Purportedly based on truth, Plastic has the feel of an urban myth with a great many liberties taken with the legend. But why let the truth get in the way of a good film? Ah
Plastic sees co-writer and director Julian Gilbey reteam with his star of A Lonely Place to Die, Ed Speelers, as Sam, the leader of a quartet of petty criminals. Paying university fees and making life a little easier with credit card fraud, they rip off the wrong guy. Not only is Marcel (Thomas Kreschmann) the wrong guy, he's also a far bigger criminal than Sam et al, he's not averse to extreme violence and he wants an apology in the form of £2m within two weeks. With their lives at stake Sam's gang plans an audacious diamond heist.
Plastic is a good idea badly executed and true to its title. Everybody tries too hard. Gilbey clearly has his eye on the teenage boy market and ensures that the first twenty minutes contains all the ingredients to excite them: nudity, drugs, fast cars, obscenities, violence. Ho hum. There is no let up, no consideration for subtlety and the score is the audio equivalent of a large, flashing, neon sign that declares "Feel something NOW!"
Kreschmann (Open Grave, Valkyrie) aside, the performances largely range from weak and obvious to Made in Chelsea reject. Emma Rigby is particularly fascinating for her inability to harness the impression of believability. As for Will Poulter (Son of Rambow, We're the Millers), it's not a bad performance as Fordy, just an unfortunate choice of film.
Plastic is a clumsily directed, stilted and dull attempt to combine the Englishness of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with the glitz of Now You See Me but fails to come close to either. The final shoot out is presumably an homage to numerous, better crime films but is so protracted, obvious and badly edited that it is little more than a half-assed rip-off.
Some kinds of plastic cannot be recycled. Some are doomed to become landfill.
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Plastic sees co-writer and director Julian Gilbey reteam with his star of A Lonely Place to Die, Ed Speelers, as Sam, the leader of a quartet of petty criminals. Paying university fees and making life a little easier with credit card fraud, they rip off the wrong guy. Not only is Marcel (Thomas Kreschmann) the wrong guy, he's also a far bigger criminal than Sam et al, he's not averse to extreme violence and he wants an apology in the form of £2m within two weeks. With their lives at stake Sam's gang plans an audacious diamond heist.
Plastic is a good idea badly executed and true to its title. Everybody tries too hard. Gilbey clearly has his eye on the teenage boy market and ensures that the first twenty minutes contains all the ingredients to excite them: nudity, drugs, fast cars, obscenities, violence. Ho hum. There is no let up, no consideration for subtlety and the score is the audio equivalent of a large, flashing, neon sign that declares "Feel something NOW!"
Kreschmann (Open Grave, Valkyrie) aside, the performances largely range from weak and obvious to Made in Chelsea reject. Emma Rigby is particularly fascinating for her inability to harness the impression of believability. As for Will Poulter (Son of Rambow, We're the Millers), it's not a bad performance as Fordy, just an unfortunate choice of film.
Plastic is a clumsily directed, stilted and dull attempt to combine the Englishness of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with the glitz of Now You See Me but fails to come close to either. The final shoot out is presumably an homage to numerous, better crime films but is so protracted, obvious and badly edited that it is little more than a half-assed rip-off.
Some kinds of plastic cannot be recycled. Some are doomed to become landfill.
For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.