Clevercell Very disappointing...

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

guy-seide You know what gets me , people who talk crap about what they don't know. The ghetto is unoriginal , and yet every time you hear of another youth robbed of their future you cant help ,but feel like another mother some were else is mourning . See people who are well off don't get the "things" that goes on in the hood, so they give their Bill O'Riley point of view when they see a movie about growing up in the hood . I'm from south side Queens , one of the roughest area's in NYC , but yet I was able to relate to the lives of this family in London(sorry if I got the area wrong). I wasn't fascinated by the street life , nor did I ask to be a part of it. Yet is was present in my life through my brother, so I understood this movie . To those who think this movie was useless , understand this its not for you to be entertained ,but rather educated as to what goes on in the lives of young black (ghetto) youths. So for once look at this with an open mind and see what can be done to help , rather then mocking the realism of allot of Americas youth. Get to know were we come from .

tez I would like to start off saying that I appreciated the movie for dealing with the black community in London. No rude cockney gangsters, catchy crime scams or laughably stupid dope dealers. The family this movie deals with is a single mum home with two sons, one just out of prison, the other still too young to be involved in anything hazardous, but looking up at his brother and already copying some of his ways.I enjoyed the language and the characters who were all convincing and complex enough but, how carefully put down they were, the more obvious and stereotypical were the things happening to them. Everything going from bad to worse, who plays with fire is gonna get burnt. And then the ultimate contrast of either sinking into crime and sin (devil), or choosing the righteous path and go to church every Sunday (god).This easy moralism hurt the rest of the film. It made things predictable. It was like a newspaper article collage, one shock after the other. It took away much of the complexity that I found in the characters themselves. It really is a shame because the development of the characters could have been much more subtle and would have fit in better with the style of the movie that deals with a gritty context matter but managed to use a soft and sometimes almost dreamy camera and score, not unlike other recent British films, such a 'Morvern Callar' and '16 Years of alcohol'.

PSIcological2004 Firstly, I have to say, I didn't like this film. So why then, you might think, have i given it a good rating. It is down solely to the respect i have for it. Never before have i seen a film portray the tough life that is experienced by many in the tough streets of London or anywhere else for that matter, quite so realistically. At no point does it become unnatural or over the top, it always seems to draw you in because of its sense of realism. Like i have said, i did not like this film. Ordinarily this is not my cup of tea, the type of film i find myself fast forwarding because there are certain parts i don't want to see. However, I give my full congratulations to the director because i can see that it is a genuinely good film that i can respect, if not like.

02hbartosik-1 The most immediate thing that struck me about this film was it's perfect imitation of life - unbelievably believable, this move was EXACTLY like life is like, the accents perfect, the language appropriate, the whole story fantastic. I agree that if you do not live in London or at least have contact to the underground world you may not understand the movie very well, but rest assured this is a milestone in a whole genre of English ghetto movies - if you've seen the film 'Juice' starring Tupac Shakur you'll see a lot of connections in structure and plot but at the end of the day it's a unique, brilliant, enjoyable and in my opinion, perfect film.The actors are all skilled to the point where there acting is flawless - the 'bad guy' is not a generic evil psychotic skitzo, but rather just a down to earth nasty person. The hero, Ashley Waters, is lovable, conflicting and effortlessly cool as the friend, Wisdom, is both loyal but annoying at times (just like real friends can be!). The mother is loving and over protective (but not in a boring way, rather a sympathy evoking way which works excellently as she tries soooo hard to hide her pain) and the brother and his friend are both lovable and cool as well. A great film, on par with any Americano film, this is up there with Snatch, Lock Stock, Layer Cake and Trainspotting - it's different from all of them, but it is about crime and it is set in the slums of London, but rest assured it's original because I can't shake the feeling that stuff like this happens every day - even if it is a fascinating tale of revenge, deceit, horror and love. Ten stars! Go see now!