It's a Lot (2013) User Reviews

LOTUS POSITION

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 20 October 2018]

Shaun (Femi Oyeniran) leaves rich guy college to go to poor guy college with his cousin and be cool. He is rather creepy in his love for shallow self centered Chrissy (Roxy Sternberg) and reluctantly uses his wealth to impress her. He ends up trashy his dad's Lotus and needs to come up with 20,000 pounds before he returns in few weeks. He holds a party at his place which only makes matters worse and resorts to running a fake charity to raise the cash, which predictably goes as well as everything else in his life.

"It's a lot" is slang for exceedingly good or exceedingly bad. In fact they cover a whole glossary of slang terms which appear on the screen for a few seconds (not long enough to seriously read). I felt like I was reading "Clockwork Orange" flipping back through the glossary for slang words.

I found Shaun to be "a lot" and not in a good way. He was exceedingly boring. The support cast wasn't much better and the only near chuckle I had was at the policemen. The film is poorly developed. His dislike for his first school is done with a few lines. The money rift between his mom and aunt was never fully explained, apparently an inheritance thing. The other side distractions are not developed either such as Louise's loose character or the pot head who owed the thugs. And what was with the big fat white dad who attempted to be funny with mild racial comments? Almost a chuckle.

Clearly this is for an audience far younger than me.

F-bomb. Naked pictures on wall and not Sophie Howard.

Awful movie, Schindler's List is funnier than this.

[Rodriguez1996 · 1/10 · 3 March 2014]

I was excited for the release of this film, as it was shot outside my college and I avidly followed the (rather good) marketing campaign on Facebook, leading up to the cinema release. Unfortunately I could not make it to the opening weekend of the film and was disappointed as I loved 'Anuvahood' and am a keen supporter of UK cinema, especially the urban genre.

I finally got to see this film on DVD today and was thoroughly disappointed. It seems I had a close call not going to cinema and wasting nearly £10 on this rubbish. 'It's A Lot' promised to be a laugh a minute comedy in the style of the aforementioned 'Anuvahood' and the grandaddy of all urban comedies 'Friday'. I can honestly say I sat through the full 96 minute duration of this movie and the most I ever did was smile, and that was at unintended humour. Horrible film, stupid plot, full of stereotypical racist jokes about white people (and I'm not even white) and for some reason the main character's father was the same age as him, was this part of the joke I wondered, or just bad casting? Probably the latter. Additionally, there was nothing new to see here, predictable guest appearance by Tim Westwood? check, lame rushed attempt at morality towards the end? check, not the best looking guy somehow gets the (half) decent looking girl at the end? check. Which brings me to my next point nicely, the main character Shawn, played by writer/actor Femi Oyeniran was an awkward man-child at best and sometimes I genuinely found myself wondering whether the character was supposed to have a mild learning disability and they just forget to mention this in the script. The 'hot' girls are not hot, the funny scenes are not funny, they even managed to make the usually hilarious Jazzie seem tame. And what the hell was up with the weird ending , where his father strangles him for selling his Lotus, with his 10 year old brother constantly kicking him till he slumps lifeless to the floor? This is then followed by a tedious monologue by Shawn about him using the Lotus money to help pay for the treatment of a girl suffering from cancer, to which, hilariously his father then does a complete U-turn (less than 45 seconds after choking him) and saying "You've matured" (in a perfect London accent DESPITE having an African accent all the way through the film) bizarre, just bizarre!

I wish I could have the 96 mins I wasted of my life back but I can't and so in the end the joke was on me, and will be on you too if you bother wasting your time/money on this lemon. I know I am not alone in sitting straight faced through this, as the film got pulled from cinema after only one weekend - surely some sort of record? I'd be surprised if it made more than £500 nationwide. This film is about as funny as when your nan develops Alzheimer's. My advice buy 'Anuvahood' instead, seen that? then get 'Friday' because that's how a real comedy film should be done.

This film is proper dred. Nuff to get ya vexed, blood!

[Seth_Rogue_One · 1/10 · 7 October 2015]

Directed, Written and Starring Femi Oyenerian (with some help from Nick Walker and Darwood Grace) who had a smaller role in 2 of the greatest British dramas of the 00's 'Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood'.

And he also had a role in the (much much much... Did I say much? well much) funnier comedy 'Anuvahood (2011)' of which I thought this movie 'It's A lot' would be similar to but really wasn't.

Well I guess in a sense it was, if you take away everything that was funny about 'Anuvahood' and add a bunch of unlikeable characters with terrible dialog and poor filming.

Femi (who looks like he's well in his 20's) plays a corny posh kid who speaks like he's Prince Charles (because he's rich and that's how all rich people talk) and is desperate for the appreciation of the 'less fortunate' hoods (who all break out into random dancelike moves while talking cause poor people like to dance) and most women are more or less gold diggers (it's gyal ting innit?) and super-annoying.

Not even the music was good (except for one or two there in the finale).

Overall a really bad "comedy" that fails to deliver a single laugh and you find yourself looking at the blu ray time bar quite often to see if the misery will end soon.

Painful to Watch.

[MUFCOK · 1/10 · 13 January 2015]

I can't really give this a full review as I didn't watch the full film. I got about half way through and it was that bad I simply couldn't continue. The reason I watched this film was the genre and the cast members. Femi Oyeniran, who plays the lead role and directed It's A Lot was fantastic in Kidulthood. In this movie however, he was absolutely awful. He plays the posh, upper class kid who leaves his private school to attend his cousins high school in 'the ends'. The accent he puts on is horrific, the worst posh accent imaginable. His two best mates are irritating, unrealistic, unlikeable and their acting abilities are given a 0 out of 10 from me. The lead character is left home alone for two weeks and in that time he crashes his Dads Ferrari and must find '20 grand' in two weeks. For a couple of crushed bumpers. 20 grand!?! Even if that is supposed to be in the name of comedy, it's ridiculous and is that really the best joke and plot point they could think of? He also gets used by the most popular girl in the school as she wants to throw a party at his massive house whilst his parents are away..

Then I turned it off.

Anuvahood is a fantastic example on how to make a UK Urban comedy successfully. It's A Lot is a fantastic example on how to not make a film. The acting, characters, scenarios, jokes & storyline are all awful. It's not funny, it tries so hard to make you laugh and it is simply painful to watch. Femi Oyeniran should hang up his directing boots right now and never attempt an upper-class accent again. Horrific.

1/10

Watch the whole movie before you rate it.

[wingthwong · 8/10 · 6 July 2015]

First off, this isn't an American film that is budget saturated, with big action scenes and scores yet overpaid lousy actors. This is a British social comedy about real issues that doesn't rely on flash to tell the story. I won't give it a ten due to the fact that it started jumpy and took the first quarter of the movie to settle down. After that, you see the reality, the family struggles, the social struggles, but remained lighthearted and humorous well enough to keep it away from a depressing show. This movie must be watched to he end to see the subtle masterpiece it turns into. We see a young man who struggles with his family's fortune that does not fit in with the elite crowd convincingly trying to fit in with the commoners without his parents knowledge. We see his friends stand by him, plastics (the self appointed popular girls) taking advantage of him, and his misguided attempts to fix his mistakes. We see the wisdom of his grandmother and aunt and eventually his own mother and finally his father. We see his father's lawyer stepping in to truly help him and give him solid advice. Ultimately, this is a well rounded fun flick.

Basically a nice teen comedy with out any real consequences.

[face-819-933726 · 7/10 · 23 February 2014]

Funny throwback to classics like House Party, or even Disorderlies. Great cast of characters, and a well written story that is just packed with light hearted fun, and a lot of what you can only hope is the true sentiment of the youth today. From the start you are introduced to the most incompetent, and oblivious adults and the kids are all so mature, and trying to take the best from what life has to offer them. I Enjoyed the story, and how quickly it moves on from the silly teen romp that it could have been, and gets to the business of unity, and helping each other through the toughest of times. A fake charity is evil, and should not ever be allowed, there is a big missing piece in that there are no real consequences besides having to clean some toilets. However I do recommend this movie as a decent little comedy that most people will enjoy. If you have trouble with accents, then you will not understand most of this movie, as a lot of it is really just the promotion of slang, and new jargon, though if you get into that, or past it then there is a decent movie here.

Naija Brilliant

[jrdnyc · 10/10 · 23 February 2014]

We be like ...(Apparently IMDb won't let me use a word for ten sentences ... lol si so they are forcing me to put insanity in your head for the next few minutes good: you only live once. go to corporate policy dot org and check that out. Let's have a toast for the Royal Dutch while we're at it. Chinoso I live with a Dominican from Santo Domingo. You know like a native New York City resident for the last sixteen years and New Jersey resident for twenty years before that. The message of this movie is all in the title. The characters are very personal and relocatable what? I don't know it was supposed to say relatable lmao really Google Chrome spell check you don't know the word relatable go figure I still love Adblock Plus but stop cheating the people and make silicon valley pay transportation taxes with the rest us Hey switch it up now OMG Jesus is watching you so don't say any bad words too love all of you Movie was funny, especially the credits)... I'm American

British youth comedy at it's best

[marhop18 · 7/10 · 29 October 2013]

Quite funny and actually has a message behind it. Although some of the jokes are a bit obvious, It's A lot seems to attempt to address many of the issues currently having being faced my young people today. I've now registered to give blood in support of Leukemia. It's been a while since a comedy has actually left me thinking.

I'd most definitely recommend it to my daughter and her friends and its hilarious how I'm using some of my new found street lingo with her(much to her embarrassment.

I hope if nothing else, this can show young people it's OK to be true to themselves.