The Grind (2012)

The film mostly centers around Bobby (Gordon Alexander) who just got out of prison and has habits. He works as a stock boy at a grocery store. His mum (Joan Hodges)is sick and confined to a wheel chair. He owes Dave (Jamie Foreman, the ugly guy on the cover) money that he can't pay back. Bobby has a good friend Vince (Freddie Connor) who manages a trance/techno dance club called "The Grind." Vince works for aforesaid Dave, who cooks the books. Dave plans on opening a casino and can't have anything go awry while the application is in process.The main plot action consists of Dave leaning on people for money. Bobby's life spirals out of control as he tries to get cash to pay Dave back. While the film centers around Bobby, Vince is the closest thing we have to a likeable character in this crime thriller. I thought the production was well directed, written, and acted. It held my interest, but it lacked the dry humor that we have come to expect in British film. Jamie Foreman gives us an excellent performance. At 107 minutes the dance scenes could have been shortened.F-bombs, brief sex, nudity (Zoe Tapper)

Of course this is a lousy picture, as are most of recent crime films from UK, all from the Guy Ritchie's fashion. Lousy, lousy and lousier one than the other. But this one is far better if you consider the story and the characters, especially the ending which is totally unpredictable and in the pure film noir tradition. very brutal and shocking. Yes, I love this film especially for its ending that saves the whole thing. But besides this, the directing is absolutely awful with such lenghts, such as in the night club when you see people dancing in the dark long, long minutes long. I don't know if the director wanted to copy the DEER HUNTER mariage sequence between Meryl Streep and John Cazale - if my memory is good - but this night club sequence is totally useless. But to summarize, this little film noir is very weird in the fact that it is awful, lousy and very good in the same time.

I've never been moved to write a review before, but this film is truly awful.I read in another review that in Q&A with the director this was from true life experience? If this is the case then he must live a very strange life. We have a club that can apparently pass 10k extra through the books when that would probably account for a 300% rise in takings. A club which attracts 50 people and plays 2 tunes all night. An owner that's doing so well and is impressing his "boss" so much that he can't lend more than £500. A man who is prepared to rob his own work at gunpoint without so much as a tea towel round his face. An armed response unit consisting of 1 car and 3 officers and the generic loan shark who is prepared to beat someone to death in broad daylight because they are 7k short of a 10k debt.Please don't get me wrong, I love a London flick and watch many with a misty eyed reminiscence whilst being perfectly happy to ignore a few plot flaws, dodgy acting and even dodgier accents. This just stretched it too far. I can only think The Grind referred to the pace of the film, but I was giving it a go expecting perhaps some detailed character development. What I got was no character development, no believable interaction, terrible acting (the hand cutting scene and the multi storey car park were priceless) and a conclusion that was akin to getting rid of a house spider with a rocket launcher. 3/4's of the film was the life of the tamest occasional clubber rounded off with the fate of someone who had betrayed a serious villain in a way that was about to cost him 10 years or 10 million.Jamie Foreman, Danny John-Jules, why? This must have been a favour owed. If you have a spare hour and a half in your life, go and take a long dump, you'll come out feeling much more satisfied.

terrible plot, shocking acting made worse with bad mockney accents, jamie foreman was good but it looks like all the budget went on him! everything about it was really unbelievable, like a bad drama class loads of bad pauses in between lines, bad delivery of lines. Really annoying direction, showing nightclub scenes for too long, seemed like it was trying to pad out the film with slow motion shots of the dance floor, completely boring i had to fast forward loads of bits, and there was no relationships between the characters, and the dialogue was really unbelievable to the DJ.."ill tell you what mate.. bang out a couple of house tunes yeah??" amateur hour! don't bother watching it, total waste of time.