Going Off Big Time
*1/2
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre)
Released in the UK by Entertainment on September 22, 2000; certificate 18;
87 minutes; country of origin UK; aspect ratio 2.35:1
Directed by Jim Doyle; produced by Ian
Brady.
Written by Neil Fitzmaurice.
Photographed by Damian Bromley; edited by Julian
Day.
CAST.....
Neil Fitzmaurice..... Mark Clayton
Dominic Carter..... Ozzi Shepherd
Sarah Alexander..... Stacey Bannerman
Nick Lamont..... Paul
Gabbi Barr..... Natasha
Nick Moss..... Charlie
Vinnie Adams..... John
There's a scene in "Going Off Big
Time" in which a criminal rushes to his lawyer's house for advice
after committing a crime. She knows what he's come for, tells him to calm
down, then gets him seated and prepares to ask for his story. To help the
crook relax, the lawyer suggests some music. "What would you like?" she asks,
pulling two CDs from a drawer. "The Police... or Fun Loving
Criminals?"
Ho, ho, ho. Give me a break. Has she been keeping
those CDs there on the off chance that she'll get to crack that joke? The
thing about "Going Off Big Time" is that it doesn't pay any attention to
details. The filmmakers don't seem to comprehend the intimacy of cinema,
or how perceptive audiences are. I loved a moment late on in the film in
which a woman complains "It's impossible to get served in here!", even though
we can see she's in a half-empty bar.
The majority of the film takes place in flashback,
narrated by a Liverpudlian gangster named Mark Clayton (Neil Fitzmaurice)
who for no apparent reason chooses to tell his lawyer the entire story of
how he got into a life of crime. There isn't really much to his tale -- as
a young man he found himself incarcerated on a trumped-up assault charge,
in prison he met other criminals, on the outside he continued to hang around
with them, and eventually he rose through their ranks. The entire narrative
just wastes a lot of time bringing us up to speed on Mark's life through
mundane filler details. Its closing seconds -- gasp! -- see Mark's sins catch
up with him. Essentially the movie is an hour and a half of a guy not getting
shot, before he gets shot.
It's not passionate enough to be called dreadful,
but not a frame of it has any significance. Occasionally the dialogue drifts
into lame farce, generally it wants to be taken seriously, and it's all banal
and functional. Nothing exciting is done with the camera -- it sits and records
dull coverage under drab light, seeing but not capturing the sights of Liverpool,
while the actors recite lines in tired tones, as in a soap opera. The screenplay
has the decency not to be sarcastic; on the other hand, it doesn't have the
intelligence to be sincere. "Going Off Big Time" is pure television -- broad,
benign, forgettable. I should have stayed home and watched
"Brookside".
COPYRIGHT©
2000 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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