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Dom Robinson reviews
Rental DVDVCI
- Cert:
- Cat.no: FDVD 085
- Running time: 90 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 13 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £n/a
- Extras: Trailers for “K-PAX” and “Crush”
Director:
- Moody Shoaibi
Producer:
- Amanda Davis
Screenplay:
- Moody Shoaibi and Mark Tonderai
Music:
- Mark Hinton Stewart
Cast:
- Rooster: Mark Tonderai
Jess: Nathan Constance
CJ: David Oyelowo
Chang: Crunski
Phil: Alan Davies
Kelly: Melanie Blatt
Jesus: Gary Kemp
Darcy: Steve Toussaint
Bouncer: Ricky Gervais
Tunde: Geff Francis
Crackhead: Lexi Strauss
Gran: Anna Wing
Mina: Rebecca Hazelwood
Eastwood: Stewart Wright
Football coach: John Thomson
Raj: Pal Aron
Grandad: Trevor Peacock
In a Dog Eat Dog world,there are four London DJs trying to pay their debts and they’ll have to keeptheir wits about them if they’re to manage it, in what amounts to a blackLock Stock andis just as entertaining. Shame this film was so overlooked upon its release.
First up is Rooster (co-writer Mark Tonderai), who has problems withLondon’s biggest drug dealer, Jesus (Gary Kemp). He was brought into themess by Phil (Alan Davies) and owes porn-baron Tunde, another guy you don’t wantto upset, £3,000. The last guy who tried to screw the latter only owed£200 and now stutters for life because he was forced to give him a”batty wash”.
Chang (Crunski) has an ingenious plan to get money by stealing books – and then a PC monitor -from a library. However, since he needs five grand to “buy” his daughter fromthe child’s mother he’ll have to come up with a far better plan. Will a bigDJing disco gig be the answer for all four of them, or would he be better advisedto steal the dog of a rich authoress and hold it to ransom? Or will thingscome full circle and go from bad to even worse?
A romantic opportunity opens for Jess (Nathan Constance) who works in afast-food restaurant – before he gets sacked – when Mina (Crossroads‘ Beena,aka Rebecca Hazelwood) walks in. She has a desperately annoying brother,Raj (Casualty‘s Pal Aron) who works in the family’s electronics shop.However, Jess has an equally embarrassing grandad in Trevor Peacock (fatherof The Comic Strip‘s Daniel Peacock), who offers his grandson aless-than-ideal motor in which to drive Mina around.
CJ (David Oyelowo) loses his security job and his girlfriend Kelly(Melanie Blatt) is going behind his back. To make matters worse, his ownmother is starring in porn films!
The film features cameos from Rescue Me‘s Stewart Wright asEastwood, a pretend-black version of Arthur Daley, buying and selling whilerunning a promotion business and attempting to get the lads their big DJ gig.
Cold Feet‘sJohn Thomson plays a complete bastard of a football coach, partiallyreminiscent of every games master who would shout endlessly and humiliatinglyat the class to get the end result.
Eastenders‘ Anna Wing (aka Lou Beale) appears as CJ’s gran andThe Office‘s Ricky Gervais pops up as a nightclub bouncer.
There’s a good quote from Rooster when forced to be part of a deal by Jesus:
“They could’ve killed us… could’ve tortured us…
but making up go to Birmingham? That’s low, man!”
As for the “Life’s What You Make It” reference, I knew precisely whenthe outcome for that was just about to be revealed.
Presented in the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 and anamorphic, theprint has strong colours no noticeable problems, but then the film only came out last yearso you wouldn’t expect any defects.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and makes use of the speakers when theincidental music and background tunes, such as Petula Clark’s “Downtown”,are brought to the fore.
For a rental DVD, there’s nothing in the way of extras that relates to the film.All you get are two trailers for other Film Four movies,K-PAX andCrush.Neither can be accessed from the main menu. These only play, normally,when you first put the disc in the player, unless you’re using a DVD-ROM playeror can access individual titles on the DVD.
The menu that you do get is static and silent and offers just the choice ofEnglish subtitles and ‘play movie’, but while there are 13 chapters to thefilm there’s no scene selection menu.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.