Gassed Up

Start watching at 1h and 10 mins. You won't miss nothing I promise you. No character build up, unrealistic I mean where was everybody with their mobile phones in the air, taking Instagram selfies at the rave. Haha.

3 out of 10 for the little bit you get at the end.

Should be able to post shorter reviews because I really have nothing good to say about this. So I'll give you an idea of the dialogue just to waste the last 108 characters required to complete my review.

Know' what I mean bro innit. Bro, bro, bro, bro my fam. Did I miss anything oh hang on... Bro, oh and bro. Innit!!!!!

Urghhhh.

I'm a Londoner and have grown up in the east end. Growing up I knew teenagers into petty crime, and even some small time gangsters like those shown in the film. Gassed Up is a sort of believable portrait of that kind of culture in London, in the 2020s.

Honestly the depiction of London "Ghetto Culture" in this film is probably fairly close to reality, and in that respect the movie gets this aspect kind of right - London youth culture - but not 100% right, and it's not quite as believable as it would like to be.

Apart from that it's a fairly decent anti-crime film with a good message about not taking the wrong path. The story is interesting and watchable and the characters likeable enough to keep me watching.

Not a perfect film by far, but not a bad one either. Check it out if you're interested in London gang culture. But don't take it too seriously.

Most certainly not perfect, I'm not convinced by it I won't lie, but... 'Gassed Up' narrowly does enough.

Making your lead characters criminals is always a brave choice, you're almost setting yourself up for failure from a film point of view. I'm personally cool with a movie's main lot not being total good guys, like 'The Fast and the Furious' is literally one of my favourite flicks ever, but it does make it more difficult to root for the people onscreen.

In this execution of making the audience do the aforementioned, I think this film doesn't do the best job. I appreciate the backstory we get for them, well at least for a few of them, and it does work in making you understand their point of views. However, I'm just not sure if it's enough to overcome what the characters are actually doing; it's not like they are Robin Hoods... well, I guess they actually are robin hoods (ha! Get it! Sorry!) but you get what I mean.

There's also an inconsistency in that they avoid going up a level in their activities as they know it'll bring more heat - yet not long after stating that they brazenly take it up a notch anyway. A possible 'out' is they are blinded by wonga but that's unconvincing. All this is just me saying that the writing isn't the best, in my opinion of course.

What does save this is that the feel of the film is competent, it's fairly well put together and moves along at a decent pace. The cast are also positives, with Stephen Odubola being the clear standout as Ash. Taz Skylar and Mohammed Mansaray are alright, though Craige Middleburg and Mae Muller (strange casting for the latter) are more miss than hit. I would've liked Steve Toussaint to have been used more.

Glad I watched this at the cinema though, always nice to support productions from the homeland. Two groups of two were in there with me, though one duo did decide to leave with a good chunk of the movie left; I see other reviewers have noted likewise - ouch! I can possibly see why if I'm totally truthful, but for me I just about got enough out of it. I could easily be rating this a step lower, though.

WHY do we keep giving any air time to this type of scutter life mentality and act like we should care if a single one of the characters does anything but wind up in a gutter or dead.

The storyline is Drama school level predictable with possibly the worst overacting you'll witness outside of WWE. The main character casting is so bad it's almost comical and you're rooting for him to get finished off in every exchange that happens which I assume is the opposite of what they were aiming for and the same goes for the equally unlikable side characters - although they at least dont freak out like a school girl at every turn of a corner.

Over egged 'waste man' style scripting is painful to have to sit through and if anyone talks like that in real life then I'd be questioning how many times they've bounced their head off a toilet seat while trying to pull up their pants half way up their legs before shuffling back off to "tell fam bout da stink in da poop room init'

Unless you're trying to learn how to not act or how to stereotype a race of people so badly that you'd be ashamed to watch them if they were your own family then I'd give this one a wider birth than you'd give StankPants as he leaves the toilet ..... Ya Get Me Fam Ting Init Bruv.

Great film making... gorgeous colours and scenes. Young talent is incredible and I'm sure these actors will be seen again. Story kept me interested all the way through and had a fresh new movie making feel.

Ash stands out as the protagonist with a genuine connection that the viewer gains as the film progresses. I laughed, winced and sympathised with him. The story aims to highlight successfully, the various struggles that people live through including seeking asylum, substance abuse, cost of living, involvement in crime and how this inevitability progresses with characters that are believable and live through difficulties that lead them to these decisions.. good and bad.