Mojo

I watched this film on late night TV and I was hooked. I didn't know Aidan Gillen at the time but his presence was dominant in the film. Whenever he laughs in the film, his eyes never laugh. His character is totally unpredictable - you never know what he's gonna do next. Gillen's acting makes the film tense.

And personally, it was a fun to watch Ricky Tomlinson playing his father.

I don't know how he did it but Jez Butterworth was able to collect some of the brightest British actors into his beautiful, little Debut Movie and what a movie it was!!! Set in 1950's Lonodn Soho, the story revolves around the lives of the people working in The Atlantis Club, one of the hippest joints around. Johnny Boy (Hans Matheson) is a sensation - he woos the girls, is a role model to the boys and can boogie-woogie like no other. Plus, he's making a whole lot of dough for the owner (Ricky Tomlinson). Thats when he starts to get some attention by local villain, Mr. Sam Ross (Harold Pinter) and has a proposition..... For me it's a wonderful film, and full of superb actors, for example, Ian Hart who seduces you into his world, one that you will never get out of. A gem of a movie which deserves a DVD release....NOW!!!!

Worst film ever made?! I think not! It is different, I'll give you that, but the performances and feel of the film is quite haunting and stay with you long after. Jez Butterworth has great vision and this was (originally) from a stage play (which is always a risk) but it comes to screen very well. I feel its an underrated movie which needed more attention when it was released at the cinema. I do hope it gets the DVD release it deserves. The cast do a great job, it has become a kind of cult film to people I know have seen it. I am disappointed by the only review there was of it, so felt compelled to write my own. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but if you like films which are a bit different, try it.

Well it's true. This could have been really good. Most of the cast are good actors, the setting and plot were intriguing, the characters interesting and the score was good but for some reason it failed to come together.

A few comments about the good things first - the music over the opening credits was beautiful, really beautiful. The actors' performances were all good, Hans Matheson especially surprised me with how good he was given how bad he'd been in Dr. Zhivago.

The bad things - the plot didn't really hang together, the script was badly written and even the characters that weren't supposed to jabber did at times. It was also unfortunate that there was only one sympathetic character in the whole story and that the characters as a whole were a little underwritten. The directing was a little flat and if you can get Harold Pinter into a film at least use him for more than five minutes.

I like crime films, gangster flicks, those sort of things but this is definitely one not to recommend. Except for the first fifteen minutes which I would watch just for the music over the beginning credits and the appearance of Silver Johnny I would avoid this unless you're a fan of one of the actors since all of them get a decent amount of speaking time.

Mojo is a strange film in the sense that everyone seemed to be trying to out act each other which lead to some very poor acting especialy from the actor who played "Baby" and the actor who played "Skinny" ( i dont know what accent he was trying to do but it definately was not a London one!). The story is about a night club and the fight between owner and gangsters of who should have ownership of up and coming Star Silver Johnny not for career reasons but for sexual ones. The script could have been handled so much better but having said that it is very watchable. 6 out of 10