Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

rogerdarlington Most movies are escapist, depicting a world and a lifestyle that are unknown to the viewer. We rarely see the working class - except as criminals - and there is virtually never a reference to trade unions. But British director Ken Loach makes utterly different films, as is well-evidenced here. Set in Yorkshire in the mid 1990s, this work looks at the impact of rail privatisation on a group of maintenance staff or 'navvies', forced to confront a new management style where in theory the customer comes first but in practice cost is the prime factor. Using an unknown cast, naturalistic dialogue and minimal plot, Loach presents us with something close to a documentary and we just know that it is not going to end well.

penseur Although it contains some funny moments, this film is no comedy; rather it is a biting satire of the mess that resulted when the Conservative Government in the UK decided to split up and privatise British Rail in 1995 (one wonders why they didn't go all the way and do the same to the highways) as seen through the eyes of track workers. Perhaps the most ludicrous moment is when their supervisor in their newly created regional private company tells the workers to take equipment out to dump bins and smash it up because "it isn't up to scratch, we've got to have high standards now." "But it's perfectly good, can't we sell it?" they protest. "What, sell it to the competition?" is the response. Later they are told that management's streamlining (making staff redundant) has been too successful: they are now too small to be viable and the depot has to close, the rest of the workers have to go. Aside from the almost documentary of the plight of Britain's rail network, there are personal interactions between the working class characters in their daily lives that viewers can empathise with. In all it's well cast, well scripted and well directed.

ch-de-hon Generally I adorn Ken Loach's films, but here it is a boring story. With an English humor touch, the author tells us the story of the privatization of British rail. It's long, very long and so British. It's hard to be concerned by annoying script.

skyform A good subject, the destruction of a public service seen from the base up and something that affects all of us. BUT many of Loach's film are far lighter on their feet than this; I wanted to see a movie, not a clunky political diatribe. Worst of all this is sentimental (workers good/bosses bad, plus that sickly ice-stadium "skating with the kids" sequence, let's patronise the down-trodden women and more). And is the story (no spoiler here) really believable at the end?? We are being shown what the system brings honest men to, but they are highly practical, realistic men; would they really come up with such a cock-a-mamie lie?? Loach has made great work in the past but this sadly is not one of his best. Try Riff-Raff (1990), Raining Stones (1993), Land and Freedom (1995) (all great), and early TV work - if you can get hold of it - like Days of Hope (1975) and The Big Flame (1969). Having said that, no-one else is making these kind of relevant films in today's climate in the UK, so watch Navigators but please realise there is better work from Loach waiting for you elsewhere.