Johnny Vaughan's review

[richard]

5 stars out of 5 in today's Sun!

It's the main review, Johnny says that he was hooked from the very off, also that it's unmissable!

This post seems like telling half a story, as I can't find the review online and am unable to get my newspaper scanned.

So this happens the day after I see a TIE trailer on tv! I think the Johnny Vaughan review will be great exposure for the film and a big break for Shane

[bennybullfrog]

Just read it myself .. hopefully it will encourage more peeps to come along and see the film.

[HMV Lee]

Here is the review. It contains only minor spoilers no big un's

DIRECTOR Shane Meadows goes back to his skinhead roots in this riveting rites-of-passage romper stomper.

Honest, harrowing and at times downright hilarious, this is a worthy follow-up film to his brilliant Dead Man’s Shoes.

It’s set in the “not so green and pleasant land” that was early 80s Thatcherite England when Rubik’s Cubes and Roland Rat were all the rage and the Falklands War had the nation glued to the telly.

Terrific young newcomer Thomas Turgoose stars as 12-year-old Shaun, a cheeky, wonky-eyed lad whose dodgy fashion sense makes him the butt of the playground bullies’ banter (“you look like Keith Chegwin’s son!”).

One day, walking home, he meets a gang of music-loving skinheads (including Vicky McClure and a grown-up Romeo Brass, Andrew Shim), led by the amiable Woody (Joseph Gilgun).

They take Shaun under their wing, introducing him to the delights of ska music, Doc Martens and number one haircuts. This gives him the sense of family and security he’s been lacking.

Life is good and even Shaun’s stressed-out mum (Jo Hartley) is OK with the arrangement — provided they let her little lad’s hair grow back.

Enter the charismatic Combo (played by Top Buzzer stalwart Stephen Graham).

He’s fresh out of prison, racist and probably psychotic but determined, in his own misguided way, to give the boy the sort of paternal support he never had.

As tension simmers between Woody’s laid-back boys and Combo’s right-wing crew, Shaun must figure out who he can trust, what it means to be English and what it means to be himself.

The set, costume design and blistering blue beat soundtrack are enough to make this a highly enjoyable nostalgia trip.

From the opening chords of Toots And The Maytals’ ska classic 54-46 Was My Number, I was hooked.

But what lifts Meadows’ work to the highest level are both his script and the extraordinary young actors.

Turgoose delivers one of the stand-out debuts in recent times, while Stephen Graham provides an uneasy mix of charm and terror as the group’s chief tormentor.

This is the best of British . . . UNMISSABLE. *****

[aidanknight]

5/5 Shane Meadows... but fuck 'The S*n'.