Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

wilsonstuart-32346 Tired of endless 'Mockney' gangster flicks? Fed up with Danny Dyer? Bored with the same plots and dialogue recycled time after time (think Essex Boys anyone)? Then Clubbed is just the antidote you need.Set in Birmingham in the early 1980s, a meek factory work (with a shaded backstory) re-establishes his pride, confidence and even masculinity in the dangerous world of nightclub security. The acting, direction and production values are simply first class; characters are brought to life as three dimensional people with challenges, values, beliefs and problems like everyone else; and, yes, the violence is frequent, messy and sudden - again, just like in real life - but like every other life lesson and action (beneficial or otherwise) contained within this morality play, its use is never without consequences.

Bhargav Prasad This film is directed by famous Short film Director Neil Thompson(that's Thompson with a 'p') and written by famous boxer and philosophical genius, Geoff Thompson and stars talented Brit, Mel Raido as a factory worker in the 1980s dealing with divorce and fear in his own ways until he meets a boxer Louis, played by Colin Salmon, after which his life gets a new meaning.To put it in a nutshell, this movie isn't your usual Brit Gangster flicks in the lines of Lock, Stock…. or Layer cake or Britain's Godfather, Get Carter. This movie is more of a redemption story and the changes the main character faces. Though this movie sticks to the drama/crime genre and has nothing new to offer, this movie works because of it's in depth character analysis and the director takes his own time to develop the main character on who's life the entire story is focused upon.Unlike other British films which usually have tons of movie references, this one has tons of Literary references, mainly in the form of voice overs or visual aids in the form of books(written by Geoff Thompson himself!!). There is also a parallel track about Sparky, one of the boxers played by Scot Williams who doesn't follow the gang's discipline and will go any distance to make easy money.Though the film is mostly uphill, it has its own downsides. Well, for starters, the beginning and the ending of the movie is a paradox and doesn't make sense no matter how you look at it. Also, after the movie shifts focus on the other characters, after, half-time, the movie loses it's grip and becomes somewhat predictable. To top it off, the director who has struggled and succeeded throughout the movie to avoid clichés has broken the deadlock and given us a very predictable and clichéd twist.On the technical front, the editing is crisp and the camera-work captures the very surroundings of Danny's life with cinematic elegance. Though this movie takes its own time to unfold, you wont be bored because at the end, you feel sympathy for the character and you welcome the change in the him. The director has done well in establishing the depthness of the protagonists and also the other characters.VerdictI'm going with three out of five for Neil Thompson's Clubbed. It is not your usual British Gangster flick but is a great tell of redemption and change.

patrick powell I discovered Clubbed by chance when I came across a copy promoting the release of the film on DVD in the office. That I had never heard of it is, in a way significant, in as far as it is an independent production without big studio backing and obviously only had limited promotion when it was first released in cinema. Or at least limited promotion of which I was unaware. That is a shame, because it isn't half bad (as we Brits tend to understate), and deserves a wider audience. Briefly, it is the story of a man who discovers courage and self-respect. Mel Raido is that man - Danny - a factory worker in a dead-end job who has been divorced by his wife and dotes on the two daughters he can only see by arrangement and the goodwill of his wife. By chance he meets Louis, a nightclub bouncer who is passionate not only about boxing but the psychology of violence, fear, warfare and 'fighting with fighting'. He also meets Louis's two assistant bouncers Rob and Sparky, of whom Rob is by far the more sympathetic. Other characters include a local psychopathic hoodlum and his henchmen, and Danny and Sparky's wives. Every performance is strong and intelligent, and there is a horrible logic to how everything gradually spins out of control with Rob dying a horrible death, Sparky killing himself by drinking bleach and Louis serving 12 years in prison for an attack on Hennessy, the hoodlum. Invariably, Clubbed will be lumped together with other recent Brit films - the DVD bills it as a cross between Trainspotting and Layer Cake, but that is unfair. It is more intelligent than Layer Cake ever was and has none of the very dark - Scottish - humour of Trainspotting. If anything, my one criticism is that Clubbed lacks depth: we could have done with more characterisation and the establishment of character and motivation. If that would have made the film longer, well so be it, I, for one would not have complained. Given that British films, as a rule, have far more limited resources than Tinseltown productions, and given that independent British films have even fewer resources, Clubbed is exceptionally well-made. However, as with other Brit films, a certain self-consciousness comes over in as far as Clubbed knows that it will be likened to the other Brit flick lowlife gangsters films which have been made these past ten years and, more pertinently, that is where it will be assumed it target audience is. But clubbed is not just another lowlife gangster film. It is a film examining character, yet I sense that, with one eye on the market - which means the finances, which means not losing money - it feels it has to pull its punches slightly and cannot get as deep into an examination of Danny's psyche as it would have like to have done which, at the end of the day, would have made a good film even better. Finally, it has to be said that the portrayal by Mel Raido - who would be a shoo-in for the title role of any mooted biopic of the great Norman Wisdom - is superb, and that despite the necessary limitations of the script and direction, he gains sympathy for his character Danny, at heart a decent family man who has yet to realise his full potential.

ReaperRayle This movie was an absolute waste of time. It's nothing but a wanna-be gangster movie. It contains a very predictable plot. My feelings are unsympathetic to the characters, and the dialogue is mediocre at best. Half the time you are looking for something else to do, because the movie is that boring, since you already know what's going to happen. The other half of the time you're desperately hoping the protagonist grows a pair of balls or just ends his life by jumping off a bridge or something. Also, the secondary characters are for the most part one- dimensional. There's no depth to any of the characters in this movie! No depth!