HACKNEY’S FINEST (2014)

Hackney's Finest (2014)
Directed by: Chris Bouchard
Written by: Thorin Seex
Starring: Arin Alldridge, Enoch Frost, Nathanael Wiseman

HACKNEY’S FINEST (2014)
Directed by Chris Bouchard

A corrupt cop named Priestly plans to bust a drugs exchange so he can steal both the drugs and money for himself. After pulling in drugs supplier Asif and bugging his packs of heroin, Priestly and his police partner in crime Terence secretly spy on the home of Sirus, the local drug dealer. When Sirus meets with Asif to do a deal with Welsh-Jamaican dealers Tony and B, they find themselves with unwanted attention from Priestly and his hired gang of Russian thugs. Fortunately, Tony and B have travelled from the Valleys with an arsenal that’d make a small army nervous as they’re prepared to protect their stash and their livelihood.

HACKNEY’S FINEST is a crime drama that focuses on a group of hapless drug dealers and how they deal with a bent copper and his cronies. Instead of being a gritty thriller, which is what I thought it would be solely judging from the DVD cover, the film actually borders into comedy territory except this one has guns, grenades and a copious amount of heroin taking, with derogatory terms thrown around like confetti for good measure. Somewhere there is a plot, if you look hard enough, but the storyline is pretty much irrelevant as the film just seems to want to showcase badassery in all forms, from motorcycle stunts to waving uzis around. The lack of character building and plot depth means this is nothing more than a bit of fun and you’ll be lucky if you even get that from it.

The performances in HACKNEY’S FINEST are pretty mediocre but then again the script doesn’t exactly command diversity or range, other than the use of the word c***. The highlight is probably Enoch Frost and Marlon G. Day as the Welsh-Jamaicans Tony and B, who drift in and out of strong Welsh and strong Jamaican accents depending on their mood. Their attitude is pretty laid back, with B casually concealing all manner of weapons under his sheepskin coat. They’re the only ones who really seem to know what they’re doing, with not even the bent copper able to run a piss up in a brewery.

Between the exchange of gunfire and quips between dealers, there’s not much to HACKNEY’S FINEST to keep the viewer engaged. Not knowing what genre it wants to be, it struggles in all areas and doesn’t do a great job in any. If they had focused more on the comedy element, they could have made quite a good film, similar to the gangster themed zombie movies, but instead it falls flat.

IMDB mention there’s a sequel in the works. If this is true, they’ll have to focus their efforts on the script and story as this is ultimately where HACKNEY’S FINEST struggles most.

Rating:

Hackney’s Finest is in cinemas 3rd April and available on DVD & On Demand 13th April hackneymovie.com