The Grind

terrible plot, shocking acting made worse with bad mockney accents, jamie foreman was good but it looks like all the budget went on him! everything about it was really unbelievable, like a bad drama class loads of bad pauses in between lines, bad delivery of lines. Really annoying direction, showing nightclub scenes for too long, seemed like it was trying to pad out the film with slow motion shots of the dance floor, completely boring i had to fast forward loads of bits, and there was no relationships between the characters, and the dialogue was really unbelievable to the DJ.."ill tell you what mate.. bang out a couple of house tunes yeah??" amateur hour! don't bother watching it, total waste of time.

Brit gangster movies can be enjoyable, but this one was simply too tedious and confusing for me. I really wanted to like it. Closer editing would have condensed the story into a crisper 30 minute presentation. The production team was obviously going for gritty street realism, and it showed. It is truly regrettable that I have to produce ten lines of text for this review to be posted, but here goes. The characters were one-dimensional; "Dave" did not come across with the gravitas one seeks in a cinematic villain; Bobby was not tragically flawed, merely tragic; the soundtrack was even more grating than Dave's tire iron; viewers will struggle to differentiate major, minor, and other characters. Would I be spoiling if I recommended that readers not invest any wealth, interest, emotion, or time into this movie? I give it a 5 because I still can't figure out what happened, and that which did happen might have been good to other viewers. Or maybe not.

First of all ignore the negative reviews. There are technical issues with the film, but the storyline is fine! The film revolves around Bobby and his debts to an East End gangster, Dave, played by Jamie Foreman, currently in EastEnders as Derek Branning.

I felt Jamie Foreman came across well as the ruthless gangster who demands his debt is paid or else. Much in the liking of his father working along side the Krays brothers in the 60's.

The urban feel of the movie came across well in terms of the dialogue and the cinematography. Clearly the Director is a fan of Nil by Mouth. My favourite bit was the overdose on the dancefloor and the dance music suited it well. It could have been edited like a music video, but clearly the slow motion scenes were there to to tell a story and not a 3 minute pop video.

The story was clearly defined and the performances could have been better, especially from the co- lead,it was clear to see it was one of his first performances. It also had a very non-Hollywood ending which I wasn't expecting, I guess that was why Jamie Foreman wanted to play the role of Dave. Overall not a bad attempt at a first feature film and I look forward to see what the director does next!

The urban drama is saturated to bursting point with run of the mill, lazy mockney dramas and The Grind brings absolutely nothing new to the genre. The characterisations are woefully developed and acted; they stumble through what can hardly be considered narrative spewing out lines of dire- logue that amounts to posturing and screaming "fack" at each other. The direction isn't much better. The pacing is all over the shop from overly long shots of club scenes and slow motion walks to pad out the 90mins run time whilst employing bleached out visuals via out of focus shaky cam (presumably for "realism"). Overall though, it's just plain dull and is truly a Grind just to get to the credits.

I was looking forward to watching The Grind. Having been a fan of Jamie Foreman for years, and his fantastic turn in EastEnders over the last 6 months, this film looked interesting.

And was it any good? It was pretty good for a low budget film, to be fair. The story of a couple of mates, with one owing money to the other's boss is a familiar line. Martin Scorsese did this with Mean Streets nearly 30 years ago. But it works here in the Hackney setting.

Performances range from very good to poor. Stand outs are Foreman and Danny John-Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf)

Production values are good - visually it holds well, having gone for the gritty street realism of Nil By Mouth and Fish Tank. You can see the angle the Director had gone for in presenting a urban, street level feel.

The problems are fairly easy to point at. The female characters are underused. The Vince character isn't great, it would have been better to have focused solely on the main character Bobby. And some of the dance scenes go on a bit, so if you like trance, that's great, but otherwise...

Having said that, the pluses are there. The director has a strong visual sense, the locations are reminders of what many Londoners live through outside of the glare of the media. Jamie Foreman is at his most serious best, in fact his best performance in years. The story and dialogue is good.

So it's a bit hit and miss, but worth a watch, even just to see Danny John-Jules and Jamie Foreman in strong performances, and the evocative settings and visuals. And it's a whole lot better than some of the British dross out there.