BASELINE:DVD REVIEW

DVD Review

Release Date: July 12th (UK)

Over 12 years ago a certain Guy Ritchie made the British gangster flick popular again with his movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels then he did it again a few years later with Snatch. The two movies inspired fashion styels, gritty urban music but mostly as a catalyst for a onslaught of mostly (generic) similar movies (only 44 Inch Chest has had an more unique look on the genre recently), kicking off movie careers for actors such as Danny Dyer, Tamer Hasan even ex-boxer Gary Stretch (who is in this).

Baseline is a debut feature movie from Dominic O’Loughlin which trys its very best not to follow suit to it’s predors  but sadly it does fall into it.To describe the storyline it would be like having a ride on the big dipper at Blackpool pleasure beach it goes up and down, up and down this is how much this movie tried not to be generic and at times it didnt  then it fell back into the typical norm.

The movie focuses on Danny a bouncer at the Baseline Club in the heart of East London Grime club scene, it follows his rise from the clubs bouncer upto the ranks of the actual manager but he got that by ‘accident’. After clo the club  he gets sucked into the darkside of the club after rescuing club owner/local gangster boss Terry (Jamie Foreman) from a assassination attempt and for his reward he becomes the clubs ‘boss’. For getting that position he has one condition he must abide with, thats to have a blindeye to the dodgy dealings that happen on the club floor (drug dealing) and its at this point things just seem to go downhill. Now with Girlfriend (Zoe Tapper) and his best friend out of jail for a botched atempt to take out a local gangboss (Gary Stretch) Danny’s loyality, friendship and chances to open his own club are shattered.

If Baseline line was made for television I would have been more convincing though it was a bold unsucessfull  cinematic (though limited) attempt with a good bunch of tv actors. This was Freddie Connor (Danny) debut lead role and he does come across as an likeable character that you want love but he seemed lost at times and he didnt have the charamastic edge a lead role requires. As for the scripting point I did like the fact Danny wasnt a gangster himself but a average guy trying to make a honest living but a living in a dishonest environment. He tries too hard not to create a generic gangster story which gets plagued down with anoying time lapses one after the other with no linkage between them apart from jumping on a few months or even years. The other downfall of the movie was the ending  which just fell apart loosing the structure leaving you the feeling at the end “Is That It?”.

Baseline is a gritty drama at times that wonders too much into the sterotypical London gangster flick really not adding anything to an already overcrowed genre, very disted as well as umemorable. However if you love the gangster movies and dont really care who is int or of there British or American made you’ll probably enjoy this but if I really did want to like this as I 100% new british directors Like O’loughlin as they venture into movieland, it was an noble efffort but a effort which may have been alot better if the director was under the wings of an established sucessfull tv or movie director. Some new directors can hit it off right away other just need a little assistance from an experienced eye and if O’Loughlin gets that experience under his belt he will be an director to watch out for in the years to come.

Rating 2.5/5