Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Dazz Camponi OK, so I decided to watch a movie called 1Day which has caused controversy among cinemas in Birmingham thus not showing the movie in Birmingham but everywhere else. I agree with the cinemas when they said they wouldn't show the movie. The story is based around the gangs in Birmingham and is about a guy called Flash and his best friend/drug dealer tells him that if he doesn't get one hundred bags of 'scrilla' in two hours then he would 'lick him up, you get me blud?'…that's basically the story. One man trying to get his best mate's 'scrilla' otherwise he'd 'lick him up'.I thought this would be a lot like the brilliant Kidulthood and Adulthood but instead it's something negative and nasty in my eyes. Instead of trying to send a strong message about how young teenagers shouldn't join a gang, the movie did the exact opposite from my view. It looked like it was positive to join a gang as the thugs in the movie felt no guilt or remorse about their actions (bar one scene with Flash and his mother but he went right back to not feeling anything…again). The movie apparently sends a strong message about gangs but the only message I could see is that it's okay to be in one. I know they were trying to send a message that gang life isn't all it's cracked up to be but would the audience really see that in this movie? I would like to hear a comment from the filmmakers about what kind of message is being sent and where is it being shown? I mean, Flash was teaching a ten-year-old to rob, to shoot a gun, to sell drugs and make money, etc and Flash looked like he weren't bothered. There were some very small messages that started out good and then went back to being negative (like in the graveyard when they were visiting El Presidente's grave and then a gunfight started) but I doubt most people who will see this movie will actually see the messages as they didn't appear strong enough.Also, as mentioned before in a review, there was one particular scene that stuck out like a sore thumb in my head which was the part when they were in a fast food restaurant and one of the thugs raps about how, because he was black, a woman thinks he'd rob her because she clutches her handbag. Could the reason quite possibly be because you were loudly talking about drugs and murder and the fact that you had a gun on show with your hood up? Nah, it couldn't be, could it.The only thing good about the movie is the soundtrack. The songs in the movie kept the mood and the behaviour portrayed in the movie which is a positive thing. The acting is surprisingly good sometimes but other times it was just rubbish. The characters were instantly dislikeable and remained like that through the entire movie, there was no likable person in the movie whatsoever and none of the characters looked like they wanted out of their thuggish lives. The movie is badly written even though I can believe that this happens in real life. To watch this movie, you would need to understand street slang to fully understand what is being said in the movie.Honestly, my opinion of this movie is very negative. I don't believe it's showing a strong message about gangs and how it's not good to be in one. The messages are there but they're very weak. I can't see anyone liking this movie but two audiences and those are either chavs or the audience that are like the characters displayed in the movie and considering the certificate for this movie is only a 15, I expect the cinemas will have trouble on their hands.Terrible!To read more reviews, please visit: www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Flash (Dylan Duffus) receives a phone call from Angel (Yohance Watson), who's just been released from prison, telling him to re-pay quite a large loan in the next twenty four hours...or there'll be repercussions. So begins a desperate race against time to secure the money and all the while, try to dodge other problems in his life.I'm glad 1 Day found it's way onto DVD, being as in the city it is filmed, where I live, Birmingham City Council found it in their wisdom to issue a ban on it in cinemas, for the terrifying fear that hordes of black youths may swarm to see it and get converted into gang members. Such petty, pompous over-reaction is what you can expect from the clueless people in power but eventually everything finds it's way into sight. Needless to say, being filmed around my stomping ground, it was fun to spot and pick out landmark locations and see it put on the map cinematically. But that's the most fun I did manage out of it.At heart a tough, grimy urban thriller, the film also seems to have aspirations of being a musical. People walked out in droves over Sweeney Todd's musical numbers, but I found it more of a problem here. I know this is very much my personal opinion, but I felt the musical interludes ruined it and robbed it of some of it's dynamism, however authentic the harsh, gravelly lyrics and delivery were. It's your typical back-of-the-bus music and made a film already uncomfortably shoving the nastier aspects of black culture in your face harder to stomach. It's got everything right in terms of dialogue and delivery too, with the street slang and patois used by the main characters sounding very real too, but it doesn't make them any more likable or the experience any more enjoyable for anyone from the outside looking in.The singing aside, 1 Day manages a very real and well realized harsh dose of real life...but if these are the kind of people you don't want to see in real life, it's just one you won't want to watch again. **

Sjhm As musicals go, this hip hop effort from Penny Woolcock pulls no punches, but doesn't quite emotionally connect. A cocky young guy owes money to someone higher up the chain, the story follows him through the mean streets as he desperately tries to get the money to pay this guy back. Along the way he connects with a child who wants to get onto the first rung of the ladder, the three mothers of his various children, his own mother and grandmother in a snapshot of the two sides of life at the bottom of the heap.One of the main problems is that unless you are really "in" the hip hop world, a great deal of the dialogue is incomprehensible. The action is easy to follow, but the subtleties are lost on most people over the age of thirty, which down-grades the moments of poignancy considerably. And Flash is such an unlikeable character! At one point he even steals back the jewellery he gave to his girlfriends. Another problem is that the intentions of the big set pieces in the film are so telegraphed that you can predict with pin-point accuracy what is going to happen before it does. The moment that the little side-kick drops the gun on the sofa, you know how the confrontation in the multi-storey is going to pan out.I really wanted to like this. It really is okay to have a main character who is unlikeable, but you need something sympathetic to draw on and there really wasn't anything to hook into. Even as a bold statement the film doesn't quite catch it, because there's too much predictability in the outcome. I came away feeling mostly dissatisfied. Disappointing.

epa101 Seeing as we have plenty of drugs gangs in Britain, it was inevitable that someone would make a film set amongst drug gangs in a Black community in an inner-city. This film follows Flash as he tries to pay off a debt to a drug dealer. He must also deal with three children from three different women, and his mother, who is a very bossy sort. There is some rapping in the film, especially in the first half. At one point, it felt like a musical: the gang go into a takeaway, the customers reach for their wallet and look nervous, and the gang start to rap about how they're not out to burgle everyone. There is one rap between two women towards the end, which I felt disrupted the flow of the film as he neared its climax.There is not much violence in the film, although the subject of guns is discussed at length in parts. I'm glad that it tried to be different from the numerous US gangland films. The film is made more distinctive through the slang used, which is typical of the Black community in Birmingham. It's worth seeing, but I've given it just 7/10 because it lacks a clear meaning. There's no special kick that makes it stay in your memory.