Spivs (2004)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Good concept, poorly executed.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This film breaks Rule One: the audience MUST care about the characters. Nobody introduces us to the puppets, we don't know who they are, what makes them tick, where they're coming from, where they want to go, NOTHING. The director simply throws them into action and expects us to worry about what happens next and to be bothered enough to listen to their very badly spoken lines. (Each line in a picture like this costs on average about UKP2,000, so every time one of these second-raters tosses off a line we can't quite catch they are burning 20 big ones for the producer. Nice going, fellas!) The producer of this half-baked turkey should be talking to one of the decent script development shops in London next time. They'll run him through the ABC of movies and how to make them work. Then, at least he won't make another stinker to add to the incredibly long list of indescribable stinkers the UK so-called "movie industry" has turned out over the last few years. Don't waste five minutes of your life viewing this badly conceived, poorly executed effort at entertainment. Read a book instead.

What a flop. this film had promises of a "Snatch" lookalike. what a misleading cast too! a film with Paul Kaye and Jack Dee should be COMEDIC, not a load of fake drama. i thought the violence was supposed to be funny until it hit me, this movie is supposed to be serious. i found this film pretentious, and it was obvious that it had no heart whatsoever. further more, i was asking myself why anyone would cast a lead actor (Ken Stott) that annoys you so much you wanna rip your hair out. his voice alone is enough to infuriate the most patient of people, not to mention his "array" of witty remarks. i found that i really TRIED to like this film, even though i just couldn't. i think nick moran and dom monaghan are great actors, however, this film was a bad career move for them both. a POOR effort...really disappointed...

Spivs has a believable, clever but not over complicated plot. As the film starts with the stereotypical spiv characters we seem in store for a light hearted conmen comedy, an attempt at 'The Sting' maybe. But the film becomes gradually darker and nothing you thought you could predict occurs. The desperation and anguish that overcomes the main character is brilliantly portrayed by Ken Stott, as we are transferred from the feel of 'Shooting Fish' to 'Mona Lisa'. All performances are good with Stott stealing the show but the mafia boss wasn't menacing enough and seemed slightly out of place, while his main henchman was very frightening. The direction was generally OK with some genuinely gripping scenes but some overused flashy camera-work did lose the film some momentum in places. Overall, I enjoyed the film.

I had to search the internet to find a cinema where it was showing(it has not been widely promoted)but I was glad that I did find it.the film brought out a wide range of emotions in me it was in places tender,dramatic,exciting and midway through the film there is a shock I certainly didn't see coming.The acting was top class. Dominic Monaghan was totally believable as a cockney dope head and even brought a little comic relief to a film dealing with some very serious issues:ken stott gave a great performance too,the parts of the two children caught up in the drama are convincingly played and I found nothing at all to complain about in Spivs:it is well worth watching and I look forward to seeing it again