This is a boorish, blokey film, the cinematic equivalent of a man sitting on the tube with his legs spread wide apart. It’s a violent British revenge thriller starring ex-Marine (and Jeff Bridges lookalike) Tip Cullen as a veteran getting payback for the death of his teenage daughter from drugs. Everyone involved has clearly worked extremely hard with what looks like a very low budget, but the cracks do show; it’s impossible to take a gangland crime boss seriously when he’s wearing such a nasty cheap suit. To be fair, most of the funding looks like it’s been chucked at SUVs and imitation assault rifles for the relentless gunfights.
As it happens, veteran marine Andy (Cullen) carries out his first kills using bits and bobs borrowed from work; he’s the manager of a hardware shop so he picks off the bad guys in a seedy drug den with a staple gun and hammer, hunting down his daughter’s dealer boyfriend Cassius (Daniel Davids).
Then, just as Andy is outnumbered, his old muckers from the marines storm in, back for one last mission. Each of them is damaged by a tour of Afghanistan, suffering from PTSD and guilt over what they were asked to do on the ground. The men in their crosshairs now are 100% scumbag, and we are invited to sympathise as they shoot through way through a criminal network.
It might be easier to take Sunray: Fallen Soldier more seriously if it was an American movie; here in the UK, it’s hard to buy men in fatigues hanging out of SUVs shooting at each other. And the movie ends with a narrative cheat that makes the entire film, already unconvincing, look utterly implausible.
• Sunray: Fallen Soldier is out in the UK and US from 24 January.
