Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

rooee After the short 'Where's The Money, Ronnie?' and the not-so-short 'Small Time', Lord Shane Meadows of Eldon's first feature film is this snappy black-and-white urban drama. Darcy (Bob Hoskins) is sick of seeing the local youths at each other's throats, so forms a boxing club to bring them together. It is a laudable plan; something to offer control and direction to a disaffected generation.Meadows' greatest talent is in presenting a truthful working class landscape sympathetically, but without being patronising. Our heroes are disadvantaged, often stricken by a fearsome domestic environment (none more so than Danny Nussbaum's Tim); and yet they are also kind, witty, hungry, and joyful. The scenes in which Darcy brings the boys to Wales, with Ashley Rowe's sumptuous cinematography and Hoskin's lyrical voice-over, are so vibrant it's as if they're filmed in colour. It's quite something to find drama in scenes of great happiness, when the conflict is left at home - but Meadows always seems to find it, and that's what makes his films vital and real.

Karl Self "Twenty Four Seven" scores on cinematography and, in some cases, acting, but the story is inconsistent, predictable and unconvincing. Shane Meadows, the director, shows potential in his first feature movie, but overall he can't bring it together. The story is of a middle - aged man who starts a boxing club to get some youths off the street, and to give their dole - and - drugs centered lives a new purpose, but you can pretty much figure it out from there: new British cinema has never been so stale. We never understand what brings the characters together, what the kids see in their trainer (Alan Darcy, played by Bob Hoskins), why the young shopkeeper girl should be infatuated with Darcy (their relationship seems to be nothing more than an old man chasing a young bird), and we never even feel particularly sympathetic to the youngsters themselves -- they seem to be rather content collecting their dole and enjoying the easy life. I came away with the impression that the director did a social drama because he thought it would be the easiest thing to pull off, the result being a movie that has less grit and veracity than East Enders.

The_Movie_Cat TwentyFourSeven is a pleasing film from director Shane Meadows who also acted and co-wrote the screenplay. Rather sensibly for a first-time endeavour, he's opted for a low-key work rather than the flashy fragmented works of other young debutantes (Guy Ritchie please take note).The story is alarmingly simple and is thus: Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins, excellent) helps out wayward youths in a harsh Northern town by running a boxing club. And that, basically, is it. The film perhaps plays on too narrow a canvass and it's "life is harsh" rhetoric can be mildly overstated. Witness the habitual drug user who turns up to a bout with the largest spliff in history. This guy does drugs, and in case you don't get the point, here's a telescopic joint that would bankrupt Columbia. Bruce Jones' wife-beater can also be a little one-dimensional, saved only by the actors' charm. Yet the fact that the screenplay is so modest in it's ambitions helps it immensely. A lesser talent would have thrown everything at the screen for his first full-length work, yet Meadows tells his tale and tells it well.Dialogue that could veer towards slight pretention is saved by the wonderful Hoskins, while the real triumph is the black and white filming. This isn't the Schindler's List type of black and white; a dull grey that looks like a normal film with the colour control on your TV turned down. This is a dark, grimy black and white that takes away any contemporary restraints. Particularly notable are the scenes set against the woods and train car, and the pace they evoke. This is a film that doesn't drag but takes it's time with precision. It will entertain you and doesn't need to rush it. Impressive.

Chris J. If you enjoy Bob Hoskins, you'll probably find sitting through Twenty Four Seven a worthwhile experience as I did.The film isn't particularly memorable, however. It has little in it you have not seen before. There are a couple of brief moments which I found quite wonderful. But not enough to strongly recommend the film. My favorite is when Hoskins who has a crush on a young woman, sees her hand print on a counter and presses his own hand print on top of it. That I liked a lot. Unfortunately his obvious infatuation of the young lady never leads anywhere (which may be the point of course), but it's so subtle and so unrealized it barely registers. But there is that moment.It takes a long time to get involved in the film. It concerns some poor working class youths in a nowhere town in England. Everyone there seems pretty miserable. Hoskins decides to revitalize the boxing club that kept him out of trouble when he was growing up and recruits several of the town's youths half of whom are quite reluctant. When the rich father of an out of shape kid puts a little money behind the project, some additional interest in the club leads to some publicity and a match with another town's boxing club. This does not go off very well at all. That's it. There are a few well directed scenes showing the relationships of a lad to his bully father. But because we don't care very much about any of the characters in the film the impact is dulled.I can't praise the direction too highly because there are sequences that play like working class mtv videos. They would have worked at about one minute, but are allowed to continue for as long as the song lasts. The one to Van Morrisson works okay. but at nearly four minutes is too long. The others only hold together for brief amount of time before they get old. The music has more life than the images and narrative of the film and reminds us how lifeless the film really is.Still, Hoskins is at times brilliant. His talent and presence is almost enough to sustain the entire film.