Jack Said

I loved this film and would have to say it's one of my favorite movies of this genre. Absolutely riveting film about Jack, an undercover cop who has to find his way into a family the police have been trying to get close to for some time. Jack has to make some life changing decisions about how to deal with a predicament he finds himself in as a result of getting too close to the crims he's supposed to bring down. Lots of plot twists. Well written, well acted and a credit to the genre.

Time is spent giving the characters depth so you either become attached to, or despise them. It's got all you could ask for. The moral dilemma, the love interest, the loyalty to job or friend, betrayal, revenge - and it works.

It's the sort of movie that leaves you stunned at the end with lots of questions about the morality of the police. Well worth watching.

Apparently JACK SAID is the middle part of a trilogy, although after watching this misfire I have to say I'm in no hurry to watch the other instalments. This is Cockney gangster film-making at its very worst, a tired mess of a storyline propping up a film chock-full of bad acting and worse.

The lead actor here, Simon Phillips, is undoubtedly the worst thing about this production. Watching this chubby guy wandering around attempting to do 'presence' and 'attitude' is frankly an embarrassment. His supposedly quick-witted humour is even worse, and I was hoping one of the other characters would lamp him before long. Needless to say that they never do.

The narrative is all over the place. Danny Dyer features heavily as a friend of the lead, but is off the screen for long periods of time and doesn't really contribute much when he's on it. Instead we get the usual low-rent gangster hokum nonsense, and whoever decided to put Ashlie Walker as the main villain needs their head examined; an average episode of HOLLYOAKS would be a better fit, I think. At least David O'Hara has the sense to only appear in a scene or two of this nonsense.

I saw this last night at the cinema and I'm glad it's out on DVD soon as I'm going to get it and watch it again. I thought for an independent low-budget feature, this was a considerably impressive effort. It may not have the money of Sin City – which is clearly an influence for the graphic novels and the films – but they have worked with whatever they had to achieve great production values.

The opening is a massive nod to its graphic novel roots before bringing us into a slightly more recognisable setting but still retaining its noir elements. Scot Simon Phillips is perfectly cast as the everyman-leading man. It's a nice touch that the "name" in the film, Danny Dyer, supports here rather than leads and the predominantly un-famous cast means that we're seeing characters rather than actors laying characters. That said, the two big names, Dyer and David O'Hara, put in often scene-stealing appearances.

Larger that-life in some parts, the characters are clearly based on the graphic novel approach where everything can be in your face, and it works. Ashlie Walker impresses as the sexy psycho seeking to usurp Daddy and Terry Stone is a combination of menacing and funny as the Guv'nor's second in command, 'The Fixer'. It's also impressive that we've finally seen a British gangster film with very strong female characters. Rebecca Keatley and Rita Ramnani provide the "good" to Walkers "bad" and achieve convincingly naturalistic performances.

There are certainly elements of other gangster and noir films. References to the Big Combo, Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, Pulp Fiction and Get Carter abound, but nothing seems lifted, more occasionally treading were others have already tread (thought this isn't always a bad thing). The plot's MacGuffin – a box with mysterious and never-explained contents – is a film staple seen in Ronin and Pulp Fiction, but this is merely a device to propel events forward. The voice-over is of course classic noir – but it's refreshing to hear it as we see London streets rather than American ones.

I can't think of another British film that has even attempted noir in recent years, let alone adapting elements from a graphic novel, and this is a very worthy effort.

While scoring the film a 2 I will say that it does however not stink as much as that score would suggest, its just that having sat through this banal attempt at noir (which is best left to the Americans)I cannot rate it any higher while I still have the pathetically unrealistic female lead characters cartoonish unconvincing nut job still in my head.

The lead character is also a little...no....a lot on the unbelievable side as are all the characters...in fact...maybe this should have been made as a cartoon.

It is cheap, nasty, embarrassingly bad in places, maybe the only redeeming feature is the score.

I am sure that the film will have some appeal with 14 year olds who stumble over it but really the poor acting and ridiculous dialogue coupled with the slap inducing 'acting' of the lead female character means this should be out on DVD very soon......

Maybe I should rate it 1.

I'm sorry but I couldn't enjoy it. The film was far too boring with no value of character development and arc, or interesting story. I'd avoid if I were you!