Bigga Than Ben

The only reason I watched it is because Oxxxymiron (Russian rapper) named one of his songs "Bolshe Bena" ("Bigga Than Ben"). Seems like the only reason he called his song that way is because he grew up in London, and the movie is set there as well - that's where the similarities between the movie and the song end.

Nonetheless, the film is able to stand on its own. I watched it more than 10 years ago on my old Nokia with a 320x240 resolution, so I don't remember much, but I still recall the overall vibe. The atmoshphere of loneliness and uncertainty was seeping through the little screen. I remember that I could feel by my skin the struggles of an emmigrant's life. So, if even a decade later I still remember how the movie made me feel, it must have done something right, what do you think?

On occasion, a low budgeted British film which was released on limited release is a thing to get excited about, and is a usually time to enthuse people to go after it in seeking it out - on the occasion of 2007's Bigga Than Ben, not so. Based on a 1999 memoir of two young Russian men whom arrive in London to hit it big in a Capitalist nation, the film is a meandering; self-conscious piece of unfunny comedy combined with uninteresting rags-to-riches story-telling delivered through an annoying pseudo-documentary aesthetic. The film is a hopelessly misjudged failure; an inept and brutally annoying feature about two of the most unlikeable characters you'll see grace a a British film - 87 minutes has rarely felt as long as it does here. Want I wanted out of Bigga Than Ben was an interesting mediation on life in England from the perspective of an immigrant; how one's identity or life dramatically changes given such diverse jumps in culture and, on occasion, political mindsets. What I wanted was something in the vein of 2007's Brick Lane, what I got was an odd amalgamation of Eastern Promises melded with Dumb and Dumber.

Suzie Halewood's film covers the misadventures of leads Cobakka (Barnes) and Spiker (Chadov), two louts whom arrive in London from Moscow to get rich quick away from their far poorer homeland. One would hope that the sorts of things those who wrote the book have admitted to here have since spawned visits from the constabulary; here, most of the criminal acts the lads are forced into turning to are given a jovial and bouncy facelift for the sake of cheap laughs at a mawkish pair. They crash land in what they refer to as "foggy albion", local friend of a similar immigrated ilk Artash (Matesan) holes them up in a small shed within the boundaries of a rich person's house as sharp angles looking directly up at a number of tall structures and pieces of iconography from ground level provide a sense of this very much being a low level look at life in London from the worm's point of view.

Their travels are punctuated by their voice-overs in thick eastern European accents informing us on where they stand, their voices telling us in fairly decent English exactly what's going on as they struggle with the language within the film creating an odd contradiction of linguistic ability. If the narration is from the future, post-misadventures, then that drains whatever very little suspense there is prior to the getting to the finish line. A continuous updating of their cash situation to annoying cash register noises is also apparent, working the first time before wearing out its welcome; an idea the film itself appears to tire of before dropping completely. With London their oyster and money seemingly to be made every-which way, thus begins the tale of these two people delivered under a canopy of lively, jovial, knock-about crime comedy frills in the form of a mock self-help video. In short, it falls hopelessly flat with very little of anything achieved. The film's title is particularly grating, the dropping of the 'e' and the 'r' for sake of an 'a' immediately draws our attention to a self-conscious sense of being "hip" without, I don't think, a hint of irony.

There appears to be this central tract to proceedings which reads something along the lines of the expecting of the audience to get behind these cocksure immigrants whom are coming over and wanting to rip off British natives in an attempt to win big. When everything goes haplessly wrong, the film ill-thinkingly expects our sympathy. It's unfortunate that the majority of people who'll now come to view the film a few years after its release are doing so in the current climate of problems linked to immigration and unemployment; Bigga Than Ben coming to more presently resemble a really misjudged novelty idea that asks us to respect the treating of job hunting and money garnering beneath this canopy of light crime infused comedy led by a pair of idiots.

Halewood struggles with whatever narrative, if any, was embedded within the text she's adapting; the two leads are caricature non-events breezing their way through a piece seriously lacking in any kind of insight or plot. They hop from scene to scene, robbing; thieving; fare dodging; drinking and wanting to get involved with women, none of it really mattering in terms of the order of it playing out with the gradual bringing of everything around so as to demonise the actions of these two landing heavily when drug addiction and the missing of a girlfriend back home appears to sabotage their dream. It's difficult to take a film entitled Bigga Than Ben seriously; even more-so, one which asks us to weep for bawdy immigrants arriving in a nation expecting everything and getting nothing. Little is done to round the characters; very little of any interest is said and the wallowing in the sort of content for the first two thirds before cheaply rounding everything off in an act of obligatory confirmation in the mould of: "by the way, none of the above is recommended" just confirms what a dramatic dead zone the whole thing is. The film is decidedly much Lessa Than anywhere near slightly interesting, as it whittles away centralising on two people Thicka Than any two short planks you're willing to nominate.

Bigga Than Ben kicked off well and had me laughing in stitches. Described as, "A true story about two pieces of Moscow Scum," the film follows draft-dodging Spiker and Cobakka hitting London as a haven for fraudsters where they will get rich and enjoy capitalist heaven.

The Brits can be annoyingly pernickety about ID and other bureaucratic niceties, so these two baseball-hatted Russian punks engage various dodgy characters to fast-track them into beating the system. Cheque book scams require a bank account. Bank accounts require proof of income and utility bills. Utility bills require an address that isn't a shed, and so on. The crooked son of a millionaire shows them the ropes on basic shoplifting and petty theft from old ladies. He also uses some letraset so they have basic documents – for which he charges only fifty per cent of all income.

There's lots of hilarious (but not overly offensive) racial stereotyping as Spiker and Cobakka practice their new skills with more gusto than dexterity. Taken for terrorists or muggers as they try to 'help people with shopping bags' and ending up with only a packet of envelopes when they rob a local store. They take offence over the wrong things and show strong Russian spirit in the face of perceived aggression (unless the other guy is bigger).

The gags fall fast and free, with inventive cinematic touches as they explain things to camera or press a 'subtitles' button for an Irishman's incomprehensible English. Spiker and Cobakka's have confiscated shoplifting goods returned to them by a middle-eastern grocer who feels sorry for them, and their own accents recall 'Kazakhstan'. It's all very Borat and, although the original story must have had room for being a major hit, Sacha Baron Cohen it isn't.

What is worse, it seems to start running out of material halfway through. A 'step-by-step instruction on how to cook heroin' is not as funny as it should be. The film starts to take itself a bit too seriously as we are invited to feel sorry for these . . . ermm . . . pieces of Moscow Scum.

It's a commendable effort, and a tantalisingly seductive look at London's underbelly from the hygienic comfort of legitimacy. But Bigga Than Ben never quite scales the indie heights we would so like to see it conquer.

I first heard about "Bigga than Ben: A Russian's Guide to Ripping off London" in the The St. Petersburg Times while living in Russia two years ago. The movie is based on a book of the same title (now out of print and impossible to find) by Sergei Sakin and Pavel Tetesky. The book was somewhat of a cult hit, and was criticized in England for encouraging people to defraud the system and telling them exactly how to do it. Sakin and Tetesky fell apart after the book was published and seem to disagree over who even wrote some of it, but it was definitely co-authored.

Leaving Russia, Cobaka and Spikker are amazed by the material wealth of England, but also daunted by the task of establishing themselves in London. We follow them through their various misadventures, some of which are hilarious. The story never builds to a big climax, but I think that would have been unrealistic. The film stays true to its roots and its gritty low-budget look fits the story well. The only thing I found wanting was information about their scams and how they pulled them off - for instance the book supposedly contains a lot of calling card scams that weren't really in the movie.

This movie is cheap, short, funny, and good. Its a great film for any English-speakers who also speak Russian or are interested in Russia. And above all, Andrei Chadov (if you haven't see ZHIVOY, run, don't walk, to your video store and get it) and Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian), both put in awesome performances. They have a great chemistry and I can't imagine better casting for these roles - they also look a lot like the real-life duo, who are shown in a photo during the end credits. I'm hoping for Bigga than Ben 2!

"Perestroika" and "democratisation" of the ex-USSR had opened up possibilities for assessing cheap various sources of Russia.

Twenty five year old Moscow lads, a far cry from average Mr. Ivan of this age, decided to become more financially sustainable by making fast money in the West.

For them, the UK is the most realistically reachable destination.

Already settled in London advised newbees on ways British taxpayer might be pinched out.

However, everything has got own price and own educative effect.

Through pity theft criminal endeavours of penniless foreigners filmmakers show UK reality unknown to native locals.

A movie is of interest to both foreigners and, the most, for the British subjects as it disclosed a miserable state of static affairs in a place traditionally self-confident in own global importance.