An Awful Film Filled With Terrible Mockney Accents

Rating: 2/10 (7 February 2007)

I have just seen this movie and feel compelled to comment on it before anyone else makes the same mistake as me.
This is - quite simply - an awful movie. The main problem with the film is that Elijah Wood's character spends the entire running time of the movie reacting to events instead of being pro-active. Imagine that you sit down to watch Die Hard and Bruce Willis spends the entire movie sitting back, watching the bad guys and not actually doing anything. It would be kind of boring and you'd eventually become a bit irritated wouldn't you? Well, that's Elijah Wood here. Instead of making his own decisions, he spends his time trailing after people blinking his little puppy dog eyes and smiling. And that's really it.
What makes the film even worse is the way in which all of the other characters are completely one dimensional. It's hard to believe that the director claims she grew up in the world portrayed here. Characters like the 'hooligans' in this film do indeed exist - but not like this. As someone who lives in London, I was also shocked by Charlie Hunnam's performance. His attempt at a cockney accent is incredibly bad - I initially thought his character was Australian! If i was to find any good points about this movie, it would be the depiction of violence which is suitably shocking. The fight scenes are well crafted; it's just a shame that the story and dialogue ("Are you havin' a bubble?" one of the characters asks which caused me to giggle) surrounding these scenes are so bad.
Not recommended. Watch 'The Firm' instead.