It Was an Accident (2000) User Reviews (4)

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[FlashCallahan · 7/10 · 18 May 2013]

Again, the late nineties and early naughties were rife with these Brit gangster movies, and the more I see the little seen ones, the more I am endearing tho them.

As expected, the film is simple and straight forward. Guy gets out of prison and wants to go straight, foils a robbery, gets offered work by two rival gangs, has a son who needs money for school, and is in love with the policeman who is quite nice to hims' daughter.

But obviously things go awry on, and all the while he tries to go legit, things go worse. Plus there is a subplot involving and old boy who has race issues..

It's not a great film by any means, but its funny, and has some really comically bad performances. Ejiofor and Newton are as good as expected, but his friends portrayed in this are annoying, and there are times when you just think, stay away.

Beesly is the best thing here, but only because the guy is so bad in this. Don't get me wrong, he is a good actor, but the material he has here to work with just makes him out to be just another wide boy, but his character just has so much potential.

If you like Brit films that have been well hidden, but for some reason catch your eye, this is for you.

It's not a good story by any means, but it has some pretty cool elements to it.

Nicky wants to go straight, but the world seems to have other ideas ...

[dfcom · 7/10 · 23 October 2000]

After a spate of dreadful Brit' crime thrillers, finally a (semi) original crime based caper with a rom-com edge.

Fine performance from Chiwtel Ejiofor as the luckless Nicky, an ex-con who finds himself trapped between the police, gang boss Rameez, psycho thug Mickey (an insane Beesley), and Fitch (Bolam) a throw-back to the old days of the Krays.

As fate conspires against him, it seems he'll never get it together with the beautiful Noreen (a post M:I-2 low key appearance by from Newton).

And some of the best dialogue since Snatch.

It Was A Load Of Crap

[Theo Robertson · 2/10 · 17 April 2003]

I can imagine the pitch went something like this : " It`s a fresh funky comedy with some black geezer . Little bit like TRAINSPOTTING or LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS innit . Give some money to make the film . I`m a geezer "

Sorry but I think the bloke doing the pitch was a little bit naughty because IT WAS AN ACCIDENT seems to resemble something like CIRCUS or RANCID ALUMINIUM .

The main problem ( And boy is it a problem ) is a horrible , underdeveloped script . The characters and situations are incredibly silly and several scenes seem to be included simply because it seemed like a good idea at the time . There is nothing that could have saved the film from its woeful script but director Metin Huseyin hasn`t made even a token attempt to improve any potential of the film . The cast go way over the top and perhaps the worst thing about the performances is the swearing . I`ve nothing against bad language , in fact profanities uttered by characters can actually be funny or dramatic , but here it sounds crude , irritating and unconvincing . Show`s how bad IT WAS AN ACCIDENT is when I complain about the language . I also want to complain about the script ( Again ) the direction ( Again ) and the performances ( Again ). What a crap film

Average cockney crime caper

[Robin Kelly · 3/10 · 5 December 2000]

Most cheeky cockney crime capers fail to have a fully developed story and insult the audiences intelligence with incredibly stupid plot contrivances. It Was an Accident is no exception but what raises it a little above the others is the better than usual dialogue, which was almost enough to carry the whole picture but by the last act you're wanting more substance.

As the dialogue is the only thing going for it, it could be more accessible. What's the point of using lots of gibberish only a tiny percentage of the UK population would understand?

Huseyin and the actors do well with the material but the material is too weak and falls apart too easily.