Sugarhouse

Sugarhouse is an uncomfortable watch, with painful, often ugly violence and dialogue that is more often than not shouted. It turns to become, mainly a two-man show with white middle-class, jacket-wearing Steven Mackintosh who ventures into ghetto-land somewhere in decaying urban London to buy back a gun used in a murder and black, crack-addict Ashley Walters.

Being far nearer in real life to Mackintosh than Walters (by a far margin!) it wouldn't be right for me, myself to say how realistic the dialogue is, or the scenarios. So, I'm not going to try and pretend to say things like it's 'hip' or 'savvy', but looks and sounds really not very nice.

Walters, plus his chums generally give Mackintosh a hard time, over how a privileged a life he has and much angst and verbal ricocheting carries on. When director Gary Love's camera swings back and forth to them, it's an odd duet experience, so chalk and cheese.

Andy Serkis has been accused of overacting in Sugarhouse and we certainly get our money's worth from his psychopathic drug-dealer character. We see him at the start, nude, stretching his muscles and revealing his many tattoos. More revealing than is necessary, some critics have said, but it gives us a very clear indication that here we have a shaven-head bully more akin the Hannibal Lecter than Peter Pan.

As such, as Hoodwink, he is the colour and propulsion in this film. It would be quite dreary without him and who's to say what is over-the-top? It's of a type of person that thankfully I don't know and hopefully never will. His Irish accent seems pretty good too.

The film certainly came under my radar and watching it on BBC2 now, I was surprised that it was made 5 years ago and I'd never heard of it or referred to.

There are no scenes in this movie- just mainly ONE SET of a warehouse area. That right away tells you this movie has no budget, and a variety of other moments show you this is a shoe-string budget affair and the storytelling suffers as a result.

This is the story of a man who meets up with a Jamaican crackhead to try and buy something. Unfortunately several other people want to have that something as well and then the conflict begins. The man's unbelievable continual participation in these follies is supposed to be a sign that he is a man on the edge but it is more of a sign that this plot is unrealistic and idiotic to boot. Anyone else would just turn heel and go home- take their business elsewhere.

At various moments during the movie you will be wondering why the man doesn't just go home and cut his losses- this is the failure of the plot. If it was any good we wouldn't be continually groaning - oh god.. just GO HOME! The movie seems like it has some sort of retarded message about how revenge just injures yourself and they are willing to bend the plot in unrealistic directions to try and get that point across.

Extremely unsatisfying and not on par with Snatch, Lock stock and two Smoking barrels or trainspotting- don't let anyone fool you into thinking this play on film is worth seeing- it's a piece of boring one-set crap.

British crime movies are hardly a rarity in this day and age, but "Sugarhouse" stands head and shoulders above 95% of the other releases in the genre. On the surface, it's a remarkably simple movie about two troubled men and the problems that arise when one tries to sell a gun to the other.

Both Stephen Mackintosh and Ashley Walters deliver incredible performances as the two men, and are supported by an equally impressive offering by Andy Serkis as 'Hoodwink', the local drug-lord who was the original owner of the stolen weapon. Serkis oozes menace whenever he's on-screen, and his sudden bursts of violence are frightening to behold.

The writer deserves an equal share of the credit. I've lived in London for several years and can confirm that the terms and slang used by the characters are authentic. Secondly, the story is well written and keeps the interest throughout; a palpable feeling of tension and dread growing as the situation grows steadily worse. If there's any complaint to be made, it's most likely that the story could have found a more comfortable place on the stage than the screen due to the minimal number of locations used (most of the action takes place within one warehouse) and the long (but always interesting) conversations between characters.

I wasn't sure whether I'd enjoy watching "Sugarhouse" due to my overexposure to British crime movies, but i'm glad that I did. It was one of the better movies I've seen recently and surprised me in how well-made it was. Long after the eerie final scene, i find myself thinking back to those two broken men who met at a crucial point in both of their lives and subsequently changed each other - for better or for worse.

If you're a fan of serious crime movies such as "Reservoir Dogs" of "The Long Good Friday", it would be well worth your time to take a look at "Sugarhouse".

Filmed on a relative microbudget, I was surprised this film was chosen by Slingshot as their first project, as the script really doesn't hold water and some clumsy dialogue really grates on the nerves.

As far as British films go I suppose it could have been a lot worse, and while I really didn't enjoy it the performances pull it through, right before it gets plain silly. In terms of the negative feedback that it's racked up here, most I agree with, however complaining that this film is awful because it's "like watching a play" is one of the most idiotic comments I've ever read, you're really telling us more about yourself then the film! It was based on a play which is usually no bad thing (have a look at The Big Kahuna for a good example of a one-set movie)

The one thing you can say about this film was that the performances were all spot on...The cinematography was great as well. Also worth noticing that despite the mileu they didn't over-egg it with some crazy Gangsta Rap soundtrack. The screenplay could have been a bit better and sometimes you felt the same ground was being covered in dialogue. Sometimes motivation was questionable - but perhaps this was the point - these people were not exactly -stable....I believe it was adapted from a play & there were some good moments of humour - so all in all a good British film...although quite a hard film to watch & like - all the swearing & seediness...so definitely not one of the Merchant Ivory school.