Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

Don't listen to the negative reviews

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I think Dan Turner can hold his head up high for this film.Clayton Murdoch attempts to build some kind of life for himself in the aftermath of an abusive childhood brought upon him by his unhinged criminal father. He finds a new kind of father figure in coach Gordon Sinclair who, aware of Clayton's troubled youth, tries to guide him back on to the straight & narrow path via the medium of boxing.Before long, a web of petty grievances in local gangland brings trouble to the feet of Clayton's younger siblings. For Clayton, fighting their battles is one thing; yet mounting pressure and rising stakes bring their own problems as the dam of sanity cracks under the weight violent fatherly expectation.The reviews haven't been as kind to this film as I expected. It's not a popcorn movie and it's certainly not an attempt at a UK 'Rocky'.When you're touching on UK gangster culture, two things have to be illustrated in my book for it to be a success. Firstly, the players are locked in to an almost incredulous bubble of isolation, held together by it's own code of silence. Secondly, no matter how trivial and contrived the mini dramas in these bubbles are - the outcomes are of the highest magnitude and felt by the community at large.I thought the story telling delivered these points extremely well.When combined with the mental deterioration of Clayton Murdoch (who I thought was admirably played by Ashley Thomas) then you're sitting on a powder keg as he's goaded directly & indirectly by his murderous father towards perpetuating the cycle of hate.Without spoiling the detail of the ending, the conclusion was satisfying and delivered at the right time with the right amount of weight.And now for the bit's that were harder to deal with.The love interest elements were partly out of place. Clayton was introverted before Alexia arrived on the scene. You would have had more chance blowing a drop of water across a desert with a straw than those two getting in to a deep relationship. Additionally, the dialogue in the second from last scene (funeral) was a touch awkward.The main issues I had with the movie were production related. At times, the sound was poor. In the same scene, we get Jason Maza clear as a bell, yet Ashley Thomas is barely audible. And the lighting just didn't do the job in a number of the scenes - leaving you guessing what the hell was going on. A prime example of this the climactic confrontation between Clayton & Karl. One minute we're seeing credible photography of wind turbine strewn vistas and then we can barely make the pair out as they're brought together for the climax. Is this the cinematography failing to deliver its part of the bargain here? This is a damn shame because the beating heart of this story is a good one. Had these fundamentals been addressed during the production of the movie, I would have given it 8 out of 10.

Engaging, well made urban drama with striking strong performances and a powerful central theme, though the dialog a little rubbish occasionally and there are a couple of embarrassingly bad lines its not a bad film if you got nothing to do and your sitting all alone and there is nothing on t.v to watchif walk into the cinema & found just 2 people in the whole theater --- then you know its time to turn around and walk outanyway this kind of film has been made many times just much betterThe film's main problem relates to dynamics: it slips too quickly between quiet bathos and splenetic rage. In one scene where Clayton and Alexia are cooing over one another and rekindling a romantic flame from the past, it only takes one phone call to transport Clayton to point of wanting to stave her face in with a monkey wrench.

It's not a boxing movie. Because theirs hardly any boxing.It's not a thriller. Because its not thrilling.It is very funny in parts. But its not meant to be a comedy, I think.Performances are laughable. David Harewood is brilliant in Homeland. He is dire in this movie. I think hes trying to play Dr Evil from the Austin Powers movies.Peter Mullan. An amazing actor in everything but this. He just wonders round like hes just been released from some old folks home. Ashley Bashey just looks like hes in pain most of the time and then the tapping starts.The tapping. OMG the tapping. The tapping is so crass and in your face as a motif that you don't know whether to laugh or cry.I did make it all the way through waiting for something to happen ... but it never did. It is mind numbingly dull. Boring, irrelevant, and done a hundred times better by much better film makers.Avoid.

Dan Turner's THE MAN INSIDE is the best British film of this year.Echoing the refined film noir style of Abraham Polonsky, Jules Dassin and Edgar G Ulmer, and displaying a visual skill that Carl Theodor Dreyer and John Cassavetes would have been proud of.Intense, dark, deadly and deeply emotive. Once viewed, London 2012 never ever looks the same.Viewed through the eyes of Clayton Murdoch (Ashley Thomas) who is fighting his personal childhood demons, Turner's feature exposes a selection of inner city characters whose lives are devastated by illness, loss, bereavement and street violence.We enter the world where moral dilemmas are present on every corner, and where the deepest emotional conflicts destroy young lives.In Turner's vision of life, the industrial city is inhabited by those whom the hope had forgotten about, who battle for survival through personal traumas, family tragedy and gangland street culture.In THE MAN INSIDE, we are not only a viewer and a witness, but an active participant in their deep personal drama.As active participants we devour their pain, as we view their razor sharp tears in Turner's widescreen close ups.Unlike the classic film noir protagonists, Thomas' Clayton does not succumb to a violent and untimely end.His determination and belief in what he considers to be morally right, irrespective of expectations or demands placed upon him, preserves the life of those he loves the most. Through his love of life and decency, he incites a humiliating defeat to the violent environment around him, dispelling all prejudice attached to his family background.Turner's feature touches on all crucial issues of modern, 21st century Britain - class, race, unemployment, multi cultural inner city environment, quest for opportunity and status, fear of and experience of failure - in a way which is subtle, yet pertinent and truly captivating.By watching the deep personal drama of the main characters, presented in a framework of traditional film noir, we are brought to some of the most fundamental issues that every industrial society and its cities face today.Fierce, truly captivating and unmissable.