Brotherhood (2016)

Brotherhood: Directed by Noel Clarke. With Noel Clarke, Arnold Oceng, Red Madrell, Adjoa Andoh. Sam is facing up to the new world. He realizes it also comes with new problems and new challenges and which will require old friends to help him survive new dangers.

“STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday morning u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSam Peel (Noel Clarke) has settled down with girlfriend Kayla (Shanika Warren-Markland) and two children, and has put his unsavoury past behind him. But he is thrust back into it when his younger brother Royston (Daniel Anthony) is gunned down while performing at a live show. Flash new crook Daley (Jason Maza) wants him to work for him, and has joined forces with Samu0026#39;s old enemy Uncle Curtis (Cornell John) who has his own agenda. Sam tries to stay on the straight and narrow, until an horrific act plunges him back into the underworld heu0026#39;d tried so hard to escape.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNoel Clarke obviously felt, eight years after the last instalment Adulthood, that the series needed to be rounded off a little more than it already was, and so we have this, we are assured, the final part. Some backstage politics, shall we say, have clearly played their hands here, and so we see the Moony character missing altogether, and Sam mysteriously settled down with his girlfriend from the last film?!?, and of course Adam Deaconu0026#39;s Jay completely absent following the well documented real life spat that spewed up between him and Clarke. Personally, I didnu0026#39;t miss his hyper street kid antics this time round.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile it still packs a powerful emotional punch or two, somehow the raw, gritty, uncompromising nature that characterised the first two films just isnu0026#39;t as evident here. Those films (the first one especially) were from the mind of a young man who had grown up in this unfortunate world, and who gained acclaim by recklessly writing down and screening all the types of stuff heu0026#39;d seen, and as a result made a film that was u0026#39;as potent as a shot of vodka in the morningu0026#39; as one tabloid review memorably put it. With such a large space of time between this and the last film, the cast (those still in it) and the material with them feel like theyu0026#39;ve grown up a bit, and this time it all seems to be played more for laughs, even during intense, dramatic scenes, especially from Arnold Oceangu0026#39;s Henry.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThat aside, the story all feels cobbled together without the strongest narrative flow and thereu0026#39;s an air of predictability about a lot of it that doesnu0026#39;t go unnoticed. Itu0026#39;s still worth seeing, though, a grown up, more seasoned ending that those from this generation will feel theyu0026#39;ve shared the journey with. ***”