Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

OUATITM starts off as a so-so comedy, eventually drifting into the kind of sappy romantic drama garbage that even an 8 year-old can write. There is almost nothing happening in the last 30 minutes - unless you consider Henderson's ping-pong-ball wishy-washy eenie-miney-mo decision-making process to be riveting viewing. In fact, Shirley, though cute in her own strange way and otherwise a solid actress, plays a very one-dimensional woman. She is totally uninteresting, having less to say than a piece of furniture. 95% of the time she wears a sad, hang-dog facial expression, while the other cast members get to clown around, especially Ifans who probably had a ball playing his character. I just wish I had as much fun watching this dull mediocrity as the mostly wasted cast had in getting paid to have the fun they had. British big-screen comedy is once again at a low point, thanks to these kinds of lazily conceived scripts. It takes two days to write this sort of junk, but months to come up with a genuinely funny script - which does NOT end in cliché melodrama. To make things worse, the schmaltzy chewing-gum-pop soundtrack - which includes waste-of-space no-talent whisper-method-singers like Norah Jones - doodles in the background a lot of the time, often setting us up for yet more dullness.

I generally agree with all the above negative reviews. But what got me was the casual dismissal of 'the Midlands' having hijacked it for the sake of a smart movie title. There was not a single midlands accent anywhere behind the leading voices of a Scot, a Scouser, a Cockney and a Taff or any kind of geographical peg. There is also a big problem with a so called light hearted movie employing Robert Carlyle as a moody violent character. We've seen him play those parts so convincingly in the past that it's impossible to see him in a lighter vein. I guess the fault lies in the lack of purpose or direction from the outset.These sort of efforts give British movies a generally undeserved bad name. And Rhys Ifans doe eyed simpleton shtick is really beginning to grate.

Right, now where do I start?... If you had the choice of watching this film or something else, then choose the something else. This is definitely a film I will not be watching again. I watched this film with a class of students, and all of us felt the same way about the film - it was poor.Expectations were not met. The 'known' actors who starred in the film did not pull it off in this one, they were poor. Actors known to us in life to be comedians and funny e.g. Ricky Tomlinson do not use these qualities to their advantage. This maybe however due to the fact that the poor scripting did not help them use their qualities successfully. These comedians have a specific audience and as this film wasn't a good one, their audiences will have been disappointed with what they had seen. If this film was supposed to be funny then it failed miserably. I rarely laughed at some of the clips. However I could tell that certain scenes were aimed to make the audience laugh - which they didn't.As you can guess I did not like this film at all. I will not be watching it again. In fact this film has put me off all Shane Meadows films completely. I advise you to watch another film if given the chance.

Firstly, let me say how much I like Shane Meadow's work (particularly 'A Room For Romeo Brass'). However 'Once Upon a Time in The Midlands' is, in my opinion, his weakest work to date. That's not to say it isn't a good film, it is, but somewhere along the line the Meadow's formula went wrong. It smacks of too much development, something Meadows complained about himself, almost as if Film Four wanted to bottle the distinctive spirit of his earlier work, mass produce it and sell it to the widest audience possible. The characters end up as caricatures and whereas previous Meadows films examined the wonderful humanity and quiet dignity inherent in everyday life this one ends up in danger of being patronising to its subjects. The title and tag line are great but I wonder if they weren't thought up before the actual story and at the expense of the film. I personally found the Western elements a little superfluous, the deluge of famous faces distracting (what on Earth are Reeves and Mortimer doing as clowns?!), and the Glasgow gangsters subplot unnecessary. Once these elements fall by the wayside however, as they do in the second half, the film settles down into telling a decent little story. The central love triangle comes to the fore and we actually begin to connect with the characters. All the performances are good but special mention must go to young Finn Atkins who is outstanding. If this is your first taste of Meadows then don't be put off, just know that there are better films in his back catelogue than this. The 2 disc DVD is worth investing in though as the extras include Shane's World and a really nice documentary on the film's promotional tour.