The Business (2005)

Frankie is sent from London to Spain to make a delivery to Charlie, who likes the kid and shows him the ropes including the use of guns and drugs. Frankie likes the sun, pools and the cute, bikini clad girls and stays in Spain.

Director:

Nick Love

Writer:

Nick Love

Stars:

Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Geoff Bell

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Danny Dyer	...	Frankie
Tamer Hassan	...	Charlie
Geoff Bell	...	Sammy
Georgina Chapman	...	Carly
Eddie Webber	...	Ronnie
Adam Bolton	...	Danny
Linda Henry	...	Shirley
Roland Manookian	...	Sonny
Arturo Venegas	...	Mayor
Camille Coduri	...	Nora
Martin Marquez	...	Pepe
Andy Linden	...	Joe (as Andy Linton)
Sally Watkins	...	Mum
Eduardo Duro	...	Carlos
Tracy Kirby	...	Laura (as Tracey Kirby)

Storyline

Frankie decides he's had enough with his life as a street thug living on a South London estate, and jets off to spain where he meets big time businessman Charlie, who's currently running the hottest bars in the land and also a South London bank robber and drug kingpin. From here on in Frankie signs up to a lifetime of crime, women and drugs and works his way from the bottom to the top of the Spanish cocaine empire with Charlie and Fellow bank robber and drug kingpin Sammy who does not give Frankie the best reception.

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Plot Keywords:

oral sex | panties | femme fatale | drugs | spain | 

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Taglines:

Good fellows in the sun.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive language and drug content, violence and some sexuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

Danny Dyer and Linda Henry both go on to have roles in eastenders where Linda also plays a character called Shirley and is playing Danny Dyer's mum.

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Goofs

(at around 21 mins) Frankie throws his cigarette to the floor and treads on it. Only his toes miss and kicks the still-lighted cigarette under the right foot of the other character.

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Quotes

Frankie: [Talking about Sammy] The geezer was so hard even his nightmares were scared of him.

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Crazy Credits

At the end the credits say that Frankie went to Hollywood as in "Frankie goes to Hollywood". There are some connections between Frankie the character and "Frankie goes to Hollywood" the band in the movie.

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Connections

Referenced in Movie Dude 98 Reviews: City Rats (2017)

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Soundtracks

I Ran (So Far Away)
Written by Frank Maudsley, Paul Reynolds, Ali Score and Michael Score
Performed by A Flock of Seagulls

User Reviews

Love focuses on the style but forgets the substance

Frankie is just a typical South London chav (or whatever they were called back then) until he runs an errand to the south of Spain for a local gangster. He delivers a bag to Charlie in the Costa del Crime and gets taken on as his driven. As time goes by Frankie becomes more than just "the kid Frankie" and this continues even when Charlie's violently irrational partner Sam gets back on the scene. However as the cocaine high of the 80's comes, the risks of his criminal live come all the realer to Frankie.

Clearly aiming to be some sort of "Costa del Goodfellas" story, Nick Love's film is a very by-the-numbers sort of affair that relies too much on the superficial things while forgetting things like characters and narrative. The storyline is very basic and it is all pretty obvious what the arch of the story will be, if not the exact detail. Love has put more effort into capturing the feel of the 1980's which, in fairness he does pretty well thanks to his set and costume people as well as a constant pop music soundtrack. This is all well and good and the story itself moves forward with this style as its driver but it doesn't really have much going on below the surface in terms of character.

Of course it doesn't really help that some of the performances are weak. Dyer does his usual cockney geezer thing and does change across the film (albeit in a basic way) but his narration is terrible. It feels like he is just reading the words and certainly isn't delivering them with any sense of who is character is or with any sense of emotion or understanding of the story he is telling. Hassan is a solid presence and actually does well with his character in the later stages of the film. Bell is obvious but OK while Chapman isn't half as sexy as she clearly has been told she is.

Overall then a fairly so-so British film that looks "the business" in regards the period and 80's gimmicks but really doesn't have much else going for. Maybe worth a look though if your expectations are reasonably low.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [UK]

Country:

UK Spain

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

2 September 2005 (UK)

Also Known As:

Biznes

Filming Locations:

Calle Apodaca, La Línea de la Concepción

Box Office

Budget:

GBP2,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,541,675

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vertigo Films, Monkey Productions S.L., Powder Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1