runaway Jury, The Shape Of Things, About a Boy, The Mummy 2 – Returns, Enemy At The Gates, Beautiful Creatures, The Mummy, I Want You, Land Girls, Bent, Chain Reaction, Stealing Beauty, Death Machine
Sam Claflin: Charlie’s Angels (2019), The Nightingale, The Corrupted, Peaky Blinders (TV), Adrift, Journey’s End, My Cousin Rachel, Their Finest, Me Before You, The Huntsman – Winter’s War, Hunger Games – Mocking Jay 2, Love Rosie, Hunger Games- Mockingjay, The Riot Club,The Quiet Ones, Hunger Games – Catch a Fire, Snow White and The Huntsman, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 – On Stranger Tides, United
Iain Glen:The Flood, Game of Thrones (TV), Eye In The Sky,The Bad Education Movie, Resident Evil 6 – The Final Chapter, Downton Abbey (TV), The Iron Lady, Kick Ass 2, Spooks (TV), Resident Evil 3 – Extinction, Harry Brown, The Last Legion, Kingdom Of Heaven, Resident Evil 2 – Apocalypse, Song for a Raggy Boy, Lara Croft – Tomb Raider, Beautiful Creatures, The Young Americans, Silent Scream, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead, Mountains Of The Moons, Paris By Night, Gorillas In The Mist
RISE OF THE ZOMBIE HOOLIGAN FILMS 