Watch Tony For Free

Excellent but underrated film

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Dour and mild-mannered recluse Tony (superbly played with chilling understated conviction by Peter Ferdinando) lives by himself in a rundown London flat. Jobless and friendless, barely scraping by on welfare, with an addiction to 80's action schlock, and suffering from a crippling lack of social skills, Tony occasionally snaps under the pressure of his miserable existence and kills people who get on his nerves.Writer/director Gerard Johnson astutely captures a powerfully gloomy feeling of ennui, despair, and urban blight, makes vivid use of grimy slum locations, wisely keeps the gore to an absolute minimum, likewise smartly avoids any cliché tragic back story to serve as a glib explanation for the root cause of Tony's psychosis, and sweetens the whole deal with inspired moments of wickedly amusing black humor. Moreover, Johnson does an ace job of presenting how a combination of loneliness, alienation, social ineptitude, and extremely abject poverty can easily send a man dangerously over the edge. While Ferdinando clearly dominates the picture with his exceptional portrayal of a pathetic everyday zhlub who outwardly comes across as hopelessly meek and therefor harmless (which is exactly why Tony gets away with murder), he nonetheless receives sterling support from Francis Pope as abrasive junkie Smudger, George Russo as Smudger's more easygoing buddy Mackey, Lorenzo Camporese as aggressive gay barroom pick-up Alex, Vicky Maskell as pesky neighbor Dawn, and Neil Maskell as feckless social worker Mike Hemmings. The stark hand-held cinematography by David Higgs further nails the overall sense of gritty realism. Kudos are also in order for The The's appropriately melancholy score. Dark, funny, and highly effective.

Conflicted about this film. It is well-acted especially by Peter Ferdinando who's spot-on as the emotionally-stunted soft-spoken psychopath Tony. Perhaps if I didn't read the positively glowing reviews for the movie, I would've ended up liking this lil slice-of-(serial killer) life film a tad more. It's not nearly as good as "Henry" a masterpiece that its often compared to and going into this one expecting it to be up on that level will likely be disappointed. However if you approach it blindly, and can get past the admittedly thick accents, then any fan of the sub-genre will still appreciate this one.

A thriller centered on a serial killer in a rundown London suburb... Hilarity ensues.While this film has the standard societal problems of drug use, prostitution and more, it differs in that our protagonist (if you can call him that) is the most socially awkward person imaginable. He prefers to cuddle with prostitutes rather than have sex, and he may never have even touched a beer. Watching him in these environments is painful.I had expected this to be like "Evil Ed", but with action films rather than horror. That is certainly not the case. The idea that he watches a lot of action films is quite played down and not nearly as important as I was lead to believe. The horror aspects in general are minor... this is not a typical serial killer film. At all.Is it good? Maybe, maybe not. I found it rather boring and as I said, painful. Maybe I went into it expecting the wrong thing and that ruined it for me. But it just never worked.

Tony is a look at a serial killer and their everyday life. Tony is awkward, very awkward, and this leads to him being ignored or mistreated by the majority of people. Tony manages to gather sympathy throughout the film as he just so happens to encounter a lot of scummy, horrible people. These people generate no sympathy for themselves, but not in a bad way. The film seems to suggest that we should all just be decent human beings. There's no harm in saying "hello" or having rational discussions. It's the hate and negativity aimed at Tony that fuels his actions. Peter Ferdinando gives a brilliant performance and carries Tony, realistically, through a wide range of scenarios, from unprovoked arguments, to awkward job interviews. A little, but well executed film.