World
The seventh in the series takes longstanding lead gangster Tate, played to the hilt as always by Craig Fairbrass, to the White Isle to knock some heads together
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Film — Catherine Bray
The seventh instalment in this seemingly never-ending series opens with a line of voiceover from star Craig Fairbrass, summarising forthcoming proceedings nicely: “They killed my best friend, now they all have to die.” The real-life hardman Pat Tate might have been murdered in his 30s in Essex in 1995 , but that hasn’t proved a setback for his invincible fictionalised counterpart, played to the hilt throughout the entire franchise with hard-headed gusto by Fairbrass. In this one, Tate is in Ibiza, but rather than larging it, he’s intent on tracking down his enemies and exacting the titular retribution. Various arms dealers, guns for hire and, perhaps more unexpectedly, the CIA, provide a bit of grit in the oyster.
The director here is series veteran Nick Nevern, having appeared in ROTF: Marbella in 2019, and stepped up to the director’s chair for 2023’s ROTF: Vengeance. Retribution is at its best when engaged in stylised slow-motion action sequences that play out like The Untouchables, if The Untouchables had a soundtrack influenced by Paul Oakenfold and was made on about 100th of the budget. Dialogue is not its strong point, and is mostly made up of interchangeable gangster film cliches. (It’s all, “These are very serious people” and “You remind me so much of her”.) You may not be ponying up to watch a Footsoldier movie on the basis that you’ll be hearing curlicued witticisms worthy of Oscar Wilde, but it is possible to write gangster-speak with a bit more zest. Even Nick Love’s The Business gave us: “The geezer was so hard even his nightmares were scared of him.”
Dialogue issues might matter less if the whole thing was a bit more wham, bam, thank you m’am, but the overall run time is distinctly baggy – a few more double-crossings and colourfully accented lads with different agendas have found their way into the mix than can strictly be necessary; it’s Tate’s vengeance quest that should remain the backbone of the piece. It might be time for the demise of the footsoldier – or at least a film that sticks more strictly to the promise of its opening line.
• Rise of the Footsoldier: Retribution is in UK cinemas from 28 August.
The director here is series veteran Nick Nevern, having appeared in ROTF: Marbella in 2019, and stepped up to the director’s chair for 2023’s ROTF: Vengeance. Retribution is at its best when engaged in stylised slow-motion action sequences that play out like The Untouchables, if The Untouchables had a soundtrack influenced by Paul Oakenfold and was made on about 100th of the budget. Dialogue is not its strong point, and is mostly made up of interchangeable gangster film cliches. (It’s all, “These are very serious people” and “You remind me so much of her”.) You may not be ponying up to watch a Footsoldier movie on the basis that you’ll be hearing curlicued witticisms worthy of Oscar Wilde, but it is possible to write gangster-speak with a bit more zest. Even Nick Love’s The Business gave us: “The geezer was so hard even his nightmares were scared of him.”
This report is published with credit to theguardian.com. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on theguardian.com →
Source: theguardian.com · Catherine Bray. Published 25 Aug 2026, 10:00 am.
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