Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

guyboxerdog Sorry SOL but your review is a little inaccurate. First, you call Keith Allens character homicidal and psychotic. Truly he was just a pretentious little prick with a Napoleonic complex trying to be a tough guy. Also, Chris was not a hoodlum. He worked in a bar and hated drugs.For my end, I love this movie. I know its not amazing but its got some great lines, so class footage of Arsenal v Man U and as usual Keith Allen is out of his depth and hams it to get through.I will agree that there were too many sub plots opened and never explored (Keitels family etc) and the seemingly rushed downfall to Carl Frazer was too easy. However, scenes like the police interviewing Dwayne, and the attempted murder of the old time gangster who proves to be too wily a fox to be taken out like that, combined with great cinematography and likable heroes make this one of my old time faves.

bbrruuccee7162 The whole plot for this movie is flawed. Drugs are being imported in to the UK via America which is clearly ridiculous. One of the pivotal scenes in the film shows total ignorance of the subject matter .In explanation the "hero" buys drugs from a "friend" it's a set up the friend doesn't want any money . the "hero" repeats "take the money" forcing the cash in to his hand. Anyone with any knowledge of the UK police and/or drug culture will know it is irrelevant if money changes hands all they need to know is that drugs were supplied. The director is obviously enthralled with the U.S.A . Which is why he's there making C.S.I. I hate this film .

pagangod There's a couple of stories (possibly apocryphal) about how Cannon's career was launched, one story is that respected film Director Alan Parker, saw a short film he made on a BBC amateur film-making programme and, impressed with what he saw, immediately phoned the BBC so he could get in touch with Cannon - which he apparently did, Parker then supposedly recommended him to a prestigious film school...The other story is that Danny Cannon's father is a top studio executive and that nepotism was the way he started.Either way, Cannon's debut film was an interesting little movie with big aspirations - at the time British films tended to be almost always socio-political, so-called worthy films, usually about the social underclass - remember this was 1993 and just before Richard Curtis invented the Britsh Rom-Com...What the film lacks in terms of story (Cannon was Co-Writer) it makes up for in sheer film-making skill - The Young Americans is a beautiful-looking movie.It's a film that belies it's VERY low-budget, and looks like a much more expensive piece.Danny Cannon displays an almost Ridley Scott like style in the care he takes with the look of the film, and the careful, unhurried pacing, he is aided in his efforts by excellent Anamorphic 2.35:1 photography from D.P. Vernon Layton - giving The Young Americans a rich, almost sumptuous look, for what, on the surface, is a gritty urban crime thriller.A special mention should be made for Composer David Arnold and his beautiful, almost tragic Music Score - of course he went on to bigger things: Stargate, Independence Day, the Bond movies - Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, plus Zoolander, Changing Lanes, The Stepford Wives and the upcoming Ghost Rider, and another Bond - Casino Royale.Personally, I thought Danny Cannon's career might have amounted to something more substantial that just 3 feature films.These films include the badly mis-judged(!) Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd and the horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer - not sure how the latter film fared at the box-office (though I suspect not good!) I DO know that Judge Dredd was a BIG financial and critical failure - Cannon got the film right after The Young Americans, tiny budget to mega budget - could this be a case of Cannon running before he could walk? Of course Danny Cannon has found considerable success as an Executive/Supervising Producer, occasional Writer and sometimes Director on the 3 hit CSI TV series from Jerry Bruckhiemer - this in itself is no mean feat, but I do feel Cannon's potential as a Director of Feature Films has gone largely untapped and that he could have made a more substantial career if he'd stayed in Movies.Hear he's got a Soccer movie in the works, let's hopes that this is a return to features for an underrated and talented Director.Lata.

mat-tuck The Young Americans is set in London in the mid 1990s. The plot basically surrounds the London drugs trade and the British Police's crack down on it. Well what could be easier than that? Add Harvey Keitel as an American 'visiting adviser' from the DEA and a few shady characters.In whole its not a bad film, its over ten years old now and was obviously low budget! A scene where a Ford Granada explodes it clearly goes bang, and just as well because I doubt they could afford another to do it again. Cropping up in the film is a character called Chris who adds the love elements to the movie, played by Craig Kelly, who later finds more TV fame in the UK version of Queer as Folk.The annoying thing about this movie is the over acting "British" voice, making Harvey Keitel sound very American and the British officers toffy noised! For a movie made and set in London it is a poor feature.