How sad is this?

Fresh and Exciting

Fantastic!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Such a pretentious and lame attempt to hipness. Diabolical script and dialogue and truly embarrassing acting. Really the worse movie I have ever seen(at the cinema). Nothing in my opinion saves this movie from being a total disaster. I saw it when it came out in a cinema in Brighton. People were walking out and there were more people chatting outside the toilets than in the auditorium! At the end there were boos and scorn from the meagre crowd left, which was quite sad as relatives of one of the main actors were present and looked really sheepish. However the movie was that bad that I really could not feel like that sympathetic with them. Everybody has to start from somewhere and their son started off his acting career with this truly awful attempt at 'Tarantinism made in the UK'. 5 years have gone bye, but sometimes I still cringe at the memory of that sad night at the movies! This is a movie with no redeeming features whatsoever! I gave it a 1 as 0 was not available. They should invent a 'shameometer' for everybody involved in this sorry mess of a movie. I know some of them have moved on to better things, the positive thing is that none of them could have sank any lower than this.

After eying this movie at the local library, I thought I'd rent it. The set up sounded interesting, and My cousin lives in Glasgow. It was very well done, the acting believable so the workers who watch this movie will relate, the set ups are funny like when one person car has a bad radio station playing only bad 80's love songs, which in the end is works like normal. And it's also got some sad moments like when a senior worker gets a heart attack, and the pain of being cheated on. Plus it has wit and sarcasm.And Each of the friends managing their jobs is just painful but fun, and makes you maybe want a night shift job. Definitely a film not to miss. So check this movie out at a video store. You will love it. Ben

My faith is slowly but surely being restored in the British film industry. It would seem that the steady tirade of shoddy Lock, Stock & Bridget Jones rip-off's is being offset by some nice low budget character driven pieces that are begging to be seen by a larger audience.Late Night Shopping is one such film. Yet to secure a release in the US, this is definitely a film to keep an eye out for.Saul Metzstein's debut feature is a glorious exploration of friendship and how we choose to spend our lives. The four main characters all work nightshifts and spend the time before and after work drinking coffee and talking about how they hate their jobs and lives in general. Lenny works in a directory enquiries call centre and has trouble speaking to women. Sean is a hospital porter who's girlfriend works a day shift, consequently he never sees her and wonders if she still stays with him. Vincent works in a supermarket and is a self-confessed womaniser who has a three strike rule. He will only sleep with a woman three times before he dumps them. Jody works for a computer components company and constantly feels left out by the three boys.The four talk and go about their dull, mundane existence. The film however is anything but mundane. The tight script from Jack Lothian sparkles with wit and charm and you grow attached to the characters and genuinely feel for them. The story doesn't fall into cheap clichés and keeps the viewer on it's toes, not rushing into any obvious or cheesy climaxes. In a welcome change of pace for recent British movie the film contains no violence and no drug-use. Sex is hinted at rather than shown and swearing is kept to a minimum.The movie was filmed in Glasgow and director Saul Metzstein does a bang up job off making the grey, gloomy city that I know look like a bustling, lively metropolis. In-fact If I didn't know it was filmed in Glasgow I would have a hard job recognising it, although I did spot a few places that I know.I'm not familiar with any of the actors from the film, but I was very impressed with the performances that they give. They really made me feel for them and I saw I bit of myself in each one (being a twentysomething loser in a dead-end job myself).Late Night Shopping is easily one of the best films to come out of Britain in a long time and demands to be seen by as many people as possible. 4/5

I really enjoyed this film. It was much better than I was expecting from the box, which suggested both (i) another pointless Trainspotting knock-off and (ii) a laugh out loud pant-wetting comedy, of which this is neither (although there are some hilarious moments).In fact this is a subtle comedy about a group of acquaintances becoming friends. The 'stupid coincidences' others have criticized here (the two girls knowing each other, Vince inadvertently pulling Sean's girlfriend) are indeed coincidences, but that is exactly the point. Because they ever only interact in the rather bleak nothingness of their nocturnal world, and superficially know so little about one another, they have no idea how interconnected their lives really are and how much they share.A theme running through the film is the distinction between acquaintances, 'people you pass the time with', and friends. Which category do this group fall into? The unwitting and unrealised intersections between their lives initially indicate the former. However, their actions in helping Sean recover his girlfriend as the story goes suggest otherwise. Only Vince, the superficially shallow womaniser (and probably the best character), insists consistently that they *are* friends, that it is their actions towards one another that define their relationship, not the facts they can remember. By the film's (somewhat open) ending, the core group have moved firmly into the 'friends' category, not by learning that many more facts about each other, but by developing an understanding of each other's needs.It's worth pointing out that this is all achieved without sentimental gushing at any point, something of a relief, and the films cynical tone rarely wavers. It's a credit to the young cast that they can express so much with barely a single heartfelt monologue.There is also an underlying theme about the twenty-four hour society and the mundane, prospect-free jobs the group have. During the night, nothing changes - no-one really grows or develops, nothing is resolved, there is an air of helplessness at a bleak future doing the same pointless job for the rest of your life. (As Vince says, `And then what?'). It is only when they emerge into the daylight that anything can, and does, happen - things finally start to change.In addition, the film is well directed and the production style is modern and distinctive without being intrusive. It's a relief to see a film with a young cast which has a bit of texture and depth, and which has not been designed around it's soundtrack.All-in-all a very enjoyable watch, which is thought-provoking if you want it to be, and still very funny if you don't.PS I feel obliged to answer at least some of the rather churlish and unfair criticisms which the film has received here:1. `Why doesn't Sean just phone his girlfriend to see if she's still there?' Well, the other characters ask him this too, so it's not a plot hole. Instead it is establishing his character - he is incapable of facing up to the possibility she has gone, and paralysed by his fear of being alone. He's a bit neurotic, a bit paranoid, and he's stuck in his night-time world where nothing happens.2. `How does Vince know where they are going?' BECAUSE LENNY TOLD HIM! This is established in the very next shot, when Jody realises the fact in the car and thumps Lenny. If you won't pay attention..3. `Why are they all English when it's filmed in Glasgow? Why do the stop at a service station not on the route from Glasgow to Saltcoats?' Duh.. Just because it was filmed in Glasgow and Saltcoats, and therefore *looks* like Glasgow and Saltcoats, it is never confirmed to *be* these places. (In fact the seaside town was explicitly called something else). The city isn't supposed to be Glasgow, it's a fictitious AnyCity, UK. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE IT IS! It's not supposed to be anywhere *real*, because it's a story!