Looked interesting --as many a rubbish film does-- on the box in the rental shop, though turned out to be complete and utter tosh for many a reason...
Firstly, the production values were appalling. The sound was absolutely dreadful, whatever I tried to do with the sound controls on my good Sony telly didn't work. Even the most basic techniques like NOT overdubbing the soundtrack too high in the mix with the dialogue was unachievable by the editor. The recording of the dialogue was truly dire as well, so matching the two mistakes together made even more of a mess aurally. In fact the most boring technique of the 'drone' underscoring every other scene in order to give gravitas to it's self-importance made no sense either, as many of these scenes were just not worthy of such impetus.
Camera work was repetitive, obvious and generic. One got the thought that the director was thinking, "It's a gangster film so we'll use all the clichés found in the genre, chuck 'em in a blender and see what happens!" Well nothing good happens when you copy verbatim what other directors have done, especially when done badly.
Secondly, the script was pointless to say the least. As mentioned by another reviewer, in reality Aberdeen's main problems most certainly do not stem from gangster culture as depicted in this film, but rather like many regions, more from unemployment, lack of opportunities, and therefore the spread of drugs and their use by the young. These issues would clearly make more sense to cover directly in a film to do with this area of Scotland, than this trite attempt to be the next Scottish Scorsese.
Thirdly, the character depiction was unbelievable, as was the acting abilities of all concerned. Drugs being delivered stuck in small bags under chairs in removal vans... gimme a break! The main problem though, was the lack of any back story to the characters, especially the kids. Questions like: what background do they come from, where is the story leading the viewer from and to, etc, all remained unfathomable. The audience is left none the wiser as to the point behind the film's main premise: 'the street is tough' kinda idea...yawn yawn. All about as believable as the accents used in the film, mainly Glaswegian, which is not at all like the accent found in Aberdeen (even I could tell that and I'm from England). Oh, and a 'special' accent created when an Irish guy appears trying to do a generic Scots; again truly awful. But what I noticed in the credits was this lack of ability stemmed from the use of groups of family members, all of which couldn't act, and have never heard of the words like 'understatement' and 'subtlety' in acting style in order to achieve success.
I could go on but I think you've heard enough to put you off any attempt to see this film. *I very much hope for your sake :-) *
Yes, I'd love to give some credit for at least trying on such an apparent low/non-existent budget. But with everything being bad, this is not deserving of even such minor credit. School projects have been better.
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