That powerful piece of work astonished me. A real hit in the face. More a social drama, bloody, brutal at the most, more than a thriller - which is absolutely not - or a common crime flick. Anyway nothing to do with the other UK crime films, craps, which are directly released in DVD, craps that try to look like Tarantino or Guy Ritchie's movies. The guy who made this gave all his guts, his wrath, his pain, his soul, his blood. Poignant scenes, moving sequences, British are really the masters in the social field: see Ken Loach.

This film started out pretty well, it his relatively high production values and felt quite slick. It has parts where the characters are introduced with a brief rap, most of which were passably decent and introduced them well. The first hour was honestly not bad. The basic stories of Kirby and Chris' power struggle, and the induction of the kid into the gang had a ring of potential truth to them. Ed's search for his phone, and marketing of a prostitute to to a host of kebab shop owners felt a little more silly though. At the resolution of these story lines, the film just got stupid. Aaron found the gun and all of a sudden there's a baby on his train and he's keeping it around for some reason and the mother is naturally an escaped sex slave from a secret Russian BDSM brothel. Coincidentally the mother runs into the prostitute from the last story line and they go on a quest to find the baby. Oh yeah and then Aaron and Ed sell the baby but five minutes later the mother sees Aaron walking around and they go and try to get the baby back. Honestly you would think, based on this film and how many of the characters know each other, that London had a population of about a thousand people. Then the pub just happens to set on fire and also Chris wants his gun back. Why Chris wants his gun back is unclear, as he throws it into the river soon after getting it as he used it in a murder. Quite why he didn't just let Aaron keep it, as there was no way of tracing it back to him if Aaron was ever caught, I don't know. Anyway Ed goes on a hero mission to save the baby and dies of course, then they give Chris his karma and have him arrested. In fact, practically every character who is dislikable ends up dead. The filmmakers were clearly very conscious of appealing to people's most basic desire for 'justice.'Overall, the acting was decent, soundtrack okay, the characters did ridiculous things and felt nothing like real people, and the plot was like... something a twelve year old would write as a first draft.

This is a gut-wrenching, terrifying, exciting, horrible, tear-jerking, angst-ridden and all in all amazing journey into the seedy, but not wealthy underworld of London. Into the "broken Britain" that is imagined but rarely ever seen.People getting by on crime because they have nothing else. To be honest you may get confused and think it's a gangster flick, an action flick, a thriller. But it's truly a drama with those elements thrown in. It won't disappoint. Everyone's everywhere between a decent to an excellent actor. The story has many twists, turns and crossed signals. Very well written, cut, filmed and directed. It may appeal more to someone who's got a connection to London, I do, but I don't know if that's got anything to do with it, but it's already a favorite of mine.

This has to be one of the most genuine and brutally honest depictions of thug culture. Never mind that everyone in this film speaks another language(well, they are in fact speaking English, however, their slang and accents are so difficult to understand they might as well be speaking a foreign language)but still, if you can brush past that, be prepared to be amazed by the enormous amount of talent on display here. The film combines multiple story lines together into the one film, and, the whole film is narrated by rap artist, Plan B, who also created the soundtrack for this.The film is very different and innovative, especially in a sub genre like the gangster one, which, in my opinion, has become tired and worn out. The acting is very naturalistic and believable, and the film has a very raw and cheap look about it, which makes the film more powerful. Be aware, though: The C word and F word are used in nearly every scene. It may seem excessive, however, I have met people that speak exactly like the characters in this film. no joke.