Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

bimmerbad I saw it only once several years ago, probably 1999 or 2000... (Today - 2007 - I finally succeeded to find and order a DVD copy and expect to get my hands on it in a couple of days.) I remember that my TV was on, set to one of the movie channels I had in my satellite package. I didn't expect much but soon found myself unable to take my eyes off. I fully agree with other, more eloquent reviewers here - the soundtrack and its blending is definitely a masterpiece. To this day, I have never experienced anything close to it when watching a movie. Amazing.I think that movies are like wine - it all depends on one's state of body and mind. Sometimes it gets you, sometimes not. But as far as I can judge from other reviews here this movie does has something that got so many people who were lucky to stumble on it one way or another.

bob the moo When they left school, six friends were full of hope and dreams of success. Four years later they are still trying but mostly their lives are still on the same track – with their same partners and playing in the same experimental jazzy funk combo. However when Charlie gets involved in an accident it sends shockwaves through an already troubled group; Bean goes off the rails when he sees his girlfriend with another man, becoming hooked on drugs and dealing; Rix get his girlfriend Sherry pregnant and has to try and hold the band together as Sam wants to drop the jazz aspect and bring in a new vocalist to become more commercial.Opening with the same actors supposedly playing 16/18 year olds, this film quickly moves onto four years later where, aside from school uniform, they look exactly the same – however this jump in creditability is the least of your worries in a film that never stops adding to the plot in an effort to replace real emotion with pace. The story introduces to a collection of characters quite quickly and seems to have aimed to be realistic of life for young people in London but, as the film goes on, the base premise is opened up as each character has all manner of tragedy happen to them resulting in the film feeling far too busy as it spins towards a rather overblown conclusion. It's a shame because the people are quite interesting at the start but the script doesn't allow them to really develop as real people and so puts them in extreme lives and covers for the material's inability to really grip and involve by simply having it move very fast and always having something happen on screen. It is pacy enough to keep watching though and I'll say this for it – I was never bored, but I also never really cared for the people or found myself involved in these lives.The direction is pretty good though, using London quite well without becoming a tourist trade film. The atmosphere of lost lives is well put across and it keeps a downbeat tone even as the plot twists become decreasingly like any life I've ever lived! The music is pretty good though even if it will probably have dated pretty badly in about ten years time – personally I quite liked the jazzy sort of jungle stuff and I like the vocalist even if she did turn it very poppy (which was the point I suppose).The cast find themselves with good basic characters and are left with the challenge to keep them real people while their lives become increasingly exaggerated. Newman does well with his loss and makes it believable even if he has little time to put complex feelings across. Shepard is OK but his character is quite bland and it shows in his performance. I did feel a bit sorry for Waters, whose character goes the farthest and becomes rather silly and OTT by the end of the film. Ejiofor is pretty good and works well with a lot more time and dialogue than he was allowed in Love Actually (hasn't he put on a lot of weight by the way!) but it's a shame the same isn't offered to Smith who is only given a bump to carry around and little else.Overall this is a reasonable British film but hardly any great shakes. It has pace and energy and it has tried to create an ensemble drama featuring 'real' lives but the emotion and drama is not as real as it thinks and involving stories are replaced by exaggeration as the film is unable to stop adding to it's drama. If it had been better written it could have rested on smaller events but as it isn't, it needs to keep moving for fear of stalling. In this regard it does keep moving and is never really boring but it isn't that good a film as a result but should please those who are easily won over by soapy dramas as the like.

Borboletta Here is another example of how too often the real gems go by unnoticed...this film rocks! I was lucky enough to catch it on British Airways coming back from the UK and even in its edited form was quite moved. It's one of those films that holds you throughout, you really get dragged into the fast-paced, tense, sensual and moving dynamics of this young group of friends. But one of the real highlights is the sound track! Is this available in the UK? If not are bootlegs available?? (can someone please let me know?) The sound of the group was just amazing. One of my favorites from 1999. Definitely check it out if you can.

johnfranks This is the moving story of a group of friends whose lives are thrown into disarray when one of them has a tragic motorcycle accident. The strain is too much to keep their band together. Eventually one of the group goes batty on drugs and tries to rob a bank. I won't give away the end because you should see it for yourself. It has an excellent cast of new young British actors.