One for the Road

I love comedy so much I'm willing to travel across London at 10:30 am to see

this one. I did laugh - not as much as I should've but that's the producer's mistake for putting on a screening at this unfunny hour. Really great premise of pulling together a group of comedy losers at an 'alcohol re-education seminar for convicted drunk drivers' and some wonderful characterization, especially the stoned slacker 'Mark' played brilliantly by Mark Devenport.

The reason I made the extra effort to see this movie was that it said it was

improvised, it wasn't. Had the team realized sooner, that you can't easily use the power of impro in this medium, they'd've written a better script that the initial idea suggested. Shot on DV for reasons which even after the Q&A with the

writer/director/producer/editor et all were never explained, the film suffers for it. The DP didn't pull his weight, pity, he gave us TV not cinema.

This is a promising writer/director and although he says he has no ideas

himself, he obviously knows where to get them. He'll have learnt a great deal making this film and his next film will benefit from it.

Bring on the next one.

Humorous yet a bit depressing? Basic Premise: Group of alcoholics with drink driving charges have to go to a meeting, among them is a rich guy, who can give them a possibility of a future.

I saw the trailer, and originally kept away from it as it looked like a kind of full monty film. However I have been scraping the bottom of the barrel recently for films and there was a scene in the trailer that I thought it may have a few funny moments.

This film was a lot darker than I anticipated, I imagined it to start with typical English blokey jokes, but it seemed to start with a gloomier feel. It had quite catchy filming to begin with where they used character overviews where each character in the film speaks to the camera as if narrating there current situation, I like this in films, they usually use this method in a lot of gangster films Lock Stock\Snatch\Layer Cake.

I enjoyed segments of the film, there were some funny scenes especially in there AA course where the trainer was a typical trainer you could meet on any office training course using Ice Breakers and being a basic nonce. I did enjoy the film but there were a few character developments that were left untied, one especially seemed very sad. The last 20 minutes just seemed to meander for me as if maybe the film was trying to finish in a clever way but wasn't too sure how to. Some films have based there entire story line on the last 20 minutes of this one, so the ending seemed very hurried.

A lot of British comedies say they are comedies but this is because no one categorises them correctly, usually as long as there is one joke it's a comedy no matter how dark or depressing the film gets, I can never work out how Billy Elliot, Educating Rita, The Full Monty are classed as comedies, these to me are dramas with a few jokes thrown in. This was exactly the same for this film, the script was sharp and it did make me laugh, but it also made me depressed and the characters all looked like they had no futures, I don't believe films always need to answer themselves and sometimes films that make you think more (see Donnie Darko) are great to watch and discuss, however if a film sets up some scenes that need answers and don't you just feel a little bit empty from it.

Conclusion: Worth a watch but a strange feeling to the whole film. It's a Comedy in areas, but Drama definitely up there too.

One For The Road' is a low budget British production directed by newcomer Chris Cooke.The story centres around four men, convicted of drink driving and who volunteer to take a rehabilitation course to have their bans decreased. The film is a kind of cross between The Office and Glen Gary Glen Ross, in a pub, with each problem one of the individual's meets sorted out by necking a few down the boozer.

The film is quite a downbeat affair but is interspersed with some great black, but witty humour and some nice one liners.

"There's something we're supposed to do in these situations and until we think of it we should stay calm."

'One For The Road' is by no means a laugh feast but neither is it a dour depressing experience-highly recommended and very admirable debut from Cooke.

A black comedy about alcohol addiction. If that makes you think twice about watching it then don't. As you can imagine, a film dealing with such a subject will be pretty dark and this definitely is. Disjointed at times with a plot that doesn't really cover the relationships that the characters are ruining through their own addiction lets this film down. The acting performances are competent and there is some empathy that you develop occasionally. At times it is very, very funny and the film is done in a mix of The Office style documentary and fly-on-the-wall film which works very well. Not the greatest but again significantly better than most of the guff that Hollywood turfs out. 7.5/10.

I really wanted to like this film, but it boiled down to Lock, Stock and Two Broken Whiskey Bottles.

The plot concentrates on a group of convicted drink-drivers and their journey through 'alcoholism therapy' - how they deal with their misdemeanour and the effects that their drinking have on friends and family. However, it's not a dour tale of depressed drinkers or even alcoholics; it's four men going through crises and spending a lot of time in the pub.

The characters were strong, but have all been done before in 'Lock, Stock' and 'Trainspotting' - the young lad, the lairy misfit, the nice bloke trying to do good and the sensible one, but the plot was shot through. There was no real bite to the story, no surprises and no thrills. The tone was patronising and the visuals Trainspotting-esque.