A Major Disappointment

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

OK, so I decided to watch a movie called 1Day which has caused controversy among cinemas in Birmingham thus not showing the movie in Birmingham but everywhere else. I agree with the cinemas when they said they wouldn't show the movie. The story is based around the gangs in Birmingham and is about a guy called Flash and his best friend/drug dealer tells him that if he doesn't get one hundred bags of 'scrilla' in two hours then he would 'lick him up, you get me blud?'…that's basically the story. One man trying to get his best mate's 'scrilla' otherwise he'd 'lick him up'.I thought this would be a lot like the brilliant Kidulthood and Adulthood but instead it's something negative and nasty in my eyes. Instead of trying to send a strong message about how young teenagers shouldn't join a gang, the movie did the exact opposite from my view. It looked like it was positive to join a gang as the thugs in the movie felt no guilt or remorse about their actions (bar one scene with Flash and his mother but he went right back to not feeling anything…again). The movie apparently sends a strong message about gangs but the only message I could see is that it's okay to be in one. I know they were trying to send a message that gang life isn't all it's cracked up to be but would the audience really see that in this movie? I would like to hear a comment from the filmmakers about what kind of message is being sent and where is it being shown? I mean, Flash was teaching a ten-year-old to rob, to shoot a gun, to sell drugs and make money, etc and Flash looked like he weren't bothered. There were some very small messages that started out good and then went back to being negative (like in the graveyard when they were visiting El Presidente's grave and then a gunfight started) but I doubt most people who will see this movie will actually see the messages as they didn't appear strong enough.Also, as mentioned before in a review, there was one particular scene that stuck out like a sore thumb in my head which was the part when they were in a fast food restaurant and one of the thugs raps about how, because he was black, a woman thinks he'd rob her because she clutches her handbag. Could the reason quite possibly be because you were loudly talking about drugs and murder and the fact that you had a gun on show with your hood up? Nah, it couldn't be, could it.The only thing good about the movie is the soundtrack. The songs in the movie kept the mood and the behaviour portrayed in the movie which is a positive thing. The acting is surprisingly good sometimes but other times it was just rubbish. The characters were instantly dislikeable and remained like that through the entire movie, there was no likable person in the movie whatsoever and none of the characters looked like they wanted out of their thuggish lives. The movie is badly written even though I can believe that this happens in real life. To watch this movie, you would need to understand street slang to fully understand what is being said in the movie.Honestly, my opinion of this movie is very negative. I don't believe it's showing a strong message about gangs and how it's not good to be in one. The messages are there but they're very weak. I can't see anyone liking this movie but two audiences and those are either chavs or the audience that are like the characters displayed in the movie and considering the certificate for this movie is only a 15, I expect the cinemas will have trouble on their hands.Terrible!To read more reviews, please visit: www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com

You could call this a 'hip-hopera', a mix of filmmaking and social work, or a shot in the arm for British independent cinema. Just don't call it Bugsy Malone with real bullets.Sporting equal measures of guts and integrity, 1 Day is the latest project from writer-director Penny Woolcock, whose critically acclaimed CV encompasses everything from guerrilla-style films ('Macbeth On The Estate') to full-blown operatic adaptations (John Adams' controversial 'The Death Of Klinghoffer').Those recalling the halcyon days of Channel 4 might also recall Woolcock's remarkable 'Tina Goes Shopping' from 1999, along with its follow-up, 'Tina Takes A Break'. Featuring lines like "Why is there a cow's head in the sink?!" and scenes in which a drug addict steals from his lover's handbag during a rowdy sex session, these bleakly funny dramas, shot on the most deprived estates in Leeds, make playwrite Jim Cartwright's 'Road' look like a teatime sitcom in comparison.One of the factors that gives the pair of Tinas and their belated threequel Mischief Night a genuine edge over other 'urban' films is Woolcock's regular insistence on casting from the street ("no experience necessary!" as her fliers say) - sourcing her cast from local residents, and uncovering some real natural talent in the process. (Some of whom, like Tina's Kelli Hollis, have even gone on to star in things like 'Shameless.') It certainly proves there's more to community workshopping than just a bunch of hippies staging puppet shows about tolerance.For 1 Day, Woolcock immersed herself in the Jamaican community in Birmingham, where she'd made 'Macbeth On The Estate' during the 1990s. "People scoot from London to Manchester or Glasgow and there's this big vibrant city in between that's completely ignored," she says. Then again, "I could have researched and shot this film in any town or city in the country, including 300 yards from where I live in London." As is often the case, the story behind the making of 1 Day sounds as intriguing as the film itself. Local rappers and musicians were sought out, then recalled for acting auditions. Lyrics were constructed around beats supplied by local producers, and a story based on real events organically emerged: a vivid, uncompromising saga of gangland warfare and drug dealing with "a clear moral message" states Woolcock, in which street hustler Flash (Dylan Duffus) desperately attempts to secure the money he owes his gang boss within 24 hours. On his tail is a rival gang, the cops, three bickering baby mothers - and Flash's churchgoing granny, played by the marvellous Monica Ffrench. Rather depressingly, it all ends up with a mass shoot-out in a Happy Shopper car park.Superficially, comparisons might be drawn with another classic from the Channel 4 vaults, the documentary 'Feltham Sings' (2002), with whom 1 Day shares a producer in Amy Flanagan. Here, the poet Simon Armitage supplied young inmates with autobiographically-tailored lyrics to songs ranging from bearable to magnificent ("Your mum says she'll visit, and suddenly she'll can't/so you're sat for an hour in the corner like a caahnt"). In one instance, however, Armitage didn't have a say in things: Cass Galton's 'This Is Me' rap remains a high point of the show.The difference here, of course, is that 1 Day's lyrics are entirely the rappers' own work. Due to the everyday syntax and rhythms of hip-hop and grime, it makes for a uniquely naturalistic musical, one featuring strikingly authentic and heartfelt performances from those with friends residing in the local graveyard.Ironically, West Midlands police informed the crew that the area's crime rate had actually fallen during the filming, as everyone was so engrossed in the production; although this hasn't prevented Odeon and Vue cinemas in Birmingham from dropping it in the week of release, following, they say, discussions with the police. For their part, local police strongly deny any such conversations ever took place.A treatment for a prequel to 1 Day called 'The Death Of El Presidente' has been prepared, along with 'Nobody Sleeps', a romance between a rapper and a soprano. Woolcock says she is "cautiously hopeful about making them both".

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Flash (Dylan Duffus) receives a phone call from Angel (Yohance Watson), who's just been released from prison, telling him to re-pay quite a large loan in the next twenty four hours...or there'll be repercussions. So begins a desperate race against time to secure the money and all the while, try to dodge other problems in his life.I'm glad 1 Day found it's way onto DVD, being as in the city it is filmed, where I live, Birmingham City Council found it in their wisdom to issue a ban on it in cinemas, for the terrifying fear that hordes of black youths may swarm to see it and get converted into gang members. Such petty, pompous over-reaction is what you can expect from the clueless people in power but eventually everything finds it's way into sight. Needless to say, being filmed around my stomping ground, it was fun to spot and pick out landmark locations and see it put on the map cinematically. But that's the most fun I did manage out of it.At heart a tough, grimy urban thriller, the film also seems to have aspirations of being a musical. People walked out in droves over Sweeney Todd's musical numbers, but I found it more of a problem here. I know this is very much my personal opinion, but I felt the musical interludes ruined it and robbed it of some of it's dynamism, however authentic the harsh, gravelly lyrics and delivery were. It's your typical back-of-the-bus music and made a film already uncomfortably shoving the nastier aspects of black culture in your face harder to stomach. It's got everything right in terms of dialogue and delivery too, with the street slang and patois used by the main characters sounding very real too, but it doesn't make them any more likable or the experience any more enjoyable for anyone from the outside looking in.The singing aside, 1 Day manages a very real and well realized harsh dose of real life...but if these are the kind of people you don't want to see in real life, it's just one you won't want to watch again. **

I must say that I enjoyed this film! Very nice how the music had a big role in this movie, so stylish! I thought it was quite fast paced I'd say it's part drama and spiced up with little bit of action and comedy even.If there is a message, I'd say it was this. Gang lifestyle is tough and it will definitely have a great impact on your life span meaning the chances of you ending up six feet under are around 100% before your 25th birthday. It's fun to watch but don't do it yourself unless you are willing to accept the possible consequences. Anyway, the film was fresh kept me interested all the way. Also very nice rap freestyling, although they probably weren't freestyling 'cause the music is in the movie ,dah. Final words, street thugs if they're worthless at least they know how to express themselves in rhymes. Buckle up, buckle up 'cause this movie is gonna rock, LOL! Peace :D