Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella (2019)

Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella earns its keep by taking the series’ bruised-knuckle Essex attitude and dropping it into the bright, sun-bleached swagger of the Costa del Sol, where violence feels even more reckless under blue skies. Craig Fairbrass’ Pat Tate is still a walking storm cloud of rage, but the film smartly offsets his menace with a more mischievous, frequently funny caper energy as the “simple” job of moving cash turns into a chaotic parade of bad decisions. The vibe is loud, low-rent, and cheerfully disreputable—part lads-on-tour farce, part criminal dealmaking, with enough punchy action to keep the pulse up. If you want a polished, prestige crime drama, this isn’t it; but if you’re in the mood for an energetic, intermittently hilarious gangster romp that knows exactly what kind of trouble it’s selling, Marbella is an easy night’s watch.

Rise of the Footsoldier 4: Marbella wants to be a sun-soaked, swaggering crime romp—Pat Tate stomping through Spain for revenge while a drug deal spins into chaos. The problem is it often mistakes volume for substance: lots of violence, vulgar banter, and grimy machismo, but not much in the way of tension, character depth, or a story that feels like it’s building to something. If you’re not already invested in the franchise’s particular brand of laddish nihilism, this can play like repetitive business rather than a satisfying gangster tale. That said, Craig Fairbrass brings the usual brute-force presence, and if you’re purely here for nasty, no-moral-compass crime antics in a Marbella backdrop, it delivers exactly that.