Small Time

This small (and I use the word advisedly) has been reviewed on IMDb as though it were the second coming. Believe me it most definitely is not. Maybe Meadows intention was to display council estate stereotypes in an amateurish way but he certainly managed it in spades. The acting is not much above the level of Am-dram though it is not awful, the script such as it is seems improvised. I am sure that Meadows knows people like this but I do not. Why do the characters all wear really bad wigs?Why does every other word have to be F***? Why is there no story? It works on the level of an average student film but no better than that. After all I had heard and read about Shane Meadow's "genius" I was expecting so much more than was actually delivered. He fancies himself as Mike Leigh,perhaps, if so,he falls an awful long way short.

i watched this film at college and at the time i had never heard of shane meadows. since i watched this film i have become a huge fan of all his films. this man is the future of british cinema and is what the industry has needed. the film itself is very realistic in parts and is cast very well too. the script is brilliant and i found it inspirational as a way to write down to earth comedies with drama added on to it. hopefully this film is the way that meadows wants to go on and it seems that it will be from films such as room for romeo brass and 24/7.

The other reviews amaze me. Didn't they see the terrible wigs and hammy local college of performing arts acting. The characters appear to have been purchased as a past-their use-by date job lot from Stereotypes-R-Us. Harry Enfields scouser family, appearing on TV around the time this was made, are actually MORE believable as real people. This is partly due to the hideous legacy that is British DRAMA ACTING. From the days of Laurence Olivier right through to the BBC dramas of today there is the received wisdom of the correct way to act. The acting in this film is like watching performing arts students having their first go at trying on wigs and costumes in order to portray the poor but resilient folk of the forgotten council estate. It would appear that the script, too, was written by the council. Maybe the whole film was a council film. It certainly looked and felt like it. Like others, I enjoyed This Is England, which is the nearest Meadows has got to being a shadow of Ken Loach, and Dead Man's Shoes had some good moments (but a stupid ending). However, this, admittedly early, effort is poor and doesn't deserve the good reviews given by the few people who were brave enough to sit through the whole thing. This is not the worst ever use of a BFI grant but it is among the worst portrayals of life on a council estate that relies heavily on wigs and stereotypes.

This the 'diamond in the rough' in British cinema and will be given a new chance to shine later on this year with its re-release on DVD in February. The Limited distribution and rarity of VHS copies has meant this film is a cult classic within an already small group of fans. Made on a shoestring budget using friends and family as cast you could ask no more from this film. If it was only for better backing this would be at worst equal to Trainspotting as a definitive British film of the decade.The comedy is enough to sprout a TV series alone. This film is the christening effort of Britain most talented director who has gone on to prove with Romeo Brass and Dead Mans shoes that it wasn't a fluke.

This doesn't deserve a 1 rating but it's as low as I can give here. It isn't even a film - it looks like it was shot with one camcorder, and with zero artistic ability. Why it was made and how it got released is one of the great mysteries of modern times.

If there was a script - which I doubt - it was probably written by a monkey with a typewriter, and then destroyed in a mysterious shed fire. I don't think there is a single actor in the film, and most of the dialogue (or gibberish) appears to be improvised.

No attempt has been made to create characters or a plot. It doesn't tell us anything about the people, the places, the situations ... need I go on? It's just random and boring camcorder footage of strange people in weird clothes and wigs.

So what is the point? I have no idea. Should you watch it? No.