Yardie

Honestly Idris did a great job as his first time behind the camera even though the story was predictable.

THIS WAS REAL, IF YOU HAD AN EXPOSURE TO THE CARRIBEAN COMMUNITY AND IF YOU HAD AN EXPOSURE TO DEALING WITH RUDE BWOYS, YOU WOULD KNOW THIS MOVIE WAS A SINCERE TRIBUTE. NOTHING WAS FALSE ABOUT THIS AT ALL... USUALLY A DEPICTION OF A COMMUNITY IN THE MEDIA ENDS UP BEING AN INSULT, BUT THE MOVIE YARDIE WAS A COMPLEMENT TO THE COMMUNITY.

A young boy known as 'D' is growing up in 1970's Kingston when he sees his older brother gunned down while trying to bring peace to two warring gangs that have brought terror to the streets. This leads him onto a path where he finds himself working for Kingston gangster King Fox who soon despatches him to London to broker a deal with a vicious London gangster known as Rico. However, when he encounters the man who shot his brother ten years earlier things soon spiral out of control and D finds himself on the run from everyone after the deal goes south and secrets are revealed about who was really behind the shooting. Yardie is a decent portrayal of a young innocent's decent into darkness who is very much a product of his surroundings and the people he calls family. The film is Idris Elba's directorial debut and I felt he did a very good job at briniging some unique characters to the screen. The only character that did feel a little out of place was Stephen Graham as vicious London gangster Rico. Stephen Graham is more than a decent choice of villain but why have him with a really dodgy Jamaican accent? It's not the worse accent I have ever heard but the scouse does slip through occasionally and it would have been much better to have him play a Londoner, seemed like a very odd choice. Apart from that, it was an enjoyable crime thriller.

I do love me some Idris. I did not care for this. I wanted to like it, but it didn’t really make any sense. I will admit I don’t know a lot about my Jamaican culture. Maybe there is some type of big connection between sounds and drug dealing but the movie failed to make it make any sense. It just failed to make any of the story really flow at all. While I also am no expert in the way Jamaicans speak, it seem the actors were over doing it a bit. Overacting quite a lot.

It's deeply flawed narratively.

This is flamboyant, colourful stuff. It's style over substance, with little social or political context. You need a major pinch of salt, as thugs roam the streets with guns and machetes. And there's not a strong female character to be seen. With the humour and violence sit uncomfortably together. So the film doesn't work, but for all that is an entertaining ride.

Great directorial debut from Idris Elba.

A somewhat boring and long drawn out effort.

Pretty decent considering that it's Idre's directorial debute. Not as good as "Shottas", but it's worth checking out.

Classic. Yardie defines a regional mentality. Left me weeping for days. So beautiful.