Ten years ago, writer-star Noel Clarke delivered a blast of energy with Kidulthood, his west London urban crime-drama – it almost invented the genre in the eyes of many. He came back for more with Adulthood two years later. Now with this third film Brotherhood, the franchise is utterly exhausted. It’s a lame collection of cliches, clunkily unconvincing plot transitions, and frankly terrible acting.
The first film had something to say about the infantile nature of crime and the obsession with respect. But now the macho immaturity looks wrong: it’s a silly gangster-porn version of kids’ TV.
Clarke (who, as with Adulthood, directs as well as writes) is back playing bad boy Sam Peel, but he’s left crime behind, settling into respectability, with a nice house, married to a lawyer with two children. But then some sinister types shoot his brother in a club, to send Sam a message. Soon he is squaring up to some dodgy mobsters who seem to lounge in their house all day with nude prostitutes standing about.
It is all a bit silly and nasty, and the attempts at humour aren’t great. Noel Clarke needs to move on.
