Al's Lads

Having read the blurb about this picture, I was expecting a knockabout English period farce at a very low budget. I was wrong. This is a nicely written, well shot (in Liverpool) period drama which transcends its meagre budget. The characters are well sketched and their working class backgrounds counterpoint the slick American peformances offered up by the likes of Al Sapienza ('The Soprano's') and Richard Roundtree (The original 'Shaft'). The story develops from a simple gin scam on board The Mauritania into Marc Warren (Jimmy) becomming a prize fighter for Al Capone's gang and in turn solving the kidnapping of Al's Son (Sonny). The gorgeous Kirsty Mitchell gives a very polished American peformance (she's Scottish!) and Ralph Little (Royle Family) and Stephen Lord excel also. Slow in parts, this film is well worth seeing and is beautifully lit by Nic Knowlands. A good low budget movie that can hold its head up high!!

If you're like me with money on hand, bored and in need of entertainment, you will go to your local (corporate) video store to see what's available and if you're like me thinking that you're slick, you would avoid the new releases and head to the vintage "drama, or thriller/action" isles.

I have found this movie in such an isle and it looked promising with Capone holding a Tommy Gun, along with the grainy transfer for the cover,you'd think you've found a very overlooked gem but this is not the case.

In the beginning of this movie, Capone and his henchmen cut's the throat of messenger boy sent from his enemies (the Irish Mob) and after this, you'd think things will continue along this path but it doesn't.

My favorite parts is a Polish butcher pressing his fingers in a slab of meet to give an example on how to pronounce his name, "Sla-vetski", and a dwarf hit-man played by the same guy who played in Willow.

The funny thing is, since this focuses on three friends from England, all the sudden, I'm noticing other actors with an accent and to escape with the loot, the women, and partying like you got over, is very...disappointing and unrealistic.

Forget Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Al's Lads delivers old-school gangsters with spats and tommy-guns. Okay so it's not got the flair of The Sting and it's not got the set pieces of The Untouchables, but this film's heart is in the right place.

A fish out of water tale, based on real events apparently, three friends from Liverpool get drawn into the shady underworld of Al Capone's Mob in 1927 Chicago.

What transpires is a fresh, but somewhat unrealised perspective on a classic genre. The script gets a little muddled but provides the necessary beats in the end. The sets, lighting, wardrobe and makeup are all solid, as are the majority of the performances, most notably Marc Warren in the lead and Richard Roundtree as his mentor. Sadly, what is lacking is a clear vision. Ultimately, it is the director who should have made more out of the material.

A travesty of film-making, this movie throws together every conceivable cliche from every film we've ever seen before about boxing, gangsters, romance, and thick but lovable scousers, and what's more compresses them all into such a space of time that its impossible to feel any narrative drive or sense that this is a real movie, rather than a simple mish-mash of individual scenes using acting offcuts from The Full Monty. The film itself looks and sounds good, thus beggaring belief that anyone looking at the script believed it could be turned into a decent product. Its depressing to think that with no film experience whatsoever, I could sit down with the script and a red pen and within an hour excise 30 cliches and 20 plot inconsistencies. Of course, having done that, there'd be 3 minutes of credits left. Its Full of unlikeable, thinly drawn characters we're supposed to root for (wise old boxing trainer, gangster moll, prostitutes with hearts of gold, , hard-but-honest hero who refuses to throw the fight) and Chicago gangsters who've risen to the top but are too stupid to foil a pack of scouse fools). Halfway through, I didn't walk out because I thought the film absolutely had to get better - there was no way it could remain at its abysmal, stinking, chancrous level. It did.

I saw this movie while visiting Liverpool, England last year. The movie captured the feel of Liverpool and its streets, hotels and bars. Most of the streets in Liverpool especially downtown still have that grand stylish era. The cinematography was beautiful which added to the fine acting of the cast. Hats off to the crew. One of my favourite scenes was the Jazz club in which they had a wonderful Jazz vocalist who really added to the time and era. I made enquiries in Liverpool to find out who she was. She is a jazz diva from Liverpool who goes by the name of Sueyo. Its an excellent movie just to feel transported for a while to another era.