The Business [DVD]

Great film

👍

As somebody who actually worked out in Spain in the late 80's, I can say without a doubt that this film gets it spot on. Almost.I suppose this film resonates with me because it was the first time I'd ever been either abroad or even on a plane. I landed at the airport and waited around for two hours to be collected by a German nutter called Ralf, who skinned up a joint immediately we got in the car and offered me a beer from the crate he had under the seat!The characters that I came across were shallow, crude and basic; almost caricatures. The "chaps" that were on the run were invariably working class hard men who for various reasons, had to, "have it on their toes" away from Britain. They weren't exactly MENSA members. Remember also that this was a time when no extradition treaty existed between the UK and Spain, there was no EU and immigration control was virtually non-existent. There was also a huge amount of corruption, as local officials realised that they had these sort of people over a barrel and could use them to get away with all sorts of things. (The Marbella Town Hall scandal springs to mind. This goes right back to the 80's and has only come to light within the last year or two. I also have a friend who still lives out there, in a block built in 1988 and named after the bloke that financed it - with great big bundles of cash!)To say that Sammy is not scary is just stupid; one of the scariest people I met out there was just like Sammy, even down to the curly perm but half his size! A complete psycho who enjoyed winding people up until they bit and then using this as an excuse to batter them with whatever implement came to hand. I saw more than a couple of big rugby playing, tough guy holidaymakers who didn't take him seriously, get beaten to a pulp. Right in front of everybody. There were never any witnesses though, strangely...Picking up the points made about Georgina Chapman's character. Yes she was totally without charm or humour but getting hooked up with a psycho like Sammy could certainly make you that way! It's plainly obvious that she only cares about his money anyway, something else that I observed with many such mismatched couples out there. Remember back then also, the concept of the size zero supermodel wasn't around either!The music in all the bars, clubs etc was a complete mish mash of stuff from all years of the 80's. It's certainly not supposed to be in year sequence in the film. This is the attitude that eventually gave rise to the Balearic scene, of just playing whatever you want to suit the mood and not caring about whether it was "cool" or not.However, the above notwithstanding, there are a few things, that just don't ring true. For example, the main one for me, is they would never have dealt with the Dutch firm outside their own club. This would have attracted far too much attention and would have been taken care of far away from any prying eyes.The Mayor would, in all probability, have had Sonny "taken care of" for doing what he did. The scene where they are trying out the bullet-proof vests in the quarry doesn't quite ring true either. A shotgun fired at the range shown would almost certainly have had a few pellets hitting Sammy, not just on his vest! Still hilarious though!To compare this film to Goodfellas or The Godfather is patently ridiculous. Both films are classics of the American Mafia genre; however this is not something that this film aspires to in any way. (Especially with the miniscule budget Nick Love had.) This is a "nice little" film. As Danny Dyer's Frankie says in his voice over, "As my life got bigger, my world got smaller." This perfectly represents the coke induced paranoia that was starting to gain a foothold out there before I returned to the UK and very accurately represents the claustrophobia that happens when engaging in a life of, "crime, women and drugs," in a foreign country where you and most of your cohorts can barely even order a beer in the native tongue. You all stick together like glue and are suspicious of any outsiders.Please just take this film for what it is: A funny, black comedy / homage to the 80's, based on a unique period in British crime history that requires, as with so many films, the willing suspension of disbelief.And it's so obvious that the captions at the end are a wind up! I mean come on, "Frankie went to Hollywood!" "Sammy went to hell" "Carly went back to her parents in Penge" etc (Check out the Football Factory to get the Penge reference)It's a cracking little film if you don't take it and yourselves so seriously!

Love Danny classic British film

Decent movie with a good storyline. Dyer is surprisingly good in this along with solid performances from Hassan and Bell.

I thought this was a pretty good movie considering Danny Dyers acting range is about as broad as a piece of string and he can only ever play Danny Dyer. The other actors were brilliant! Tamer Hussein was fantastic as The Playboy Charlie and Geoff Bell was brilliant as Sammy who is “so hard even his nightmares are scared of him”.The story itself is pretty good. It's the 80s and The Kid Frankie wants to be somebody and not end up like his old man, so he “slips across the drink” to Spain and ends up getting involved with a load of ex-pat London gangsters. Frankie then gets involved in a life of fast women, drugs and crime which appeals to him and would be fantastic if it wasn’t for Sammy who really hates Danny Dyer (Who Doesn’t?), I mean Frankie.The soundtrack is awesome and takes me right back to my youth. I would honestly give this movie 5 stars if it wasn’t for Danny Dyer being Danny Dyer, but Danny Dyer is Danny Dyer unfortunately, so I can only give it 4 stars. Thanks Danny Dyer.

Having been a big fan of the excellent Football Factory, I was very much looking forward to the next offering from director Nick Love. He has used some of the same actors from FF, namely Danny Dyer and Tamar Hassan, and the attention to detail here is quite outstanding. Love is a huge fan of the 80's and everything from the actors sunglasses to a rubix cube shows his level of perception for this era.The plot is pretty simple. Frankie (Dyer) batters his mum's fella over the cannister with a cricket bat and immediately fleas to Spain to get away from it all and at the same time deliver some "biscuits" to the Playboy Charlie (Hassan). Check out Charlie's first scene! From here, the two of them (with the help of Sammy - who is a complete nutter) become heavily involved in drug smuggling and living the high life.It all goes majorly pete tong for Frankie and Charlie when they start snorting too much of the white stuff and Charlie's bar is shut down by the Mayor who isn't overly keen on the boy's wrong-doings. Watching the boys try to rectify the situation is hilarious and some of the one-liners are great. Loving the cockney rhyming slang (keep the change you toby).This film has a fantastic look about. Sammy's missus is gorgeous, and the soundtrack is also brilliant. I recommend watching the movie with Dyer and Love's commentary, those two together make a great double act if you can put up with the swearing!Overall this is great movie and definately one to watch with the boys, with a couple of pizzas and a crate of beer! Love it!

great film