From the poverty and despair of an English industrial town, one man with a dream (Bob Hoskins) forms a boxing club to give troubled teenagers a fighting chance. The lads learn lessons of self-respect and male bonding, but amidst the triumph of the biggest tournament of their lives, tragedy strikes. Shane Meadows' debut features .. Read more
| Starring | Bob Hoskins, Bruce Jones, Frank Harper, Annette Badland |
|---|---|
| Director | Shane Meadows |
| Genres | Drama |
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From the poverty and despair of an English industrial town, one man with a dream (Bob Hoskins) forms a boxing club to give troubled teenagers a fighting chance. The lads learn lessons of self-respect and male bonding, but amidst the triumph of the biggest tournament of their lives, tragedy strikes. Shane Meadows' debut features gritty black-and-white cinematography that perfectly captures the desolation of working-class life in post-Thatcher Britain.
| Starring | Bob Hoskins, Bruce Jones, Frank Harper, Annette Badland, Danny Nussbaum |
|---|---|
| Director | Shane Meadows |
| Studio | PATHE DISTRIBUTION |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 32 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 30 Jun 2003 Production year: 1997 |
| Format | DVD |
Those who have seen Shane Meadows' camcorder gem Smalltime will already know the young writer/director is one of... read more on Time Out
Bob Hoskins aside the cast of ?Twenty Four Seven? consists largely of unknown actors, some of whom have appeared in Shane Meadow?s previous work.
The acting style is at times naturalistic and understated and in this respect the film is reminiscent of the English ?kitchen sink? dramas of a bygone era - an effect added to by the director?s use of black and white cinematography and down-at-heel suburban locations.
The film is packed with Meadow?s sardonic inner city humour. It doesn?t quite play for all out belly laughs in the way that some of his other work has done but it still provides plenty to smile about.
The climatic sequence involving a boxing contest is tragicomic and brilliantly executed.
Without question a very good film.
Shane Meadows is responsible for possibly one of the most brilliant, brutally realistic movies ever made Dead Mans Shoes, which is quite simply a masterpiece. This earlier (? 8 years) work does show flashes of brilliance but unfortunately doesnt work all that well. The black and white photography adds a gritty realism to a desolate tale but the use of unknown actors in the majority of parts fails to be convincing. Likewise the boxing scenes are not believable. There are some wry smiles along the way and Bob Hoskins is his usual superb self but the whole thing is unsatisfying. Id not go as far as to say bland but, even though everyone is waxing lyrical, Im afraid this is only average
I went to film school with Shane Meadows. Not really, but a few years ago I did do a one-day film-making course in Nottingham that Shane supervised. He showed us which end of the camera to look through, split us into groups of three, and gave us a couple of hours to come up with a script and go out and shoot it. I'd like to report that my team came back with a masterpiece, but that might be an exaggeration. Let's just say the reviews I wrote over the next couple of weeks were probably more... Read more