The plot for this movie was okay at best. It could have been better. I could get behind some of the characters actions, although they were wrong. However, Rapman showing up every 10 minutes and rapping was awful. It took almost everything good away from the film. He didn't say anything to help the film he just came on screen and said things like "that's peek" or just told us what we had already seen. This just made the film a lot dumber and more like a PSA than a complex character study it could have been if this time was spent on the actual plot.
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elliotjeory28 April 2020I liked this film. I'm a fan of top boy etc and this was a similar story. I found it funny, especially the scenes between the group of friends on the bus to the party. It reminded me of high school. The standout performance was Khali Best I thought he was hilarious and he's a really good actor. The film is grim in some parts and doesn't glamorise gang life. If you don't like this review you can ring me, or txt me, or DM me or write me or....
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coombsstephen29 November 2019This film is aimed at a demographic that really isnt well represented at the Cinema and even on main stream TV. The teen to 25 range who over most generations feel isolated from the people older and younger are well represented here.
This is a novel and clever film which mixes a very good plot, good acting with a unique idea of adding grime songs within the scenes to explain the story.
The film is raw and shocking but I think still probably shy's away from the real brutal truth of life on the streets in modern inner City London but for good reason as it doesn't set out to be totally shocking, it just wants to tell a story.
At the core is a good film with a good story and made a different way, for even just that it is worth a watch. -
et-colton25 November 2019As someone who has listened to Rapman's music since 2014, I am the target audience for this film and if you are too then you will enjoy it. However it is far from without its flaws. Alot has been made of the fact that this is a majority 1st time actors and that Rapman himself has no formal or directing or screenwriting and while at some points they will impress you, this will also show negatively through some inconsistent writing/acting at times and low budget making for mostly cheesy effects. Both of the stars put in decent performances, Micheal Ward in particular has really impressed me so far this year in this and Top Boy. As someone who watched the original blue story as well, I'm not sure that the story changes are better and while I enjoyed the added parts of the story they did not add a huge amount.
For the target audience like me this is a high 6 (rounded up to a 7)
For the casual viewer this would be a high 5 -
Timbo_Watching14 March 2020This film was alright at best. I try to overlook the budget which made the writing and acting quite poor. The film portrays a quite powerful story but it just didn't really execute it so well into cinematography. It was pretty interesting to see nonetheless and I wouldn't call this film terrible or something.
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m_m_10381728 November 2019The irony of 'robertc-42326' complaining about the director being unable to speak the Queen's English, yet has the most atrocious grammar and use of syntax that I have ever seen.
'Blue Story' is a good film. It is somewhat cliched but nothing more than other films of its calibre. I wonder if those calling for the banning and censorship of it want to censor mob films and violent video games too? -
thenamesx24 November 2019As a young adult, who went into the movie expecting a real and authentic depiction of the struggle of the working class english youth and gang culture, I can't help but feel extremely unimpressed. The budget may have played a part in this (when casting inconsistent actors), or the script was weak(which left the actors with little to work with). But either way a 1.5 million budget should've been utilised in a better way. For a person who grew up in a similar environment conveyed in the movie but avoided it and worked hard to keep his head on straight, I'm slightly vexed by how knuckle-headed and stupid they've portrayed not only the community, but the criminals themselves. Ridiculous, over-glamourised, american-influenced scenes like firing guns for absolutely no reason midday is the reason so many youths think its okay now to run around with machetes to settle their disputes without consequences. Rapman is a very good musical artist, but I wasn't impressed with this project of his.
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jasminelaurakeating14 November 2020I can't believe more people have rated this film a 1 than a 10. Reading some of the recent reviews I actually felt like I've watched a different film to the one people are describing (btw I haven't). The film was incredible and deserves way more credit than people on here are giving it. It's the best film I've seen in a long time and I have watched A LOT of films recently. The film is accessible, whilst it focuses on gang violence it essentially focuses on a friendship and the relationship between one of those friends and his girlfriend. I found the film very moving. Rapman is unbelievably talented. The acting was amazing, the entire film was engaging from the very start to the very end. I will be telling everyone to watch this movie.
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smith-c5730 November 2019A bit dull to be honest, I am not the target audience for this film and I felt it, the whole thing seemed to be in a different language to me, all slang, and if this is any representation of today's youth then we are in real trouble as a society
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Li_854 December 2019This film dumbs the black community of South London. Hardly any characters you can relate to apart from the girl. i grew up in a london council estate around kilburn/ladbroke grove. ive seen gang fights, i was sensible and stayed away, but i get the culture and i love ghetto or gangster films. From Scarface, Goodfellas to boyz n the hood, juice. Even The Football Factory, Green st Hooligans to Adulthood. Topboy was Brilliant and reminded me of real london life. Some of these film, based on real situations although glamorize violence have a good morale and should be entertaining.
Coming back to Blue story. This is where Rapman fails. He obviously tries to explain how a youth can get involved in a postcode gang. BUT Still no depth to the characters on why they choose to join. i.e. the conclusion is that they are all brainwashed
As a audience I coudnt relate and understand the need to join and fight for your postcode. i dont blame the actors, its the script. also Rapman fails in the end. The film should have a emotional good morale to show that it is wrong and stupid to do so and offer or educate solution to it. i.e. police support, the consequence, prison, getting abused in prison, but no...
what i learnt from this film (i.e. knife crime)... 1. The parents are a disgrace to society, the mother in this film has no clue what her son is doing and when police comes, she abuses the police for arresting her son, a murderer. Again making the black community appear dumb. blaming everyone but themself.
2. The youth are just plain thick, one scene they appear smart and sensible, in another they quickly and easily join a gang and are now stupid. again making the south london community appear dumb.
To be fair, Rapman tried. BUT it is a below average film. -
richardchatten5 February 2022Tabloid fodder a couple of years ago when screenings where supposed to be causing disturbances, it's actually a bleak and thoughtful piece of work demonstrating that the BNP are actually pretty redundant when black gangs are more than equal to the task of laying into one another.
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iamkeysersoze-1322822 November 2019Blue Story is actually a surprisingly good film, if you can get pass the annoying rap music which is used a fair bit. It does provide an interesting and hard hitting message into London crime and the issues happening there.
The acting actually feels real and authentic and although there are no likeable chacraters especially by the end. It shows what they have to fight for in a authentic way. It does have some shocking moments which actually really worked and doesn't really feel over exaggerated to prove a point. It's not perfect. It doesn't quite reach the level of other films due to its unevenly put together at times as well as the somewhat amauteurish directing but other than that it's a really solid film. Overall it is pretty good. It's surprisingly well written and acted for the kinda of films it is cause I had no expectations cause I was expecting a film like Brotherhood. -
danieltemp1225 November 2021Not a bad watch, but acts as a sad reminder of the London gang culture that exists today. Also thought it could've done without the narrative rap scenes. If you don't like violent films this one's not for you.
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geotheoharidis11 January 2022Had fun watching this movie .. but to be honest the singing made it kind of cringey. It had the potential to be as good as top boy if the story was better and music only played in the background . Still, if u enjoyed Top Boy or Adulthood etc i suggest u watch this movie.
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As others have mentioned, what irked me about this film is the inconsistency of the characters. While the two protagonists appear to have a good head on their shoulders, they suddenly become insufferably stupid and get caught in revenge games. I suppose for the film to work something like that had to happen to move the plot forward and create some friction. It's just that the stark contrast in their behavior is head-scratching, especially after both of them had up to that point avoided getting caught up in gang activities. The death of Leah is more of a reason to try and seek revenge, rather than what happened to Marco, which Timmy had nothing to do with.
The "teenage love" arc works well and it is pretty realistic in general. Leah plays her role very well and the scene of her death is impactful. That is before Rapman (whom I had never heard of before tbh) starts rapping about what I just saw happen with my own two eyes, which lessens the impact of the previous scene.
In general, I think that's my biggest gripe with the film. I understand that Rapman is writer and director, but his rapping reminded me of parodies like Lonely Island. I had trouble keeping a straight face whenever he rapped about something obvious, even if the film itself is grim and the plot doesn't shy away from portraying the tragedy of the character's circumstances/decisions to its full extent. -
muamba_eats_toast22 November 2019Everything about this felt B movie and the audience I was sat in only made it more cringe rolling round laughing at any sex scenes or anyone doing anything nice shouting abuse at the screen to any acts of good. The only character in the film to turn things round ridiculed verbally by the screening was uncomfortable at best. Whatever the film was trying to achieve if it was meant to cause any good it's certainly failed and from a drama spectacle it was cringey at best looking for cheap laughs and not showing anywhere close to what it's really like out there.
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limbikanidambuleni29 November 2019So we get it you don't like a movie coz it made the headlines....but did you even watch the movie.
Hear me; for those who haven't heard/don't know a bunch of kids in a city of Birmingham in the UK brought some knives and had a huge gang fight and one of the Major Cinema chain knee jerked reaction was to pull the movie nationwide.
Now came the reactions, TV, radio, print media everyone was talking about it and mostly white middle class people who had no understanding what black (London primarily) urban kids have to go through in their lives. Instead of understanding the core of the story and what it was addressing they point out " how loud the movies goers were" or "how London black kids's music this and that".
The reality is knife crime is high in the UK, Gun crime in America NOT JUST black people kill each-other ALL RACES DO! Just coz you don't get what challenges a certain ethic group goes through don't give you the right to be critical and prejudicial or dare I say it ...., which sadly it's undertone has muddled the message the makers of this movie were trying to get across.
So watch THEN JUDGE OR DON'T either way.....
It's sad 2019 and it's like when Boyz in the hood came out last century....SAD!! -
ryko2527 September 2022This was an enjoyable film that avoided some plot cliches (i.e. Did NOT see some things coming) but was probably still a bit one dimensional in what life on a south London estate is like. There were, however, really solid performances from the main actors and the dialogue seems (to me, a 52yr old white man) authentic and natural. Without my personal experience of kids from this generation I can imagine it would have been difficult to follow some of what was going on - i.e. Without knowing what peng, bare, allow it, wagwan etc all mean, much of the dialogue would have been impenetrable. I expect a non-British audience would benefit from subtitles and a translation.
The standout original feature of this film is the sporadic appearance throughout of Rapman who raps a kind of commentary of the scenes you've just watched. Although an interesting device, it often detracts by being a dumbed down explanation of the drama's nuances. For example, when we hear a gunshot off camera, we the audience are able to surmise what has just happened. But then Rapman appears and, in his daft little rhyming couplet summary, spells out what just happened as if for the really slow kids watching. It reminds me of the translators for foreign films in Poland during the Cold War period. Rather than translate what the different actors were saying, a single translator would just summarise in their own words the gist of what the conversation had been "She then said she didn't like him" etc. Rapman's interjections are almost as damaging to the flow of the drama and to the the relationship between the film and the audience. -
Leofwine_draca17 November 2021A dullish reworking of the KIDULTHOOD films, which must seem ancient to the kids of today. This looks and feels much the same as those but far more predictable and just lesser, somehow. The dialogue is dull, the performances are decent, but the whole thing just feels hackneyed and too familiar, with a seen-it-all-before vibe.
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rotache26 November 2019Having just finished the movie, I came straight to see what sort of reviews it has got. To my surprise I saw a number of low and nasty comments about the movie itself. This has prompted me to write this review.
Blue story is an amazing movie. It is deeply inspirational and extremely relevant to the society that we live in today. It depicts the realities of living in the middle of a gang dispute clearly. The peer pressure, the false sense of loyalty and a sense of loss permeate through every scene. It was extremely funny at times and very relatable to me. I loved the dialogue between the characters and the emotions brought out throughout the movie. The transition from friendship to enemies in one short moment was truly devastating.
This movie is my favourite for 2019 and I believe it should be played for every young person, especially those in these areas. -
sethwilliamramos-806701 September 2020Don't listen to any of the other reviews here. This is an amazing Film.
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djdrew3313 April 2020I understand that it was Rapman's first movie attempt BUT- he should take notes from Asher D and Noel Clarke on this genre... was hoping for a 'Kidulthood' feel, but the cuts to Rapman rapping in between the story and the massive plot holes made it disappointing. The ending was SUPER abrupt and a bit depressing. Underwhelmed. Try again fam.
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chopper1nonly2 December 2019I come from the same background portrayed in this movie. And as accurate it is it's also fairly inaccurate. Shootings in broad day in England with police coming right after everything is over and done with? The pacing of this movie leaves much to be desired, it feels like the movie could have done with an extra half hour or so more to build up characters and plot lines. The movie prides itself on answering the question "I'm gonna show you what these young boys are fighting for" but It's never truly answered. We know as much as before we came into the cinema to watch this film. Although its set in modern times, the gangs shown in the movie are inactive now and have been replaced. Which I found to be quite strange but I let it slide. Blue Story has great acting from the stars though. Micheal Ward in particular shocks me with how well he embodies the role he has taken. The movie overall is enjoyable for the target audience it aims to entertain, but maybe less so for those who are less familiar. Rapman's first movie was by no means bad but a decent watch. I never felt as if I was forcing myself to enjoy this movie but for how well it was conceived it could equally have been better
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emryse19 February 2022I went into this movie with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised if not blown away. It was well shot and acted with a cohesive story and an interesting plot. It did feel somewhat by the books and never felt wholly original but for what it was I thought it was decent. Micheal Ward and Stephen Odubola were both good as the central duo and I thought Richie Campbell really stood out as one of the best performances playing Ward's brother, I didn't feel like Karla-Simone Spence was given enough character development but she did a good job with what was given to her. The films big creative move was having the director, Rapman, appear sporadically to rap about the events we have just seen. It's an interesting idea which I don't think was used to it's full potential, mainly because the rapping itself is nothing special, I can't proclaim to be an expert of the genre but I was not impressed, as well as that he's telling us what we've just seen, never adding another layer just repeating things. Still, I liked the anti-gang message and the way the threat posed by gang violence escalated as the film progressed. It wasn't a great film but it had some interesting themes and got it's message across cohesively. Dialogue may be slightly incomprehensible to someone who isn't well versed in British street talk but it's overall a good film that people should watch. 7/10.