> REVIEW
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I Against I (2012)
Two Men, Twelve Hours, One Must Die…
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By Matt Arnoldi | August 2012
DIRECTOR(s): Mark Cripps / David Ellison / James Marquand
WRITER(s): Mark Cripps / David Ellison / James Marquand
I Against I is the latest low budget, Urban Brit thriller to joyously embrace its genre roots with a nocturnal world of nightclubs, girls, fast cars and gunplay.
When gangland patriarch Tommy Carmichael (John Castle) is viscously murdered, his distraught son Joseph (Mark Womack) is hell-bent on revenge. Two men, Drake (Kenny Doughty) and Isaac (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) were caught on CCTV separately fleeing the scene, but both deny being the assassin.
So Joseph issues Drake with an ultimatum: kill Isaac by 6am tomorrow or him and his family will be dead, of course unbeknownst to him, Isaac has been given a similar directive to take out Drake.
Concept subsequently overrides rational motivation as a deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues, and it isn’t long before our two unwitting foes with guns realise they’ve been set-up by the unhinged Joseph. Adding a certain edge to proceedings is the revelation that young slickster Drake has been seeing Joseph’s girlfriend, Sophia (Sónia Balacó) behind the prodigal son’s back.
Throw in the required plot twist, plenty of guns, knives, sex, swearing, violence and car chases, not forgetting a few (albeit somewhat interesting) flashback sequences to embellish the narrative and we have yet another case of story over character.
All involved are so sketchily drawn with no credible back-story, suspect motivations and burdened with amped up, uninspired dialogue, it’s difficult to understand who exactly the filmmakers were intending us to root for.
The directing trio of Mark Cripps, David Ellison and James Marquand predictably draw influences from the likes of Michael Mann and Ridley Scott, and while some of Matthew Whyte’s cinematography is vividly executed, the narrative is consistently let down by it’s lack of credibility, from an empty and spotless London nightclub at 3am, to a hitman bundling a guy into a van while conveniently forgetting to relieve him of his mobile phone.
A few of the car chase sequences are well handled and the narrative structure is at times effective, but this is yet another prime example of big ideas better suited for the small screen.
Script…………………………………………………………………………………………….
Cripps, Ellison and Marquand fail to flesh out their premise with credible
character development, motivations and plot points, and while the narrative
shows some flashes of inspiration with its use of flashback it’s also let down by a
niggling sense of predictability. 2
Direction………………………………………………………………………………………..
Even with three directors at play there is little invention on offer. A few effective
car chases and some decent cinematography aside, this struggles to stand out
from the [ever growing] pack. 2
Verdict…………………………………………………………………………………………..
As entertaining as it is disposable. 2
