Jump Boy (1998) User Reviews

'Jump Boy' is a good short film, with many very good features.

[david-hatchett · 8/10 · 5 May 2005]

'Jump Boy' is a good short film, with many very good features. It is skillfully directed under Menhaj Huda. The short film portrays the reality for many British Asian Pakistani and Indian teenagers, and the potential tensions which exist between Asian and Black young people. It features a very young Ray Panthaki, who is probably better known to most as the charming Ronnie Ferrerai who up until recently, starred in Eastenders.

The film is particularly successful, in that it identifies in such a short film (c.11 minutes) the many issues which face not just minority ethnic students in schools today, but in fact many students today...the issues of aspirations, peer pressure and impressionism are clearly spelt out to the viewer.

It's message should be understood by students, young people, parents and policymakers alike. Well worth a watch by all those key stakeholders, with a disturbing twist at the end, highlighting the potential problems with negative peer pressure and the perceived influence of certain groups over others.

David Hatchett BA (Hons), MA, PGCE. Education Adviser

More than rehashed Ali G.

[the red duchess · 6/10 · 20 December 2000]

Like many a Disney movie, 'Jump boy' carries a simple, censorious moral: be yourself. The punishments for not doing so are suitably nasty. this is a film full of people trying to be what they're not - mostly American, what with all the film-talk, hip-hop slang and dress, mobile phones etc. The humiliation of the MacDonalds' employee pretending to be from Brooklyn is particularly funny. As, it must be confessed, are the bullying scenes. While in real life the abuse of young kids by older thugs is disgusting, in a film there is something Basil Rathbone-ish about the style and humour with which these boys extract funds and humiliate their inferiors.

This would be little more than an amusing Ali G clone were it not for the fact that the wannabe gangstas aren't white, middle-class Cecils, but young Pakistanis. Obviously they have homes to got to, but in the context of this film, they are rootless, home-less, walking the streets, eating in junk-food dens, playing football under bridges. The influence of black popular culture, therefore, is a way of refusing assimilation into a white culture that has frequently, violently rejected them; or it might be sorry proof of how far American global capitalism has succeeded in creating a bland melting pot.

If the moral is glum, the filming is not, with Huda matching the boys' verbal energy and wit with the kind of hyperactive editing and tilted angles he probably learned during his time in TV. It's unusual for a Pakistanis-in-Britain film to totally absent the family context; this was the fruitful site of tension in films like 'My Beautiful Laundrette' and 'East is East'. Maybe, just as in Irish 'cinema' is learning to dispense with the old cliches of nationalism and religion, that other avenues are being explored.

brilliant

[stavroskouklos · 10/10 · 21 February 2002]

great short film and superb acting by all, especially from the guy that gave the monologue to his friend; 'you think your some sort of american gangster....', also a great script, we need more short films like this.

Neat Movie

[AugustGorman · 2 August 2003]

My favourite short movie. Probably because I am also a Pakistani living in England and know and have met the kind of people depicted in the movie. Particularly the wannabe "American Gangster".

The acting from the lads was good and the dialogue to be fairly accurate of the kind of talk you expect from lads of that age. What made this movie particularly more interesting for me was the fact that some of the street scenes were filmed in my home town, just 5 minutes from where I live. It even showed my regular video-rental store! So it was fun to be able to recognise the locations.

The one gripe I have with this movie is the accent of the main black guy. It was a bit too "posh" for my liking. Overall, it was enjoyable with a nice ending that sees the wannbe gangster get his comeuppance.