ianlouisiana
I completely fail to understand the fascination for ruthless violent and predatory professional criminals.Mr McVicar and his friend Mr Probyn were capable of causing serious harm to anyone who was foolish enough to attempt to prevent them stealing.That's what they did,basically - they were thieves,bullies with guns.If you had something they wanted then they'd take it. The rest of us,trying to earn an honest living,well,we're mugs.John and Wally....diamond geezers.Top blokes.Two of the "Chaps" Mr Probyn - "Angel Face" to the Press,had an appalling record of violence starting as a very young man.In some perverse fashion this brought him kudos from his peers until he was convicted of paedophile crimes and he suddenly became not quite the diamond geezer after all,but a nonce. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. No such disapprobation for Mr McVicar who,rather like the IRA,renounced violence.A Social Worker's wet dream,he took a degree and became an expert on aberrant behaviour,prison life,police malfeasance and the criminal justice system in general.Wherever his road to Damascus occurred it certainly wasn't within the period covered by "McVicar". Mr Roger Daltrey and the late Mr Adam Faith play Mr McVicar and Mr Probyn respectively,making them about as frightening as the Teletubbies. They hate coppers,they hate screws,and most of all,they hate nonces,which was just a tad hypocritical from Mr Probyn's point of view you might think. With all this hate going on it's no wonder our two heroes want to get out of prison,also there's not a lot they can nick in there and their life skills might get rusty. There is nothing in "McVicar" that persuades me to take it seriously. The performances aren't bad,they're just completely without a sense of menace.Mr Berkoff and Mr Winston can do menace,Mr Daltrey and Mr Faith can't.They couldn't rule a prison,for heaven's sake they couldn't rule Peter Pan's Playground.Sir Noel Coward as Mr Bridges in "The Italian Job" was more convincing. Without a constant underlying threat of violence from the two leads the whole house of cards collapses. Mr McVicar and Mr Probyn become just another couple of cheery cockney cons,and you can be absolutely certain that wasn't the case. If you yearn for the days when Ron and Reg ran the East End from Fort Vallance and you could leave your front door unlocked and they never hurt nobody wot didn't ask for it you may well enjoy "McVicar". But I think you should take a reality check....just in case.
michellemurmurs6244
In the mid seventies Roger Daltrey read ex-bank robber John McVicar's autobiography and realized how similar their life situations could have been if he hadn't chosen to become a singer with The Who. He decided to buy the rights to the book and have movie made about McVicar's life in prison and his escape and life as a wanted fugitive. It was only right that Daltrey himself should play McVicar. He does an incredibly impressive job too. Looking and acting like the tough belligerent convict who is determined to break out of a maximum security prison. He succeeds with the help of a fellow inmate played by Adam Faith. Once on the outside he goes back to see his common law wife and young son. After he decides life spent constantly looking over his shoulder is not for him he pulls one more bank heist in order to afford to move out of the country with his family. Unfortunately it doesn't quite turn out as he planned. Recommended.
Theo Robertson
A way back in the early 1980s word of mouth was spreading about a great and violent Brit flick ( In those days things were really grim for British film making unlike the late 1990s ) called MCVICAR the true story of armed robber John McVicar who was branded Britain's public enemy number one . I eventually got to see it on video in 1983 and was thoroughly disappointed by it Some people may say that if there's any failings it's down to a rock star being cast ( I'll come to that in a moment ) but for me it's the story that's at fault or more specifically the way the story is told . John McVicar faces many years in prison and plans his escape . So in effect the audience are not watching a biopic of Britain's most feared criminal , we're watching a film not entirely different from COLDITZ or ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ . In fact this was produced round about the same time as the Eastwood star vehicle and I can't help thinking this had much to do with it being produced . Tellingly MCVICAR has three producers and three executive producers and one can't help thinking too many cooks have spoiled this prison broth . That's the problem too much prison and not enough meat in the broth As for Roger Daltry's performance I know some people who think he absolutely ruined the movie but if memory serves me right ( I haven't seen this movie for several years ) while not exactly being an Oscar worthy performance I don't think he's as bad as some people claim . If I have a problem it's just that he comes across as over emphatic when he's nasty and can only really be described as poor when after having a tantrum in the hall picks up an orange and tries to act all cool . Is there anything more unconvincing than a man getting cool with an orange ? The one other thing I remember after first viewing is how this managed to get a X certificate ( It's an old version of the 18 cert ) from the British Board Of Classifiers . No one is killed , there's no explicit sex though there is a lot of bad language . I guess that's because it deals with a real life British criminal and no one wants to be seen glorifying crime . John McVicar is still alive today and makes frequent television appearances . He's certainly comes across as friendly old gentlemen who's very much of the old school type of criminal , that is he had strict codes of not hurting women and kids and not turning stool pigeon . In days like these where the British legal establishment seems more interested in the rights of paedophiles and terrorists more than the rights of their victims you really do find yourself forgiving the sins of an armed robber very quickly
