HOW DO YOU SPEAK TO YOUR ELDERS? (Adulthood (DVD))

Member Name: nathaninnit

Product:	Adulthood (DVD)
Date:	08/07/08 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: UK cinema at its best

Disadvantages: Not an improvement

INTRO
KiDULTHOOD came as a message to parents of what their children could be doing upon it's release in 2006, and is still just as critically acclaimed as it was back then. Whilst perhaps some adults would be shocked by the way they threw together a ridiculous amount of events into one day, the movie gained cult status within the kidulthood generation - even though everyone knows those events should have spanned over the event of say.. a week.

AdULTHOOD on the otherhand appeared to me as creating more a message to the youngsters in an age where gun and knife crime are more rife than ever before. Whilst the original movie appeared to glamorise drug taking, violence and general disrespect -- the message of the sequel appeared to be more grown up. The opening to the movie relives the events of that tragically earnt day off school due to the suicide of a pupil, and the 16 year-olds of that school taking this as an excuse for a party that would end just as tragic with the death of Trife (Trevooor).
I was quite shocked that the showing I went to last night was literally packed out, and it was amusing to see a group of yoots (youths) walk in with their caps and Ecko tracksuits only to realise that they were going to have to sit right at the very front. Whilst there were a couple of adults in the screening, (including the security), I think it was the most filled I'd seen a cinema with 15-21 year olds in my life. I was almost remembering the faces from when our generation sold out the first showing of 'Toy Story'. With this amount of teenagers in one showing you would have expected the trouble to kickoff, but shockingly no one decided to recreate anything they saw in the movie, and everyone fell into silence once the trailers were over.

AFTER KiDULTHOOD COMES...
Six years on from where we left Trife dying after being hit with a baseball bat by movie bad-guy and all-round tough guy, Sam (Noel Clarke), we now see him being freed from prison for manslaughter. Only Sam is now a changed man. The movie follows him as he returns to many of the old sets that we saw in the first movie, including his home council flat where he was famously hit over the head with a keyboard and jacked for his weed. Only problem is, his locks have now been changed and his mother wants nothing to do with him. After kicking the door in Sam finds that his younger brother has now taken over his room and followed in his footsteps, after discovery a gun (gat) beside his bed. Adulthood certainly has taken the step forward when it comes to weapons, as gone are the baseball bats and guns/knives are shown more clearly than ever before.

After visiting Trife's grave we begin to realise that Sam will be showing more emotion than he ever showed during the first movie, including when he was staring death in the face as he was blamed for the suicide that struck off the chain of events during Kidulthood. It's not long until the action kicks off though and Sam is attacked by a mysterious individual claiming that people are coming for him and his family in revenge for Trife's death. The plot of the movie then follows Sam revisiting all the characters he was involved with in the first film in order to discover who is after him and how he can finally make things right.
Clarke, who also wrote the movie, then makes the directive decision to use more cinematography than before and show the other characters in the moving getting on with their lives through sliding boxes with the movies stella soundtrack playing in the background. Whilst on its own the soundtrack may not appear that great, especially to those that are not into the UK music scene, but mixed in with the movie the music becomes one of the favourite parts. The soundtrack includes the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder and Sincere to name just three.

Having been the publics favourite for his comedy value in the first movie, Jay (Adam Deacon) returns as the key character in the feud against Sam. Considering in reality Adam is about 25 years-old, he has no problems in playing the grown up version of his former self just two years later in reality. This includes looking taller and growing facial hair. Jay has clearly been the one worst hit by the death of Trife and now has a life of drug dealing for a living. This involves him visiting some of the seedy haunts that you would associate with Trife visiting - and running away from - in Kidulthood, as his Uncle Curtis tried to change him into a crook.
WRONG'UNS

As Sam and Jay go about their daily routine you just know they are heading for their big collision, and to show the viewers what has changed Sam there are even flashbacks to his time in prison where there is a shock face that you maybe surprised to see. I could not go any further without mentioning that Moony (Femi Oyeniran) of course returns, as an integral part of the original trio. Now a university student studying law, his interactions with Jay make for some of the funniest parts of the movie. To compare Adulthood's humour against Kidulthood, I would have to say that the predecessor is not as funny and loses humour in face of its serious message.
There were also too many new characters for my liking, in that a new batch of 16 year-olds now appear to terrorise the streets of LDN just as Trife, Jay and Moony originally did. Dabs (Ben Drew/Plan B) believes he fronts the group, and when Jay offers him 6G's (£6,000) to kill Sam for him he has to try and convince the rest of his group to hold his hand. It won't take long for the viewers to see through this, and see who really fronts this group.

CONCLUSION
Without ruining too much of the plot I will leave you wondering if the likes of Claire, Becky, Alisa and her daughter feature in the movie. On the strong possibility that you have seen the trailers and clips from the movie on YouTube, you will probably know the answer to most of that. Unfortunately, due to the key parts of the movie being few and far between, what you see in the trailer are likely to be the highlights of the movie. Whilst upon leaving the screening I felt that there had been many steps taken back from KiDULTHOOD in order to make it more politically correct, having revisited the movie for this review I do feel more positive about AdULTHOOD from an entertainment perspective.

During the first movie you knew what the movie was working towards in terms of them repeatedly talking about the party, but with AdULTHOOD you can't quite sure be what the final scene will be and if there will be any twist. New character Lexi (Scarlett Alice Johnson) becomes a huge piece of the puzzle as a depressed adult who now feels more lonely than she ever did as a child, although I just cannot find myself to relate to her and her over-the-top backstory. I would certainly hope she will not appear in any possible trilogy, FaTHERHOOD?
What does come as shock is how it feels that with a larger budget to do what he wants with the movie, Noel Clarke has turned his back on the people that loved the original so much. It feels as though Sam has became the good guy and Jay the bad guy, as Sam now aims to go on the straight and narrow whilst Jay is disturbed and driven by anger. I do not feel that Sam works appropriately as a main character, and a guest appearance by Danny Dyer as well as a reappearance of the man who was scared by Trife's attack do not paper over the cracks of the movie. I went into the movie expecting to love every single second, and whilst I do look forward to watching it again, first impressions are not great here.

Summary: Blaaaaaaaaaahhd