As has been documented before,Guy Ritchie's successful gangster epics LOCK,STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS and SNATCH (which themselves were by no stretch of the imagination perfect) bred an increasingly irritating sub-genre duplicated even more resistibly by other British-based directors.One of LOCK STOCK's main actors,Nick Moran,stars and co-wrote THE BABY JUICE EXPRESS with director Michael Hurst,presumably hoping for a similar triumph in the style of Ritchie's previous hybrids.Alas,the film fails rather dismally,floundering in it's low budget limitations (the settings are drearily claustrophobic,with uninteresting sporadic location work),silly plot,and witless script.
The film has a feeling of 'straight to DVD bargain bin' from almost the instant it starts,with flat,uninspired and artless TV-style direction from Hurst (who has since worked in the US on low-grade horror movies in virtually identical fashion),with only the expletive-leaden script to distinguish it from any run of the mill small screen drama.The frequent profanity does not help,with a cast of mostly TV established actors (Samantha Janus,Ruth Jones,Phil Davies among them) reverting to predictable mugging to try and get some mileage out of the decidedly mediocre script.Only Lisa Faulkner manages some flashes of quality in her role;an actress who has usually been better than the mostly routine parts she has taken,her description of criminal life in prison cells may be the best moments in a film that has very few elsewhere.
Moran should count himself lucky that Ritchie didn't sue for plagiarism as there are some blatant borrowings from LOCK STOCK:real life hardmen and sportsmen playing variations on themselves (Dave Courtney and Joe Bugner following on from Lenny McClean and Vinny Jones for example),a deliberately convoluted plot as before (some nonsense about intercepting an incarcerated gangster's sperm before it is received by his wife),and an overtly jokey approach.True,the film dosen't take itself seriously (there are no real shootouts abound,maybe because of budget constraints),but it simply isn't funny enough,with the attempts at irony (references to 'mockneys',Southend standing in for Bognor Regis) not coming off,the cameos (Julian Clary,Cleo Rocos,John Thomson,and bizarrely,several Arsenal footballers) forgettable,and the musical score repetitive and annoying.
It is possible to do low-budgeters with unknown casts,interesting plots or scripts,and stylish direction,but THE BABY JUICE EXPRESS is mostly overburdened with it's fairly conspicuous cast,derivative plot,crude script and prosaic direction.It is not particularly surprising that it sank without trace as far as cinema distribution was concerned,and ended up in eternal DVD limbo.
RATING:3 out of 10.
The film has a feeling of 'straight to DVD bargain bin' from almost the instant it starts,with flat,uninspired and artless TV-style direction from Hurst (who has since worked in the US on low-grade horror movies in virtually identical fashion),with only the expletive-leaden script to distinguish it from any run of the mill small screen drama.The frequent profanity does not help,with a cast of mostly TV established actors (Samantha Janus,Ruth Jones,Phil Davies among them) reverting to predictable mugging to try and get some mileage out of the decidedly mediocre script.Only Lisa Faulkner manages some flashes of quality in her role;an actress who has usually been better than the mostly routine parts she has taken,her description of criminal life in prison cells may be the best moments in a film that has very few elsewhere.
Moran should count himself lucky that Ritchie didn't sue for plagiarism as there are some blatant borrowings from LOCK STOCK:real life hardmen and sportsmen playing variations on themselves (Dave Courtney and Joe Bugner following on from Lenny McClean and Vinny Jones for example),a deliberately convoluted plot as before (some nonsense about intercepting an incarcerated gangster's sperm before it is received by his wife),and an overtly jokey approach.True,the film dosen't take itself seriously (there are no real shootouts abound,maybe because of budget constraints),but it simply isn't funny enough,with the attempts at irony (references to 'mockneys',Southend standing in for Bognor Regis) not coming off,the cameos (Julian Clary,Cleo Rocos,John Thomson,and bizarrely,several Arsenal footballers) forgettable,and the musical score repetitive and annoying.
It is possible to do low-budgeters with unknown casts,interesting plots or scripts,and stylish direction,but THE BABY JUICE EXPRESS is mostly overburdened with it's fairly conspicuous cast,derivative plot,crude script and prosaic direction.It is not particularly surprising that it sank without trace as far as cinema distribution was concerned,and ended up in eternal DVD limbo.
RATING:3 out of 10.