24 heures sur 24

For my money this is the best film of the year. Best in that it didn't cost a fortune but packs as much of an emotional wallop as any blockbuster with 200 times the budget. Bob Hoskins plays Darcy, the burnt out soccer coach whose past history is told in flashback through his diary. It tells of how he trained up a team of no-hopers into becoming boxers with something to live for. Shot in luminous black and white, the feature debut of Shane Meadows is a remarkably sensitive, blisteringly funny portrait of hopelessness in Nottingham. The city has always had its problems but is also one of the most vibrant places on earth and Meadows captures the balance perfectly.

The sulphurous black and white photography adds much class to the production and the team of largely unknown actors handle things admirably.

The movie also features one of the most realistic fight scenes ever committed to celluloid when Hoskins and Coronation Street's Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) lay into one another. Both actors walked away with broken bones and this is jut one element of why 24/7 is a cut above the average movie. It's life captured on film with few romantic films. But the message is as powerful as one of Hoskins' punches in the ribs. Meadows will inevitably get more money for his next picture and will no doubt be sucked into the Hollywood mainstream which will probably be the death of him. If that happens, let's hope he doesn't lose sight of the genius which he embedded into every frame of 24/7.

This film was one I had heard of, thought I'd like to see, but simply missed. When it came on pay-tv I made a point of taping it and I'm glad I did. In an extremely simple but effective way this film transports the viewer to a seedy english working class neighbourhood with its local 'colour' and crushing gloom, hopelessness and misery. A fair short film, in some respects I felt the tale unfinished - little by way of background, the heart of the film was the training and first competition which doesn't run too long, then - almost before you know it - its all over. Still, definitely worth a watch for some fine acting, interesting (though not overly original) plot, and fine but simple film-making. (ps although I can understand the use of b/w I'm not really convinced it was all that necessary or effective). My vote 7/10

I've been waiting a while for this to reach our screens, and though anticipation undoubtedly adds flavour, I was favourably impressed. Meadows has been billed as Britain's new white hope and 'Twentyfourseven' promises good things for the future. It may not have the (attempted) dramatic scope of a film like 'the Boxer', which in plot terms it resembles, but Meadows covers the ground efficiently and without histrionics in a free-flowing cinematic style that simultaneously displays a tensile strength. Meadows' eye is good (the crane shot outside the club at a crucial point towards the end shows that he can do formal, too) but his ear is even better. The exchanges and insults between the two gangs and among themselves, even when not fully comprehended by my kiwi ear, make similar lines from 'Good Will Hunting' and other popular films sound contrived. The freshness of 'Twentyfourseven' may be supported by control and critical judgement, but it is, all the same, real.

A gritty black & white film from the 25 year old director, Shane Meadows. Darcy, (played by Bob Hoskins in one of his better roles since MONA LISA & THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY), decides to take a bunch of restless teenagers off the streets and into the boxing ring. Then we go through the process of the bonding and the struggle as the boys come good. It begins as a realistic social drama and ends that way. I was glad to see that it didn't sell out.

This wonderful film ironises the feel-good 'Rocky' tradition to critique an ideology - Thatcherism - that poisoned a nation still searching for the antidote. Like all Meadows films, this is great fun, with authentic-seeming performances matched by remarkable style which mixes stylised naturalism and sketch-like sequences. But looming over the larks is a depressing framing story - we know the plot ends up here. The unbearable tension is wondering how. The answer is heartbreaking, showing how the thatcher years brought Britain to the brink of fascism, where an underclass are either bullied or ignored to a point where the only means of expression is self-destructive violence. The 'poetic' voiceover is a mistake, especially for a director of Meadow's visual intelligence, but he'll get there. A great feature debut.