The Land

Believable drama, and quite atmospheric

Though thought Michael Kenneth Williams who is such a great character actor was totally under used in his role as one of the teenagers father.

Watch dope after this film for a good contrast.

To be honest the shock at the end (youll know if you've watched it) pulls it all together, to really push across a message thats hard to ignore.

This film is about dreams, friendship, greed and most of all reality. Yes it is a bleak film at times, but I feel unfortunately life is often bleak - especially when born into bleak circumstances as many people are. There are a lot of morals to be found in this story, and something which I have to say i love is the absence of romance. This film was about friendship, family and all the other factors involved., and didn't feel the need to pimp itself up with a romantic story line irrelevant to the story.

Four teenage boys commit to making it out of the inner city of their hometown Cleveland by pursuing their dreams of becoming professional skateboarders. Because of lack of funds they needed to get into tournaments they had to depend on illegal ways to obtain money. This landed them in an extremely sticky situation that will test their brotherhood and their morals. After watching The Land we can see that this stands apart from other coming of age movies and stories. It stands differently than all of the high school romance and high school drama stories who are all very similar and overused plot themes. These boys have real big, real world problems. Violence problems, poverty problems, family problems. None of the cheesy stuff. The movie is also relatable because of how the characters change throughout. A main example would be how Cisco changes in the movie. In a time where there is more violence than ever, The Land shows the even more harsh violence that is not shown on the news. The stuff that happens daily in big cities but usually goes unnoticed. This is showed in one scene when guys apart of a drug queenpin shoot drive by and shoot someone on their dirt bikes. There are also many examples that show change and many high schoolers go through lots of changes. One example is how cisco changes. He is all for doing the illegal things and he is the one who had the idea. But he was the first to realise that they are not cut up for the stuff. He tries to quit but no one else wants to. I recommend this movie for kids ages 13-19 because they can relate to this the most. These kids are coming of age the hard way like many kids do. This is a very entertaining and unique movie that is not like many others i have seen.

There isn't a lot of fun to be had in 'The Land'. It's a very bleak film with quite a depressing view on life. There's one character intended to be the comic relief, but even he comes across quite miserable in most scenes. It's a film that takes itself very seriously. At times this is its biggest strength, and at other times it's its biggest weakness.

'The Land' doesn't have a single likable character. The bad guys are bad and the good guys are bad (just slightly less so). We're meant to root for the four main kids, but you'd have to have some very bizarre morals to want to do that. This is the film's biggest downfall. It's fine if a film is grim because of its story, but when it's dreary purely because of its characters, that's a flaw.

It's a little slow getting going, but things do pick up as it goes along. The acting is actually quite impressive from most of the cast. Linda Emond, with limited screen time, really impressed me. She was the most captivating of all the cast and never made the mistake of overacting. Altogether though, there's not a whole lot to see here. I'd call it watchable, without having enough substance to make it anything more than that.

Going in to watch this movie, I did not have high hopes. It seemed to be a tired theme, judging by the write-up. Though it was not groundbreaking or a 'first of its type', it was thoroughly enjoyable, with some very solid acting accompanied by some excellent music. I think that this film will definitely appeal to a teen audience, much like the classic 'basketball diaries' did for me when I was a teenager.

With a solid plot, it actually feels more like a documentary at times, than a movie. It does pull on the heart-strings a little, and will hit home for some with the brutal neighborhood and lifestyle that some less fortunate children are brought up in, but not in a cliché way.

Overall I feel a 7/10 does it justice.