bob the moo The last film from Penny Woolcock I saw was Exodus – a failed attempt to stage the story of Moses in Margate using real people as the majority of the cast. That film only sticks in my mind but the idea was good in terms of the creative process but yet it failed to work when it came to making a film. When I heard about 1 Day, the potential for me to end up saying the same thing seemed high because this is an urban drama thriller which is set in the world of Birmingham gangs, again casting real people without any need for experience acting. Did I mention it was also a musical? Well the action is also punctuated with UK grime scene tracks from the characters. It seemed to me like it may not work but since it was set in Birmingham I was interested to take a look.The film actually works pretty well as a straight thriller because the plot is essentially a race against time where Flash has to find the missing difference in the money he owes his boss or else get killed – all this while balancing the pressure from his family and his three babymothers. I liked this aspect of it because it did have a good pace to it and it did produce a rather exaggerated world of guns and gangs in a Midlands setting. It isn't the cleverest of scripts or the most thrilling of thrillers but I was reasonably interested in the overall flow of the story. The musical numbers don't really break this up too much and mostly they work – not all of them, but mostly they work. It helps I suppose that I personally like the music, but I can imagine that if you don't then they will only jar. The opening "through the streets" number is good but my personal favourites were the two babymothers (Justice and Lady Leshurr) going together – both had strong voices, impressive speeds and the lyrics were great.Others here have commented on the "negative presentation" of urban culture and there was added controversy when the film was removed from Birmingham cinemas in fears it would draw an audience from gangs and would produce trouble (even though the two gangs here are as fictional as the streets they represent). These two things gave me pause because in theory this film is no difference from loads of other crime thrillers – they all show crime, so why was 1 Day somehow giving gang culture a "voice" as opposed to just using it as a plot device? Well, the use of real people as actors suggests a documentarian edge. The musical numbers also prevents it being a full-on thriller. Mostly though, setting it in the very real world of Birmingham gangs perhaps suggest that it is giving the gangs an "outlet". I'm not totally sold on this but the film does have this rather unpleasant edge throughout because it is a little irresponsible in terms of content because it doesn't offer much in the way of condemnation while at the same also giving the characters a "voice".The best example of this is the track in the burger bar: this tracks has the 4 or 5 hoodies berating the (badly-acted and comical) frightened white customers for judging them on their looks and pulling their bags close etc. 3 minutes is given to the characters to make this point even though their actions in the rest of the film suggests that actually this is a perfectly correct assumption to make. It is also a shame that, although I liked the music, so much of it is violent and misogynist in content – which is why I liked the babymothers most perhaps, but it was clever and well used as a track.Overall 1 Day is not as bad as the score on IMDb currently suggests (3.9?). The basic plot is decent and the film has solid drama and pace to it, while I did also like the music and the way it worked within the film was much better than I expected. It does have a sense of the negative though and the use of "real" people and "real" locations suggest that the film is meant to have an element of "reality" to it but, beyond a humorous family meal and a preachy preacher, the vast majority of this reality is violent and negative. It has a limited appeal but if you are looking for an OK urban UK thriller or like your grime culture then this is actually worth a look.

James Dye I will start off by saying that the acting wasn't great, the plot was badly written and to be honest, in parts the film was grim and depressing. Other critics on this site have misunderstood the plot line, they say the film glamorizes the gang culture, well in some aspects it does, all the drug dealers and thugs have expensive cars, they wear expensive jewelry and have nice clean clothes. Money is glamorous and these men seem to have alright lives so i suppose that is attractive to some people. It would be wrong to say that the film glamorizes the gang culture because if you payed attention to the film you would've seen that (SPOILER ALERT!) all the gangsters (except one) died at the end after a gunfight in an underground car park.I wouldn't call the film inspirational but i thought it could've had potential with a bit more work. 8/10

peckham-5 This movie covers the areas that have been missed by other film producers. The idea of using ex-gang members only makes the story more genuine and original. It's really well produced and the storyline is believable and it contradicts stereotypes associated with ex-gang members, as it shows another side to those who want to break free from the Birmingham gang lifestyle. The soundtrack to the movie is also original and authentic. It sets the mood and elevates the scene, with cast members 'spitting rhymes' from the grime scene, a genre, which originated among such gangs.Strongly recommend that you go and watch this film, it's an explosion of urban culture.

Kris Lewis (Real-Horror-Show) Storyline: One young drug dealer tells his best friend 'You owe me a hundred bags of scrilla(?), I want it in two hours or I'll lick your head off, you get me blud?' Technically, a decent film. In every other aspect, garish, non-sensical, badly written, underdeveloped and frankly, embarrassing.A film glamorising what, personally, I feel to be the Achilles heel of Britian, inner city gang culture. Absolutely no message here, no redeeming aspects of any of the thugs depicted (and all are thugs), who are constantly unlikable. I'd like to hear an argument that the filmmaker condemns the behaviour depicted here.I felt that the hip-hop musical numbers scattered about the story actually contributed to the mood of the film, whether this is a good thing, I'm not sure. At one point, as mentioned by another reviewer, the gang perform a rap at a bunch of civilians sitting in a fast food restaurant, the gist of it being 'You clutch your handbags because you assume we'll rob you due to us being black'... Now, I feel I must mention that this gang have pistols in their belts whilst they rap this, not to mention a bag of drug money on one of their backs.One type of person will go to see this at the cinema. The type depicted in this disgraceful film... and those cinemas should expect trouble, especially only rated at 15.I apologise that this isn't an in-depth review, I simply refuse to give it any more time.