Rollin' with the Nines

I saw Rollin' with the nines in Newham Showcase Cinema on Friday, and I was very pleasantly surprised! The first maybe 20-25 minutes was extremely hard to get into. It was a bit of a barrage on your senses getting thrown into this world at the deep end. However the film changes direction at the half hour mark and goes from strength to strength.

The best bit of the whole film was the first raid on the yardies. It was as good if not better then the Hollywood film Narc, which I love. It was really excellent, got the heart racing and was filmed brilliantly. Another nice scene was the tale of the Sawn off 12 gauge, original and clever.

Me and my mates who went to see it all agreed Rollin' was best when following the coppers. Weird I know, because after most gangster films it kind of makes you want to be a gangster, but the film shows those characters life's so brutally that after the film it kind of makes you want to a hard arse detective, even though they were 'corrupt' cops! The best performance is from Terry Stone, he has a real screen presence, stealing scenes away from seasoned Brit flick actors like Vas Blackwood and Jason Flemyng.

A really brilliant effort for a low budget British film, I hope it gets the cinema time it rightfully deserves, especially when their is rubbish like Scary Movie 4 out there clogging up our theatres! It may start very heavy for the average cinema goer but stick with it, because by the end you don't want it to end.

This movie lacks all the proper elements that make a good gangster movie. In fact I can say that this movie is proof of the fact that violence alone doesn't make a good movie. There are too many scenes that are just too much that story wise easily could have been avoided. One scene with Naomi Taylor did give some motive of her actions following the crime she is subjected to. Only I could not shake the feeling that almost everything in the movie was illogical and unrealistic. "Rolling with the nines" is a beautifully choreographed mess. With no real main character it is very difficult to invoke sympathy for any lead. The movies goes from one event to another,from one character to another and it never gets clear who we are supposed to follow. Maybe it was me but I couldn't sense any good in any of the characters. Almost all of them did repulsive questionable things. There is one action scene that stands out and is one of the highlights of the movie. The other good thing was the very brief appearance of Billy Murray. Other than that I would suggest to ignore this movie since it is one of the worst gangster movies ever made!

Gangster films are a stable of the British film industry, with many crime films coming out in some form or another each year. It is often a safe bet to make it a debut feature, but every few people could match the success of Guy Ritchie or Matthew Vaughn.

Too Fine (Simon Webb), Pusher (Robbie Gee) and Rage (Roffem Morgan) are three friends who seem to make it out of the ghetto and on the edge of becoming underground rap stars. But one night Too Fine is shot dead and his sister Hope (Naomi Taylor) is raped and threaten by a drug dealer, Temper (Patrick Regis). Hope gets her revenge and Pusher, Rage and their friend Finny (Vas Blackwood) take control of Temper's operation for a drug kingpin (Billy Murray) after killing his crew. But on the case of is police detective (Terry Stone), wanting to get them killing a young waitress in a club shooting and use any method to get them.

Director Julian Gilbey is seen as a raising star as a director and he does have some talent, he can work with a budget, he can deliver on action and keeps the film going at a fast pace. The action scene in the gun runner's house looked and felt very much like a similar scene in Bad Boys 2 and there is a solid car chase in the countryside. But this is a very unfocused film, not knowing whether to focus on Hope and the crew or the police investigate, the scene in the gun runner's house felt like it belonged in a different film and that the crew were not on screen for quiet awhile. It could have easily have been about Hope who after getting raped and her revenge becomes a female gangster and the crew rise and fall but Hope still having the trauma of the rape in the back of her mind. Or it could have been about a dirty/corrupt cop who after seeing an innocent person gets killed or injured has a moral crisis as they investigate the crime. Rollin' With the Nines also felt very much like it was trying to be an American film, including the police detectives having guns, when only specialist armed units in the police are allowed to use guns in the UK and the police ranks are very American, like using Detective and Captain instead Detective Sergeant and Superintendent or DCI. This is also a film that enjoyed violence, using a lot of blood instead of being a more realistic tone I believe that the filmmakers were trying to aim for.

Rollin' With the Nines almost felt like an non well written version of The Wire, focusing on a duel narrative about a police investigation and different ranking gangster in a drug operation and the police even using a homeless crack addict as an informant, even if the relationship is different.

The acting throughout is pretty weak. The best performance came from Simon Webb which is very surprising because he is a pop singer and he dies in the first 10 minutes. The black characters are speak in typical 'ghetto' speak, using slang all the time and because of their different ages they did not even look like they should be friends. The police are simply geezers who break the rules and it seem like the film was trying to have it both ways, showing the police to be corrupt and willing to sell drugs for their own profit but want to do the right thing, bring down big drugs rings and murders. Rollin' With the Nines suffers from having no likable characters; they are violence or corrupt and have few redeeming features. If it was meant to be a story about the corrupting affects of crime on both sides or that they are no good guys in this world, but it did not success on that front. And because of the unfocused nature of the film it felt like it did not know who the protagonist is and there for who the audience is meant to route for.

Rollin' With the Nines shows that Gilbey had some potential behind the camera, but needed more focus on a character and story level. He also had a problem of being too violence, enjoying using the blood packs a bit too much. But you can do a lot worst then this film.

There is no doubt that this film sticks in the mind. But it is most defiantly a film that will split opinions down the middle. Violent and morally dubious this film turns the stomach.

The direction is confident but the rape scene will unsettle to the point of nausea, as will the frequent violence.

But there's just something else about this film. Something highly unsettling. I can't put my finger on in it but there's something that just makes you feel… dirty. And I'm no prude.

Mostly the cast is good but it's all a bit lock stock for my liking.

Special mention to Terry Stone who is very good, if occasionally over reliant on the dreaded C word but Vas Blackwood and Jayson Fleming just seem like they are sleep walking through there doubtless well paid roles.

Technically proficient, well made and with a certain sheen that most UK films lack this film has more than it's fair share of stand out moments. But as I said it leaves you feeling... dirty.

This debut deserved a lot more praise than it got.

Excellent foundations to launch from marred by the fact it didnt launch anyone.

Terry Stone shows that when he's not shouting his lines can actually give a decent turn. A very honest performance that for whatever reason he left on this set and took the Danny Dyer approach to acting instead. such a waste.