Watch The Rise of the Krays For Free

Load of rubbish!!

How sad is this?

A Masterpiece!

A different way of telling a story

The DVD sleeve for "The Rise of the Krays" touts it as 'The Best British Gangster Film Ever Made', but that's a serious overstatement. Guy Ritchie did a much better job with "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". Those were fictional stories of course, but this one based on the real life Kray Brothers isn't nearly as compelling, and I was actually more enthralled by looking up a Wikipedia account of the brothers who ran an East London crime gang back in the Fifties and Sixties.The film features it's share of bloody violence as befits the subject material, though it's usually Ronnie Kray (Simon Cotton) who doles out the punishment as opposed to more self controlled brother Reggie (Kevin Leslie). The brothers eventually come to blows when Reggie prefers to make nice with fellow Italian and Maltese mobsters by carving up sections of London each gang could control, rather than waste huge amounts of money and lives fighting each other. By this time, Ronnie is so paranoid and schizophrenic that his criminal life is interrupted by a stay at a mental asylum.Without realizing there's a follow up film titled "The Fall of the Krays", I thought the picture did a disservice to it's viewers by not explaining what eventually happened with the Kray Brothers. The picture simply ends with Ronnie pondering his fate as lord and master of the London underworld. I imagine the sequel delves into their eventual arrest by the relentless detective, inspector Nipper Read (Danny Midwinter), but considering the way this was put together, I don't feel that compelled to bother with it. Of my current list of gangster films I've watched and reviewed here on IMDb, this one comes in number #75 out of 76 movies based on IMDb ranking order as I write this. That seems pretty lame for the best British gangster film ever made.

This is the worst version of the Krays story I have ever seen! I've always been fascinated by the Krays and when it comes to movies - if I start watching them I usually have to finish them even if they're not great. This was different - half way through and I couldn't stand it any more. I felt like I was watching a fictional story or one of two entirely different people. It did nothing to grab my attention at all. The acting was unconvincing as was the general appearance of the twins as gangsters. The fact that they look nothing like each other doesn't help either. Diabolical! Don't waste any time on this. I spent the entire 55 minutes (which was all I could manage) just feeling bored by it!!

it's always been surprising to me that there was only one movie based on the infamous kray twins, and while peter medak's 1990 biopic was for it's time a solid movie, when you read and watch things about the krays you realise just how much they left out, and it didn't really portray the twins as they was at all, never the less that movie remains much loved and has a deserved cult classic status, but i always wanted another film about the krays, one that showed the twins how i always read they were, brutal, uncompromising, charming, dangerous all rolled into one pair of naughty twins, and while the likes of the Essex boys have movie after movie made about them, we had to wait twenty five years for another krays film, and then boom, we get two at the same time, now this movie coming out at the same time as the big budget tom hardy biopic 'legend' is both a gift and a curse for the rise of the krays, a gift in that 'legend' has made the krays relevant again, and a curse in that this movie will be over shadowed by its big budget counterpart, now as for the better movie i can't judge yet as I've only seen this one, legend is out in a few days, so ill judge then. the sad part of the fact is that this movie was in the works before 'legend' in fact i knew about this movie in early 2013. never mind all that though because the movie i have just watched is brilliant enough to stand on it's own two feet. the first part in an epic two part crime saga, tells the story of the kray twins from youths to men, as they take control and rule the London underworld, and the twins are finally shown on screen to be the brutal men they truly were, and trust me this movie is brutal, the violence here is shocking, and makes the old krays film look like a kids film. the movie is narrated by Reggie kray, and he holds the movie together great. another brilliant thing the movie gets right is seeing Ronnie krays mental illness, Ronnie kray is played here with such menace and authority you cannot take your eyes of him. both Reggie and Ronnie are brilliantly played here, and i cannot wait for the second part of this epic, one of the best British gangster films in years, and much better than the old krays film.

This is another attempt at the story of the Kray twins who terrorised London's East End starting in the early 1960s. UK resident will know of the Kray twins as they had quite a reputation. Their portrayal in this movie is laughable. They come across as misunderstood, well meaning brats which they certainly weren't. As far as pure entertainment goes the movie is a first class clanger. The story of the Krays has been done before and was a considerably better effort than this latest version. Obviously made on a tight budget and full of historical inaccuracies, it is dull and at most times, embarrassing and painful to watch. I humbly suggest that you do yourself a huge favour, steer clear of this dud and wait for the release of "Legend" with Tom Hardy which I imagine will be infinitely better.