Life and Lyrics [DVD]

I felt bad that nobody else had reviewed this film. To cut a long story short, it's ok. I don't think the 'Romeo and Juliet' theme is as prominent as the synopsis makes out. It's another alright british film that showcases the frustrating reasons that young black men in Britain are willing to fight for without having a proper resolution. However, after seeing this film in the cinema, I was still compelled to buy it. I wouldn't buy it if you were looking for an epic romance, just something to fill in the time when nothing else is on the TV. The acting was ok, the story was ok. The only really highlight was recognising some of the places it was filmed.

This film is about djs/freestyle rappers trying to make it in a tough, competative business. It reminded me of "8 Mile", except not as good. And thats not because this movie didn't have A listers starring in it, it just didn't seem to have much backbone and real feeling. In fact, I nearly didn't bother watching "Bullet Boy" (another Ashley Walters film) because I was so unimpressed with Life and Lyrics. Fortunaley, "Bullet Boy" (which is kind of similar) is a good watch & I'd recommend skipping Life and Lyrics and just watching Bullet Boy instead.

After the engaging Bullet Boy, a film that showed great promise for Ashley Walters, I was expecting a lot from Life & Lyrics.

It didn't particularly deliver in that respect but it provided some entertainment for 90 minutes in what is essentially an 8 Mile for the UK and, like Bullet Boy, it was made by BBC Films, although this particular one was funded by the lottery.

If you're not familiar with 'street' talk, then get the subtitles on pronto otherwise you won't have a clue what's being said half the time as the cast talk fast and with words that you don't come across on a daily basis.

Basically, it's not long before the final of the Mic Masters championship is coming up and the two groups of rap artists who've made it there are, firstly, the Motion Crew, headed by Danny (Ashley Walters), his best friend Fable (Christopher Steward), Preach (Akemnji Ndifornyen), Blitz (Beau Baptist) and Sista Twista (Cat Simmons, who looks about 14 but whose character has already spawned a child. Plus, I'm sure she's the actress who appeared in the Toyota Yaris advert as the girl who crashed her boyfriend's model plane because, two days earlier, he kicked her car door shut)

They're like a schoolground version of the So Solid Crew, the band in which Walters first came to the fore and which was mentioned recently on Big Brother when housemate Brian claimed never to have heard of William Shakespeare and thought that Romeo of Romeo & Juliet referred to the Romeo in the same band.

Their rivals are the Hard Cash Crew, led by the grumpy Cashflow (Alexis Rodney) who, for unexplained reasons, owes a lot of money to Winston Dimby (Karl Collins, who played afro-tastic Danny Glaze in The Bill for 12 years), and whose group includes Money Man (Patrick Regis), Lady Gees (Jade Williams) and Playboy (Luti Fagbenle, who took the role of Ali Taylor in Hollyoaks for a couple of years before leaving in a pine box, probably. That seems to be the way anyone leaves that soap these days).

Yes, there's one short in that number and that's because shy-of-being-a-singer Carmen (Louise Rose, above-right with Ashley Walters) not only wants to give her best performance but also doesn't want her clan to beat the opposition since Danny is her boyfriend, and Cashflow doesn't like Danny - at all, to a point that's unhealthy to say the least when he resorts to pulling a firearm on him.

The essence of the Mic Masters competition is to rap relentlessly in order to 'diss' the opposition. This actually comes across as very entertaining, as well as amusing.

Apart from the competition, it's not exactly clear why Cashflow is so stupidly over-protective about his cousin. Okay, so Danny works in a record shop by day, spins the discs in a club by night and lives in the crappy part of London's "borough" that makes Moss Side look attractive, while Carmen is a rich girl in a big, posh house. I'm assuming there's no incest situation going on here because the film was made by the BBC and not Channel 4(!)

In fact, as soon as Danny learns that Carmen is related to Cashflow, this gives him a scare because the guy's clearly three sandwiches short of a picnic, as is proved in an early scene in a club.

To fill out the movie's running time are a couple of minor storylines about how Skooly's record shop isn't doing the business it did back in its hey-day and how Fable wants to track down his mother who abandoned him as a young child.

In Life & Lyrics, Danny's group are the underdogs for the final - that much is obvious from the first 10 minutes, and there are no surprises as to who wins, since it's certainly not a film that'll make you think, like the excellent Bullet Boy, but it's worth a watch nonetheless.

The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks fantastic throughout with some excellent cinematography with superb use of the 2.35:1 frame, and some great lighting in an early morning scene between Danny and Carmen around halfway through the film.

Similarly impressive is the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack which gives a great workout for your sound system, the subwoofer particularly getting a pounding from the frequent, heavy bass beats.

The extras are few and far between on this disc, comprising only of a Theatrical trailer (1:40), presented in 16:9 and indicating that the film was shot in Super 35 so a good 16:9 print can be struck by opening up the matte top and bottom, so it'll look reasonable when shown on TV as opposed to just cropping the sides, and 8 Deleted Scenes (8 mins), all in letterboxed 2.35:1.

Without giving anything away, several of them are weird in the way they has the dialogue coming out of the speakers reflecting where the characters are positioned on screen, which is rather disconcerting and I haven't seen a film do that since the widescreen video of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers!

Of the deleted scenes featured, there aren't any that I'd rush to put back in the film, although the one involving record shop owner Skooly would have completed his storyline.

As an addition, the BBFC's website mentions a 17-minute Electronic Press Kit that was rated as part of the extras, but this isn't present on the DVD.

Basic subtitles are in English only, there's 12 chapters to the disc, which isn't enough particularly as some run for around 10-13 minutes long, but the menus both feature music from the film, the main one including some animation.