Bullet Boy (2004)

Director:

Saul Dibb

Writers:

Saul Dibb (writer)
Catherine Johnson (writer)

Release Date:

8 April 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Pray... They may be your last words...

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Black British | London England | Sex Scene | Prison | Gangster

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Leon Black	...	Wisdom
Chris Callendar	...	Ricky's Soliciter
Louise Delamere	...	Probation Officer
Luke Fraser	...	Curtis
Des Hamilton	...	School Teacher
Gary Henry	...	Randal Cue
Clark Lawson	...	Godfrey
Claire Perkins	...	Beverely
Sharea-mounira Samuels	...	Shea
Greg Tanner	...	Police Officer / SO19 Officer
Rio Tison	...	Rio
Jadiel Vitalis	...	Meadow
Curtis Walker	...	Leon
Ashley Walters	...	Ricky
Sylvester Williams	...	Neville
Jaime Winstone	...	Natalie

Also Known As:

The Boys (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, a strong sex scene, language and some drug use.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Australia:MA | USA:R | Ireland:16 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Hackney, London, England, UK

Company:

BBC Films

Trivia:

Sold to its backers at BBC films as "Kes with guns."

Moving, with a bite of realism and a dose of moralism

I would like to start off saying that I appreciated the movie for dealing with the black community in London. No rude cockney gangsters, catchy crime scams or laughably stupid dope dealers. The family this movie deals with is a single mum home with two sons, one just out of prison, the other still too young to be involved in anything hazardous, but looking up at his brother and already copying some of his ways.

I enjoyed the language and the characters who were all convincing and complex enough but, how carefully put down they were, the more obvious and stereotypical were the things happening to them. Everything going from bad to worse, who plays with fire is gonna get burnt. And then the ultimate contrast of either sinking into crime and sin (devil), or choosing the righteous path and go to church every Sunday (god).

This easy moralism hurt the rest of the film. It made things predictable. It was like a newspaper article collage, one shock after the other. It took away much of the complexity that I found in the characters themselves. It really is a shame because the development of the characters could have been much more subtle and would have fit in better with the style of the movie that deals with a gritty context matter but managed to use a soft and sometimes almost dreamy camera and score, not unlike other recent British films, such a 'Morvern Callar' and '16 Years of alcohol'.