Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
juneebuggy
This was a pretty good bio drama, granted it lost itself at times and focused more on the human story than the usual shoot-em up gangster style movies. It actually reminded me a lot of 'Public Enemies' in the storytelling style. Scott Speedman was impressive in his conflicted portrayal of Edwin Boyd (Canada's very own John Dillinger) showing a quiet level of PTSD, strong love for his family, frustration and the excitement and cockiness experienced during the robberies.Inspired by real events the story follows WWII veteran Edwin Boyd who, upon returning to Toronto after the war is disillusioned by a lack of opportunities. Frustrated by his job as a bus driver and embarrassed to still be relying on his father to help support his British war bride and two children. In time he turns to robbing banks, becoming one of the most famous criminals in Canadian history.The period detail is well done here along with a bleak and cold filming style. I enjoyed Kevin Durand who plays fellow inmate/prison escapee and gang member Lenny Jackson. Brian Cox was also great in a smaller role as Boyd's judgemental (retired policeman) father.I also liked the love story, as from beginning to end we see we see how much Boyd loves his wife Doreen, initially only robbing banks to support her and the kids but ultimately losing them in the process. The ending surprised me. It's entirely possible I crossed paths with an aged Boyd as he ended up living in the same province, you just never know. Worth checking out. 8/29/15
SnoopyStyle
Edwin Boyd (Scott Speedman) is a WWII vet driving the bus. He has Hollywood dreams. He feels trapped in his life with his wife Doreen (Kelly Reilly) and his kids. One day, he simply walks away from his job. Money problems pile up but he keeps his acting dreams. After overhearing more putdowns from his father Glover (Brian Cox), he goes rob a bank and tells his wife that he got an acting job. Detective David Rhys (William Mapother) is put on the case. After getting caught, he is unrepentant. He escapes with fellow bank robbers Lenny Jackson (Kevin Durand) and Willie 'The Clown' Jackson (Brendan Fletcher). With Val Kozak (Joseph Cross), the crew wrecks havoc across Toronto.It's a slow prodding movie in the beginning. The colors are drained from the screen. It's like a world seen through Edwin Boyd's eyes. It's a tired world that justifies his need for excitement. It's an interesting choice by director Nathan Morlando. It brings a coldness to the world. However if that's the point, I would expect more colors after he starts robbing banks. I'm just guessing anyways. Without a doubt, Speedman is doing some good work. It's a nice small Canadian drama.
adrianionescu
"Citizen Gangster" is a low budget movie about a WWII Canadian soldier who felt so alienated in the humdrum of peace-time Toronto, that he started robbing banks for a living, around the year 1949. It's a story in the vein of "Public Enemies", Goddard's "Breathless", "Bonnie and Clyde", you name it, as you've seen it countless times: the "loveable" gangster, who fights not only society's rules, but also the conformity of being a square jawed bully with a gun.This one, Eddie Alonzo Boyd (Scott Speedman, "Milk"), married with two children, secretly leaves his bus driving day job, and takes his war-time Luger to a personal war against poverty (and... boredom?). He disguises himself with sinister make-up reminding us of The Joker, which thus becomes his signature look; he jumps graciously over bank counters right into the lap of young female tellers, asking them politely, and at gun point, to "fill the bag".His family life is destroyed after his secret is revealed, and a nondescript police detective manages to botch one of his downtown hits and cuff him. But Boyd breaks out of jail with a couple of acolytes (among which another WWII veteran, with a wooden leg), and gets back to being the "dazzling" bank robber young Canadian women have come to be fond of.The film tries to give some meaning to the conflicted love between Boyd and his all-too devoted wife (Kelly Reilly, "Sherlock Holmes"), then it attempts to sprinkle glitz over the "wild" lifestyle of the outlaws (where everybody parties in a sordid building), and finally strikes a tragic chord with the re-capturing of Eddie Boyd and his men in the middle of a snowy field outside Toronto.This movie is also the story of a young Canadian director (Nathan Morlando) who struggles with poor resources, fails to be inventive enough in his use of clichés (nods to predecessors are OK, as long as they're a means to an end), and reaches the finish line of his first feature film exhausted, and with a feeling of emptiness. The characters are choppy, the love story a bit drab, and the only thing that seems accomplished is the film's overall sense of pace.When the only things you have are a few interiors and a bunch of moderately good actors, I guess the way to go around a story like that is to build characters accurately, develop relationships meaningfully, and weave creative dialogue in the framework of a conventional plot: none of which happened in "Citizen Gangster".
ltbl
Many thanks to our previous reviewer for - once again - confirming how narrow minded and stereotypical can the response of the general American viewing public be towards foreign material. Particularly in regards to great films made with very, very limited resources. Comparisons to Bonnie and Clyde? Please. If you can't read Cassavetes or the early Scorsese throughout Morlando's film I won't bother explain. And b.t.w. Scott Speedman completely nails the part with his best performance to date in my (and not only mine) opinion. I won't start here the debate on the current sorry and pathetic state of the big US film studios and market in general because that would be like shooting on the Red Cross. Please...My most sincere admiration goes to this movie, the director and the production team as a whole.BRAVO!!!
