TheBurningRed

Sad news from Rev Pro that former regular James Castle has died. Poor guy had leukaemia for the second time in four years and it was a fight too far this time round. Always enjoyed watching him at the Rev Pro shows. Underrated guy in the Brit Wres boom a few years back and just a great person in general to his fans. 

AEW merch team knocking it out of the park again. 

All this for Drew just for Priest to retain. 
 

Well that’s ruined the Jol lore. 

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

TIL thst the former Spurs manager Martin Jol has a brother called Cock. Must have been character building. 

He has another brother called Dick who’s a referee.

I didn’t know it was coming this Friday. Thought it was a while away. Not even halfway through the first series so we won’t be watching that for a long time. 

17 years today since the last episode aired.

I’m due a rewatch and suggested it to my girlfriend as now we live together I can show her the greatest show ever. She even met Uncle Jun last year so it was written in the stars. She wanted us to watch Criminal Minds first. I agreed without realising there’s 336 fucking episodes!

I’ll get to my 16th rewatch in a couple of years. Enjoy your watches guys. The sacred and the propane. 

And only 20 selfies. Is he going to be knackered after that or something? 

7 hours ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

DVDs/Blu-Rays and Funko Pops. In your experience, how much do people generally charge for stuff like that?

I always see dvds and Blu-Rays reasonably priced. Get boxsets for a fiver a lot of the time. I’ve seen Funko pops for sale for no less than £15 at the ones I’ve been too the past couple of years. Still sealed and opened. 

1 minute ago, no user name said:

Still think it would pretty hard mate. I'd be surprised if anyone could figure out who I am.

I’ve had money on Ralphy since you first started posting. 

25 minutes ago, no user name said:

Shut you idiot.

That’s the way to go about things. 

I enjoy it The Finish Line. The podiums moving are hilarious. Roman Kemp is the not the most natural host but he’s better than Bradley Walsh’s kid at hosting. 

26 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Care to share with people who don't know what you're on about? 

Possibly this. 

Only good in August when the World Matchplay is on. 

He’s retired a couple of times actually. He’s young enough to break Terry Funks retirement record. 

Jack Evans is a big Liverpool fan too. I had a good chat with him about football at the Clapham Grand. He knows his stuff. Shame who he supports though. 

Already got a list of shit Christmas films. It’s tradition for me and my girlfriend to watch the worst of the worst Hallmark movies. 

I think for my next night shifts I’m going to watch I.D and ID2: Shadwell Army. I hear they’re quite shit. I could watch something good, but that would distract me too much getting invested and I do have to do some work overnight. 

I’ve done a couple of extra night shifts this week so six nights, six movies. I’ve decided to put myself through the Rise of the Footsoldier films so you don’t have to. Film is based on the Rettendon Murders and the characters from that world. Some spoilers ahead so don’t read on if you’re dying to see these.

Rise of The Footsoldier  

Despite being the first film this is chronologically the fifth with the second movie being the sixth. This is about Carlton Leach’s rise from a member of the ICF, taking over the doors at clubs in Essex to becoming a gangster in the eighties and nineties. We have your typical Football Factory/British gangster movies alumni as it stars Ricci Harnett, Craig Fairbrass, Roland Manookian, Terry Stone (wearing the most horrendous blonde wig), Neil Maskell, Billy Murray and Frank Harper. 

It shifts from Carlton to the characters of Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe, the three men who would get shotgunned to death in a Land Rover. Pat Tate is a violent maniac. They show this via him beating people up constantly and going all Nick Gage with a pizza slicer across some poor blokes face. It’s got everything to appeal to British gangster film lovers. Coke, pills, birds, violence and shit rave music. And if you liked seeing Pat, Tony and Craig getting killed, don’t worry, because they show about four different versions of it with various suspects. It’s perfectly fine as a film. It’s what you’d expect to get out of it. 

Rise of the Footsoldier Part II: Reign of the General

Carlton Leach is going off the rails. His three mates have been killed (and they will show it again) and he’s now a paranoid man and getting by with drink, drugs and violence. Naturally his wife leaves him. Not realising he’s struggling from a serious case of men’s mental health, she just thinks he’s been a cunt (which he is tbf). Get that man a Madri and a mate to talk to stat.

This film is absolute dog shit. The character of Shawn being the only highlight. You’ve got cameos from Big Narstie who gets his tits out, and a young Charlie Heaton. Storylines that go nowhere, including Carlton’s long lost son showing up and staying over and nothing more. A feud with the travellers that gets finished as soon as it’s started. Which was just a couple of punch ups in a night club. The ending is absolute shite. It was definitely left open to another sequel about Carlton Leach. But he fell out with Terry Stone (who plays Tony Tucker) and got fucked out of the movie. Also Ricci Harnett looks like Steve Pemberton in this movie. Crap. 

Rise of the Footsoldier: The Pat Tate Story

This is just the first film but from the perspective of Pat Tate and his violent rise in the criminal world, his demand for five fucking prostitues and the lead up to the shotgunning. Chronologically the second film. Craig Fairbrass is a draw and this is much better than the second movie. Jamie Foreman is in as a new main character and you have cameos from Larry Lamb, Vicki Michelle, Shaun Ryder as a prison inmate called Mad Dog and the bloke who played Ted Hills in Eastenders. Terry Stone is back with his wig. And Pats got a right hand man called Kenny who looks a bit like MJf. Set in Spain, Sunny Southend and a prison.

Pat Tate goes on a rampage in prison with 99 Red Balloons playing over for his murder montage. Expect fluorescent tubes, pool cues and other stuff you’d expect to see in CZW.  

As violent as Pat and Tony are, there’s one thing that can bring them down. As they go looking for someone, they get the wrong flat which is occupied by two gay men. As they start to leave one of them offers them money for a blowjob. The absolute look of panic they have on their faces. They slowly back away so they don’t catch the gay. If only people knew that one way to stop them was to blow them a kiss or offer to blow them. They didn’t even beat them up. They were that frightened. 

There’s another fight with travellers in a nightclub that looks to start a war before it’s finished as quickly as starts again. Paddy Doherty plays the head traveller very briefly in an award winning performance. 

Want to see the lads being killed with shotguns again? You’ve got it. Better than the second but it’s mostly Craig Fairbrass fighting and doing drugs. He beats up a load of coppers like he’s a John Wick. But he doesn’t need a gun. He’s got his left hook and leather jacket. Wasn’t really needed as a film but a couple of scenes are a laugh.

Rise of the Footsoldier: Marbella

Chronologically the third film. Essex is running low on pills. Pat needs them the pack the clubs out so heads to Marbella to get some. He also wants revenge on Larry Lamb for fucking him over. But he’s already dead. He makes a deal for pills but needs Tony and Craig to bring the money out. Craig books tickets to Amsterdam instead to get a connecting flight as it’s cheaper. What could possibly go wrong? Tony doesn’t want to go as he needs to be in England to walk Nigel Benn out for his fight (played by Connor Benn).

There’s another nightclub fight where Pat, Essex’s John Wick, takes them all on despite their weapons. He’s the real hardest geezer.

Anyway, there’s a lot of fucking over and threats made between Pat and two blokes called Terry and Greener. Terry and Craig steal a VW Camper when they miss their flight and drive to Marbella. They of course fuck it up the silly caaahnts and lose the money so they have to rob the two guys Pat was making deals with. Let’s get straight to the end. Pat ends up throwing the pills in the sea in Essex when they were wrongly suspected of being bad. He screams when he founds out they weren’t moody and Craig gurns to end the film as he ate a mouthful of pills. 

This was more of a comedy. Pat says some variation of fuck every other word that I thought I was watching KFogg. Jim Rosenthal pops up in this. 

Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins

Chronologically the first film. Origin story of Tony Tucker (with a brunette wig this time round) and a brief backstory of him coming back from the Falklands. While watching this I thought they might make a origin story of Craig Rolfe but luckily his is incorporated in this. Absolutely awful scene when Craig’s wife accuses him (correctly) of cheating and demands to smell his dick. The sort of dialogue you’d only get in these type of films.

Vinnie Jones is in this as famous security guard/bouncer Bernard O’Mahoney. Also stars Keith Allen, Connor Benn as Nigel Benn (in the brief origin story of how he met Tony Tucker), P.H Moriarty, Heavy D as a pimp of some sort and Michelle Collins very briefly in a bra. And a new character called Basildon Joe. 

You get how Tony met Pat. Pat is swearing, doing drugs and violent within 4 minutes of showing up in his small cameo. Knocking someone out with that deadly left, smashing someone in the face with a pool ball before launching it at the back of the woman’s head who decided she wouldn’t suck him off. You also get the origin story of them buying the Land Rover they get killed in and Billy Murray’s character lurking in the shadows im another brief cameo. Tony meets Carlton for the first time. You don’t see his face and has a different voice due to the fall out with the real Carlton Leach and the makers of the movies. 

Overly long and rubbish. Great soundtrack though.

Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance

Chronologically the fourth film. Jamie Foreman returns. British gangster movie regular Geoff Bell is also in this. Basildon Joe returns as do some other faces from the third and fourth films. No Tony Tucker or Craig Rolfe though. It’s all Pat Tate baby. And Kenny. Before he gets killed. That’s not a major spoiler. It’s the plot of the film. But I’m sure he was killed in one of the other ones. This is by far the most professional looking of all the films. Less over the top violence and less swearing. But Pat Tate is still the Essex John Wick. But this time he’s portrayed as a hero and less unhinged (sort of) as he seeks revenge on his mates death against Phil Davis and Eastern European mobsters. Opens with a shot of a Land Rover (maybe the same one) with blood around it. But in a different location than where the shotgunning took place. They love that Land Rover. And of course, foreshadowing.

At a fight in a scrap yard, Pat goes all Captain America but instead of a shield, he has a hubcap. There’s also two scenes near the end which are definitely ripped off from The Terminator club scene when he searches for Sarah Connor, and the chase through the square in In Bruges. They’ve teased a sequel set in Ibiza where Pat will try and get revenge (again) on those that done him wrong. 

I’m waiting and hoping for Footsoldiers in Space. Or them to retcon it all and keep the lads all alive and not being shotgunned to fuck. Or even more origins with Craig Fairbrass playing a teenage version of Pat Tate. There’s also at least two or three other films based on the Rettendon Murders that I might suffer through. Also, six films deep and no Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan or Alan Ford. Not even poor Dave Courtney or Chris Ellison could get a look in.

Anyway, here’s me with Tony Tucker actor Terry Stone, minus the wig at An Evening With Ricky Hatton at Staines Leisure Centre of all places. An absolute diamond fridge freezer. 

He’s back with a new straight line mission. This time across England. 

50 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

I am! Who the hell was that?!

You don’t remember Mace, Slapjack, T-Bar, Reckoning and Retaliation? I had to look up the last two names. Absolutely awful from the covid era.  

1 hour ago, Version1.0 said:

The Final Testament are surely the worst stable since The League of Nations. Ice cold. 

Are you forgetting Retribution?  

Speaking of The Miz, he’s in a couple of crowd shots in that Woodstock 99 Netflix documentary. 

He was on Dancing With The Stars too. 

Alexa Bliss was on The Masked Singer. US not UK. So she didn’t have the privilege to meet Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall. 

She’s that high up as tribute I imagine.