He Who Dares: Downing Street Siege (2014) Reviews

• What a joke

  joey_joe_joe-342772015-05-08

  The worst film i've watched, the acting was horrendous, the story line was copied from other films, the entire film was packed with inaccuracies and the set looked more like Downton Abbey that 10 Downing Street. Don't waste your time on this film at all, it was frustrating to watch and a complete embarrassment for everyone involved. I'm surprised to learn that the film had a budget of £3million to be honest, it looked like it was made by a sixth form media student with no knowledge of the military in the UK at all. There were moments in the film where i found myself laughing at the awful quality of production and i can't imagine the actors and actresses in this movie will be successful in the future if this is the best they can do! What an absolute joke!

• Bilge of the highest order

  truthspeaker-178252015-05-17

  More in the style to which we've become accustomed from Press On Features - a production company that sounds more like an attribute for a sanitary towel than a purveyor of cinematic works o' fart. Many people criticise this film and its equally dire predecessor for their inaccurate representations of the SAS, but I say why stop there? These films have an entire cast of inaccurate representations of human beings. The producers must be geniuses as they are constantly finding the cash (and, in parallel, hacking away at the integrity of British Independent film) to create a production line of the worst films the UK has ever shipped out. Seriously, the script sounds like it was written by a teenage boy as a last-minute homework assignment. If any script consultants are ever used by this "writer/director" I would be astounded. Every scene is packed with atrocious dialogue and it's patently obvious that the "writer/director" has stuffed words in the mouths of the characters in an attempt to justify how they are behaving rather than do a crumb of research. Unfortunately for him, nobody with even vague brain activity will buy how these characters behave. This is a film that wants you to believe that eight armed people in fancy dress police uniforms can jump over the back wall of 10 Downing Street, indiscriminately shoot people and hold the PM hostage without being challenged. The 1-dimensional villain is played by Simon Phillips - some guy who wants to be an actor and so produces films and puts himself in starring roles. His spectrum of characters vary from being a fat bloke with a beard to a bearded bloke who is fat. The abysmally unimaginative direction attempts, and sorely fails, to be saved by an editor who has just discovered the effects panel in Final Cut Pro. Either that or he fell asleep on the keyboard. Constantly. The action sequences are rubbish. The humour is poor. Quality is non-existent. Even the wardrobe for every actor looks one size too big. Oh, and one more thing - if you are trying to get us to believe that you're shooting outside 10 Downing Street, then at least get the right style of numerals on the door.

• Avoid

  djmmccorkell2014-12-29

  Ever been sat at a bar and struck up a conversation with some social reject who swears he used to be in the SAS? When most likely the closest he ever got to the SAS was listening to an audiobook of an Andy McNab novel. This is a film made by that guy, and it's about as believable as his barfly stories. Every single aspect of this is woeful. The first 20-30 mins are nothing but a muddled recap of the previous film in the series, which I've had the good fortune of not seeing. Once the story finally begins, it's just one wooden scene after another with jarring video effects thrown in, trying (and failing) to make the on-screen action remotely interesting. If you're even contemplating this as a dumb-but-fun action film -- don't. There's maybe 10 mins of action in the whole thing, and it's appallingly bad. Walk away and go see a documentary on the Iranian Embassy siege, or many of the other fine drama-docs on the SAS that portray them as they are, and not this insult to their name.

• Terrible

  mal-durbin2014-12-07

  What a load of **** Terrible cinematography, acting and generally a waste of time The person who directed it does not have a clue about the SAS or security procedures and protocols in the UK. The ranks are all to pot as well. The hero "Lowe" is called major yet wears a rank of sergeant just gives you an idea of how terrible this really is. The filming of the choreography (Fighting scenes you can actually see that they did not make contact). was terrible. Don't waste your time watching it. The same goes for the prequel to this film. Effects used just gave me a headache is there really any need to zoom in an out as if it was video for a pop song badly edited. Terrible!

• More research needed by this production team

  geoff_rose2015-04-07

  I have to say that, as ex-forces myself, I spotted so many 'howlers' in this movie that these inaccuracies quite spoiled it for me. Not least of these was the uniform worn by "Major" Lowe - he's shown wearing corporal's stripes for goodness sake! A Major wears a crown on each epaulette - not ruddy stripes on his arm! Another anomaly which reared its ugly head in the prequel to this movie was the irritating use of the title "Detective", when addressing a DI or DS. I was amazed to learn that both Paul Tanter and Simon Philips (Director and Script Writer respectively) are British, as the use of "Detective" on its own is a distinct Americanism. I've given this movie two stars because the plot and its action are quite good.