(Grow Your Own, Life & Lyrics, TV: Band of Gold, Bodies, The Ghost Squad, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Lovejoy, McCallum, Poldark, Sea of Souls)
Producers:
Esther Douglas & Fiona Nelson
Screenplay:
Ken Williams
Music:
Invisible Society
Cast:
Danny: Ashley Walters
Carmen: Louise Rose
Fable: Christopher Steward
Cashflow: Alexis Rodney
Preach: Akemnji Ndifornyen
Blitz: Beau Baptist
Sista Twista: Cat Simmons
Money Man: Patrick Regis
Lady Gees: Jade Williams
Playboy: Luti Fagbenle
Skool D: Robbie Gee
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.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
After the engaging Bullet Boy, a film that showed great promise for
Ashley Walters, I was expecting a lot from Life & Lyrics.