Stephen Abell
This is a hard-hitting film based on the story of Eric Love, portrayed brilliantly by the talented Jack O'Connell, who is "Starred Up" - transferred from a young offenders institute to an adult prison, due to his violent behaviour. Eric finds he has been moved to the same prison in which his father is incarcerated. Their relationship is a troubled and loveless one, based on hate, mistrust and misunderstanding. You think this would make for some interesting situations, though the writer, Jonathan Asser, missed the opportunity to add some depth into the characters and story. So what you have is a bleak and violent movie without any reason or story - it starts and ambles on through to the end - this had the possibility to be as good as Scum. After watching it I had to ask myself what I had taken from this film? The answer was, unfortunately, nothing.The acting, other than Jack O'Connell was average or below. The direction was mediocre at best and brought nothing to the telling of the story.Only if you're a fan of Jack O'Connell then maybe watching this film once would be of interest to you, though I cannot see who this film would interest.
mrodent33
Hahaha... recorded this last night and watched it for free today.This is obviously intended to be a Scum for the 2010s, with the emphasis, however, very much on the pyrotechnics ... I was laughing for most of it, thinking: "how many seconds are we going to have to wait for the next bit of 'Moindless Mayhem' (as they might say in Sarf London)?" Funnily enough the stuff at the beginning identified the funders for this film as being Scottish and Northern Irish film funding bodies... and yet it was entirely Southern English based, with nary a non-London accent to be heard. If I were a taxpayer in Scotland or "Norn Iron" I might feel a bit miffed about that.Central to the film is the relationship between the young whippersnapper and his Old Man, and the cliché for each is that "E can look after 'imself", if you get my drift. Chip off the old block, innit? Please don't pay money to watch this film if you are looking for sociological insight. But I've seen worse entertainment films.
Leofwine_draca
STARRED UP is another modern-day prison flick, this time a British one. Before everybody starts groaning and thinking "what, again?!", let me reassure you that this one's not sugar-coated at all. There's no sentiment here, just brutality throughout, and yet it becomes an immersive and thought-provoking experience. Even with all the violence and bad language and animalistic behaviour, there is still light at the end of the tunnel.The film features Jack O'Connell ('71) in a star-making performance as a disturbed young man who has just been transferred (aka starred up) to men's prison from juvenile. To complicate things further, his own father is an inmate, and the two have a volatile relationship. I've seen the Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn before in a few Hollywood flicks and didn't think much of him, but he's a perfect fit for the part here.A lot of the usual prison clichés are played out here, but they happen in a matter-of-fact and dare I say it grimly realistic way. The violence is brutal but not overdone, and it does serve a purpose rather than being gratuitous. And the realism is top-notch, reminding me of the BRONSON film at times. Despite all this writer Jonathan Asser manages to tell a believable storyline with an identifiable beginning, middle, and end. It's a good little film, although not for all tastes given the subject matter.
Jason Ivey
I came to this movie looking for other work the actor in Homeland, Rupert Friend, had done. The movie was violent and language was a very hardcore, (haven't heard the use of the C word that frequent in as far back as I can remember, and it wasn't used sparingly! It wasn't that unexpected based on the trailer though. It was well done, the end of the movie was touching, and with that I feel it achieved what it set out to do, but for me a lot of the sub plots, including Rupert Friends plot, went without conclusion, or explanation and ultimately felt like filler more so then pivotal to the main story line. I am certainly glad that I had the subtitles turned on when I watched the movie, for I am not up on all the British slang that goes on, and wouldn't have understood a small section of the dialogue.Good gritty British prison drama overall.
AD
