The Grind
The Grind is a modern urban drama, set in world of sex, drug dealers, dance nightclubs and loan sharks. Vince is the nightclub manager of The Grind in Hackney, East London and having fought his way to a decent living and respectable lifestyle he is determined to settle down and take life easier. Upon meeting and starting a relationship with Nancy, Vinces dream of running a casino for his Boss and getting married looks set. Bobby, Vinces best friend from school, is released from prison and their friendship soon falls apart, Bobbys addiction to cocaine and gambling spirals out of control and he now owes a huge amount of money to Vinces boss, Dave ; owner of The Grind and an East End loan shark. Vince's life takes a dramatic turn for the worse. Loyalties are tested and friendships are pushed to their limits.
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- Cast:
- Jamie Foreman , Zoë Tapper , Danny John-Jules , Gordon Alexander , Kellie Shirley , Dynamo , Barber Ali
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Reviews
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
I had lost sight of how bad a film could be. I am genuinely lost for words and would not know where to begin describing how appalling this film is. However, I'll give it a shot: It is a plot-less mess, that hopes to somehow redeem itself in the 'arty' (read sh*te) editing.Suffice to say this film could be used as torture mechanism, water- boarding would seem like a month in the Maldives. Please spare yourself the need to have to write a review by avoiding at all cost.'The Grind' really does plumb new depths of badly shot banality. It also re-defines what can be called a 'film'I like gritty, I love 'Deadman's Shoes' (9.8/10 for me) but for f*ck's sake, don't expect anything remotely watchable or anything with a semblance of cohesion or meaning.
Folks, welcome to amateur hour. How anybody who read this script, worked on set or even served tea at the cafeteria kept a straight face is beyond me. You could fill volumes of the Encyclopedia Britainnica listing the myriad of faults here, but let me have a stab:1. There is a nightclub that plays the same two rubbish house tunes throughout, but no-one inside complains, in fact they all dance EXACTLY the same way. Often, there are large stretches with no dialogue, just the camera panning around this dive and somehow always ending up focusing on a blonde girl. Did she sleep with the director to get so much attention?2. The thrust of the plot is of this dude owing money to some boss man, who must be the least intimidating heavy ever. Look at him on the front cover, with his little short arse and the constipated expression on his face. Yet somehow, instead of crushing him underfoot, everyone is terrified of him. Did the 6ft 5 ex-boxer fail to turn up to auditions, so they were forced to use this hobbit?3. There is a scene here when the dude that owes money returns to his flat to find they've smashed up one of his rooms, including sprayed graffiti on the wall (OHH NOO)!! His wheelchair bound mother stumbles on the wreckage first, when she promptly has a heart attack. We then see him again later on in the same room, holding onto a shard of glass until blood drips down his hand. This might not sound like much, but the way it unfurls on screen is absolutely hilarious, especially with the 'tragic' music in the background.4. The dude that owes money works at a generic store. To get the dosh, he decides to rob the safe. He enlists the help of his mate who works at the aforementioned nightclub, who says no. Later on, his mate has a change of heart, and turns up just as the dude's robbery is going belly-up. His mate grabs the gun to let the dude escape, and when the police turn up, pretends he was the one who committed the offense. This is seen as a 'noble sacrifice' in the context of the film. Only problem is, EVERYONE in the store has already seen the dude waving the gun around, so he has no chance of getting away with it. OOPS.5. Danny John-Jules? SERIOUSLY? You couldn't wait a year to start making the new series of Red Dwarf? You had to embarrass yourself, your family, your pets etc till the end of time by agreeing to star in this atrocity? For Shame. FOR SHAME.Basically, it would have been a lot better if everyone had gone home, the script was thrown in the nearest furnace and the £500 budget was donated to charidee. After all, it's not too long to Children In Need... 1/10
The urban drama is saturated to bursting point with run of the mill, lazy mockney dramas and The Grind brings absolutely nothing new to the genre. The characterisations are woefully developed and acted; they stumble through what can hardly be considered narrative spewing out lines of dire- logue that amounts to posturing and screaming "fack" at each other. The direction isn't much better. The pacing is all over the shop from overly long shots of club scenes and slow motion walks to pad out the 90mins run time whilst employing bleached out visuals via out of focus shaky cam (presumably for "realism"). Overall though, it's just plain dull and is truly a Grind just to get to the credits.
I hadn't actually heard of this movie until I stumbled upon it searching for Jamie Foreman from EastEnders. I had no expectations for it at all as I had not heard of the supporting cast members apart from Danny-John Jules who plays the "Cat" from Red Dwarf! I have to say that the ending was an interesting choice that I was not expecting as I was really rooting for both Bobby & Vince. The storyline is good, a slightly different take on the gangster genre. We actually see the character development of the main characters, with two different visual styles which I found really cool. The acting was mostly good all round, a couple of the female characters were slightly weak in moments but not bad. I wish Zoe Tapper was in a bit more. It's very urban & gritty which is quite popular at the moment. The Grind moves along at a good pace and the slow bits are there to allow the audience to breathe & let the characters develop which is a bonus. I'd rate The Grind as a realistic portrayal of urban life & the nightclub world. There are issues in terms of technical quality, but being low budget it was a good solid effort all round!