The Grind

I watched this film last night after watching EastEnders and I really enjoyed it. I've always been a fan of independent films and this is an intelligent film. It's idea is not complicated at all but smart at the same time and here lies its strength to me: The Idea. It's about the characters in a world of nightclubs and all the possible possibilities in our life that people create and the biggest (bad or good) changes they make. With all low budget films the acting is poor but I felt the lead was good - Gordon is one to watch for the future! Danny-John Jules plays the crafty Phil and Jamie Foreman was mesmerising as always and perhaps carried the film on his own at times. Catch it if you can!

After watching a poor film called Baseline I wanted to watch The Grind, as Baseline was an identical remake of The Grind, with the same story and characters as well as the same actors.

Since Baseline did so badly and did nothing for the careers of the cast and crew involved this would somewhat explain the negative reviews of The Grind.

At first you think The Grind is going to be just another gangster movie, but its much more and much better than that. The film follows two friends leading very different lives, one of Bobby and the other Vince. Both stories run along side each other until they meet and things start to go downhill for both characters.

There are violent situations for both characters, Vince dealing with the nightclub lifestyle and Bobby who gets threatened by Dave (played by Jamie Foreman) and gets beaten up by Tony, Dave's henchman. Bobby self-harming was tough to watch, but showed how desperate his situation was. With Phil (Danny John-Jules) his last friend to turn to for help the last 15 minutes are quite tense and lead to a climax for both of the main characters!

This is a low budget film and there are technical issues, but The Grind gives you an insight into British crime like no other. Director Rishi Opel lays on the violence thick and fast which may put off some viewers, so if you have a problem with brutality stay away, if not check it out. If your looking for something hardcore, this film pulls no punches.

Where Baseline tried The Grind survived!

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.

Perhaps not quite Lock Stock but still an awesome British Gangster movie!! I was very surprised to see the low rating here certainly compared to some other British movies released lately, as this one is thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely up there with the likes of Layer Cake, Gangster No. 1 etc.. Instant classic!!!

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.