Mean Machine

Vinnie Jones doesn't stray too far from home for his first leading role, working with several of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock company including Snatch producer Matthew Vaughn and an ex-footballer-turned-jailbird role. But what this remake of Robert Aldrich's 1974 movie The Mean Machine - remember, ex-football pro Burt Reynolds trained his fellow convicts to take on the guards - really misses is the creativity and vitality of Ritchie himself, since it's first-time director Barry Skolnick who's in charge here. That said, if you can overlook the rather thin characters and simplistic plot, the film's final third - an ill-tempered soccer match between warders and inmates - is very well filmed and highly entertaining. Jones isn't bad in a made-to-measure role, though the movie's best moments involve Jason Statham's maverick keeper and Jason Flemyng's unconventional commentator. Definitely one for the boys.