16 July 2000
Source: News of the World
ESSEX MANIACS!
IF you want a film about gangsters, sex,
drugs
and murder you think of a title with LA or New
York in it, right? Wrong.
These days the real-life hard stuff happens
in
Essex, as Essex Boys (18) sets out to show
you.
The story is inspired by a true event that
left
three men dead, two serving life imprisonment
and another living under an assumed identity.
It follows impressionable cab driver Billy
Reynolds
(Charlie Creed-Miles) who is hired by crime boss
John Dyke to drive psycho Jason Locke, chillingly
played by Sean Bean, around.
Locke is bitter that his friends all became
rich
while he was in jail, a bitterness fuelled by wife
Lisa (Alex Kingston).
Locke drags Billy deep into a world of nightclub
protection rackets, gold Bentleys and drug
smuggling and Billy is soon in over his head.
The clever plot follows an ever-decreasing
circle
of violence and desperation as double-cross
follows double-cross.
Locke, having messed up a drug shipment
and
now desperate for money, gets a chance to hit a
rival firm's cocaine courier. You know it will end in
tears, but who will survive?
The great thing about this film, apart from
a cool
script and fantastic performances by Bean and
Kingston, is that it gives you the intense knotted
feeling only good thrillers can physically inflict.
I left the cinema shaking and so will you.
Do not
miss this.
**** A great night out
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