Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella review – another round of cheery nastiness

It’s the mid-90s, and the pill supply is drying up at the Essex nightclub run by gangster hardman and newly-minted ex-con Pat Tate (Craig Fairbrass), along with his henchpals Tony (Terry Stone) and Craig (Roland Manookian). Tate toodles over to Spain in search of revenge on past associate Harris (see the last Footsoldier film), only to find his nemesis is no more. Recently risen mobster Terry (Andrew Loveday, also the film’s director) has taken over Harris’s place in the chain of command as well as his icy-hearted, coked-up lady friend (Emily Wyatt, whose succession of swimsuits would be enough to costume a beauty pageant).

Terry offers Tate an in on a big drug deal, if he can get his goofy underlings Tony and Craig to bring the cash over from the UK without losing it on the way on sex workers in Amsterdam. Much sniffing, shagging, snickering and throat slitting ensues, all soundtracked to club bangers from the era, including Corona’s The Rhythm of the Night, New Order’s Blue Monday and the delightfully naff early-90s house novelty record Ebeneezer Goode by the Shamen.

The British guns, geezers and gore franchise is four films in now, and you have to wonder for what thin slice of the film-consuming demographic the makers imagine they’re making these movies. The last one, Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Pat Tate Story, barely made any scratch theatrically.

But they do seem to be having fun, judging by the relentless chortling and chuckling that emanates from Stone and Manookian, seemingly high on some kind of happy-hearted supply of joy even as their characters steal, stab and slice. The whole thing is horribly nihilistic and cheerful all at once.

• Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella is released in the UK on 8 November.