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43 out of 59 people found the following review useful:
Well crafted and engaging film, 14 May 2008
7/10
Author: Info-1367 from London, England

Having just seen this film at a BAFTA preview, I felt that it deserves a favourable review. Noel Clarke has realised a well written, captivating film. Melodrama and action is finely balanced, moving the storyline smoothly along whilst capturing all the relevant aspects of the protagonists journey. There were one or two contrivances that were a little beyond expected reality, but they weren't totally unreasonable and only served to highlight the overall realism of the storyline. It is after all a drama and some concessions need to made to keep the suspense. The characters are all extremely believable and the cast all contribute with superb performances, bar none. Noel Clarke's own performance is outstanding, and is the bedrock of the film. Having only been aware of him from his appearances in Dr.Who, I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of character he manages to portray. The dialogue seems to be authentic in style and avoids making the actors seem like caricatures, as can so easily be done in films of a similar theme. Brian Tufano's cinematography was well measured and help to maintain a good balance between some nice editing, great soundtrack and solid direction.

I think Noel Clarke should be justly proud of his achievement in writing , starring and directing this genuinely entertaining film. If I seem to be lauding too much praise, it is because this film didn't fail to deliver where so many other low budget films do. It is a film with honesty, heart, action and integrity without preaching or patronising the viewer.

I liked it and I'm a cynical sod, so if anyone sees Noel Clarke, tell him he done alright.

Darcus (not Howe)

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13 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Brilliantly summarised movie..definitely worth a watch, 3 July 2008
8/10
Author: satydg from United Kingdom

I had not watched Kidhood, the prequel to this movie but was so damn moved by Adulthood. I later realised that you don't need to watch the part 1 of it. Sam , the character was strong and genuine and in-your-face types and the movie, for sure, portrayed the underground life of the youngsters in the UK.

Worth a watch for sure and recommended for a critics award. The violence scenes were brutal at times but am sure the movie demanded the same.

Hats off to the director for bringing out raw talents out of these young actors and highlighting the growing problems of young crimes in this country.

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11 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
As good as "Kidulthood", if not better, 7 July 2008
7/10
Author: seawalker from Birmingham, England

"Adulthood" was the sequel to "Kidulthood". "Kidulthood" was certainly not a subtle movie and neither was "Adulthood".

"Adulthood" was low budget, rough around the edges, harsh, brutal, and totally engrossing. Sometimes the acting of the young cast was variable, but it's best performers - writer/director/lead actor Noel Clarke, Scarlet Alice Johnson (in the role obviously originally intended to be Jamie Winstone's 'Becky' character from "Kidulthood") and Adam Deacon - managed to imbue their roles with a ring of truth.

"Adulthood" got by on relevance (the debate about gang culture and gun crime is constantly in British newspapers at the moment), raw power and energy. In fact "Adulthood" had enough raw power and energy to silence an unruly audience of mobile phone carrying teenage boys, wearing baseball caps and trousers that were too big for them. At least it did in the screening that I attended. Maybe they were shocked at seeing versions of themselves up on the big screen?

I thought that "Adulthood" was as good as "Kidulthood", if not better.

There is so much more to Noel Clarke than being known as a "Doctor Who" companion. You mark my words, he is a name to watch.

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10 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Brilliant follow up to KiDULTHOOD, 3 July 2008
9/10
Author: l_cobern1989 from United Kingdom

Having loved the first one, I wasn't sure if this one would meet the mark of Kidulthood but I have to say it did. I wouldn't say it is better than the first but it is still really good. It was good to see they had a lot of new faces in the cast who played their parts well. I thought Scarlett Johnson who played Lexxi was brilliant. She played her role really well and was very convincing. Was very weird seeing her face again since the last time I saw her was in Eastenders and I thought she was good in that.

The groups of youths were good apart from Dabs played by Plan B. I didn't think he was a very good choice for his character. I know he was a part of the soundtrack but he just wasn't very good at acting. Sams brother was very good and I was very impressed with his acting. Adam Deacon who plays Jay and Femi Oyeniran who plays Moony gave great performances as well. Especially Adam who shows his acting abilities at the end scene.

Neol Clarke does a excellent job acting, directing and writing. I can't believe he done all of that. For first time directing he does really well and yet again he does a great job at writing. The story over all was really good. Makes you see how much Sam had change and how he wants to get on with life and how he portrayed the different life's of Jay and Moony. He writes some brilliant scenes like the scenes where Sam meets his Mum, where he meets Alisha and her daughter and where he speaks to his brother. Really well written.

And like the first film it had a great soundtrack thanks to Ashley Thomas aka Bashy. He chose some great songs and artists for the soundtrack. They had some great songs like Kidulthood to Adulthood, Who R U, F Ur X and many more. I really wanted them to use the MySpace winner song by Dot Rotten because it was very good and would of gone well with the film. The cinematography was really good as well just like the first and i really like the way they did the split screens. Thought that it was really clever.

If you have seen the first, you really must see this. Although I think it has it's down falls like the first, it is still worth watching and it will leave you shocked by the end. A very Enjoyable film but you must see the first to see this one.

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7 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A great follow up., 24 August 2008
8/10
Author: shadowman123 from United Kingdom

The first Kidulthood was a hard hitting reality based story based on the non-glamorised side that Hollywood would rather forget, it was however a very well made movie which even touched several points which I could relate to growing up in London. However the sequel was not that easy to watch either. Picking up on the events of what happened six years after the events of the first movie we find that the so called hunter has now become the hunted. Our murdering little hooligan has just come out of prison after doing his time and has realised that he is now a wanted man. This time it was still not easy to watch as we see people still stuck in the same vicious web and make no attempt to escape from it what so ever and that bleakish undertone always stays with the movie through out. Noel Clarke shows us an excellent way the consequence what certain actions may lead to on your-self and others around you. At the end of the day it kind of reinforces ones belief as to what is happening to society over here in general and who do we blame ? or how do we fix it? Like its predecessors it has funny moments but might feel a little unrealistic in places but in general it makes its point loud and clear. Check it out.

ADULTHOOD - 8.4 OUT OF 10

AFTER KIDULTHOOD COMES...

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Brilliant follow on film from Kidulthood..., 30 September 2009
8/10
Author: MovieGuy01 from United Kingdom

I just watched Adulthood this evening ,and i thought that it was a brilliant film that carried on from where kidulthood ended. It begins where Sam Peel is released from jail for killing Trife after six years. he is forced to see the people that he left behind that night and to face the consequences for what he did to them, after he murdered Trife all those years ago. A lot of things have changed since Sam has been released from jail, and a new gang of people are after him. I think that Sam was a fantastic actor in the film. as well as all the other actors that showed how hard it is to live life on the streets of London without getting involved in gun or knife crimes. The film featured a lot of strong violence. I think that the film gives out a strong message to young people in Britain theses days not to get involved with violence

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Powerful Inner-City Drama, 21 September 2009
Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com

Adulthood is the first English-language film I've ever had to watch with subtitles because I couldn't understand what the characters were saying. Almost without exception the young actors speak a strangulated version of the language through a Caribbean-affected drawl that makes every other word unintelligible. Americans – who I've seen in other film's reviews commenting on the difficulty of following, say, a cockney accent (which British people can easily understand) – won't have a hope of figuring out what they are talking about.

Happily, that's pretty much the only complaint (although it's an observation rather than a complaint) as Noel Clarke has delivered a powerful sequel to his highly acclaimed Kidulthood. I hadn't seen that film when I saw this, but it isn't really necessary in order to understand what is going on. Clarke plays a young man on his first day out of prison who finds himself the target of the friend of the youth he killed six years before. His character, eyes opened by a spell in prison that has shown him how deluded he was before he went inside when he considered himself to be a big man, is played low-key, in contrast to those of all the other youths, including the small-time dealer, a friend of Clarke's victim, who puts a contract out on him.

Clarke gets under the skin of these characters without forcing them to step outside of their tough shells to blurt out insightful speeches. The dealer's insecurity is evident in the exaggerated swagger, the habitual aggression that constantly threatens to boil over into violence or rage. Like an old man he is resistant to change and fearful of losing more friends – even if it's to an education and a woman who isn't fazed by his in-your-face attitude. Adam Deacon nails the part perfectly and easily gives the best performance in a film which is marked by the quality of the acting.

Everyone else is looking for a way out of the gloomy inner-city jungle while ensuring, by the nature of their activities, that they will never leave. Clarke's wrapping up of the story offers no solutions or fake happy endings: 'This isn't over,' the defeated Jay cries, and his words refer as much to the character's entrapment in their dispiriting urban prison as it does to his feud with Clarke…

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Similar to Kidulthood in that it is effective in its breadth but doesn't have the substance or complexity that one might hope for, 28 May 2009
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

I wasn't all that taken by Kidulthood when I watched it a few years back but it was solid enough and professionally made so I thought I'd follow it with the sequel. Set six years after the original film, we join the majority of the original cast on the day that Sam comes out of prison after doing his time for the killing of Trife. Some of those involved have moved on, some are still in the same situation they were then while others have nothing but that night on their minds and are seeking revenge on Sam for what he did – either by their own hands or by any one of countless up and coming boys looking to have a name made for them.

In picking this plot in particular the film sets out its stall very much to be about these events rather than the characters – again this is the same as the first film, which didn't do a great job in creating people so much as it did in creating a reasonably good narrative flow. For many this will be enough and the film does have enough of a "world" to it that it is easy to watch it. The problem comes when you want to be convinced by it, because the story isn't really strong enough (or logical enough) to really engage. It is not that it doesn't have stuff going in in sufficient quantities (it does) it is just that they offer nothing beyond this. Don't get me wrong, I found it easy to watch and get into but it felt like little had been done on the actual characters themselves. Physically it has been worked out where they are and attitude-wise they all have a broad sketch to them but this doesn't get translated well into words in the actors' mouths and as a result the film does feel superficial. The additional downside to this is that, although the film doesn't glamorise these lives, by not being more honest and complex it does feel like there is a certain amount of validation within it.

Clarke has done pretty well as writer/director/star though and he has produced a solid film where others may have only made a mess. OK it is not perfect but it is a good stab. His Sam sums up the strengths and weakness – he is supposed to be tired of violence but yet doesn't show that in his actions while any hurt in him is shown in simple ways. He holds the attention well but not below the surface. The supporting cast do pretty well but all have the same "lack of complexity" issue to deal with in their performances. Johnson, Deacon, Drew and others are all pretty good while Madrell returns for a few scenes and continues to be cute.

Overall Adulthood is a good companion piece to Kidulthood because they both carry the same strengths and weaknesses. The setting and events engage on the surface and have a good pace to them but the lack of anything decent below this is a problem that affects how much one gets into it but also how well the cast can do with their thinly developed characters. Worth seeing even if it could have been better.

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Nothing surprise, 13 December 2009
5/10
Author: freemantle_uk from United Kingdom

In 2006 a little film called Kidulthood was released in Britain with a lot of media controversy with it bleak look at inner city life for teenages. I personally didn't rate the film but people really love it, helped the careers of Noel Clarke and Jamie Winstone. Two years later Noel Clarke has gone back to his creation in an unpredicted sequel.

Sam (Noel Clarke) is released from prison after a 6 year sentence for murder of Trife at the end of Kidulthood. Straight away he visits Trife's grave and is attacked by a man, claiming that people want Sam dead. Sam is thrown straight into his mission to find and stop the people hunting him before they hurt him and his loved ones. He starts by appoarching people he went to school with, including Claire (Madeleine Fairley), his ex-girlfriend, one of Trife's old friends Moony (Femi Oyeniran), now a uni student, Lexi (Scarlett Alice Johnson), Becky's cousin and Alisa (Red Madrell), Trife's ex-girlfriend. One of Trife's friends, Jay (Adam Deacon) has become a drug dealing, and a low level gangster. He had a particular grudge against Sam. So does Trife's uncle who is a leading gangster in West London and the Jamaican community. Sam has to fight off a number of attempted hits in the space of a day on his first day out of prison.

Adulthood can easily be put in the sections of unexpected sequel and unnecessary sequel. Adulthood is a better film then Kidulthood, but it doesn't mean it's a good film. Plus Kidulthood did at least have a good first 10 minutes. My problems with Kidulthood were that it had a very negative portrayal of British youth, and is very unrealistic. Adulthood has a similar problem, that it's very unrealistic that all that happens in the film happens in one day and there are moments that are so stereotypical with it's portrayal of a Middle class man and his girlfriend, and of students that it's unbelievable. I thought the middle class bloke was too stupid and a bit insulting. There are other moments that were also unrealistic, like when Claire attempted to shout, with people looking at her and Sam and did nothing.

Adulthood does improve in other areas. The acting is better, even with cast members from the previous film. Sam also is a more realistic character, and even likable character, despite what he did. I thought he was the most pathetic 'hard man' in the previous film. Noel Clarke is a pretty good actor. Noel Clarke also moves into the director's chair, and he is an improvement to Menhaj Huda. Noel Clarke has a better visual style, with some good shots and editing tricks. He get better performers out of his actors, and avoids the mistakes Huda made with the pacing of the film. I however did not like some of the slow motion and still tricks that he used, and he did use a bit too much shaky cam for my liking. Clarke has potential as a director, but his weakness is his writing. He needs to make his characters, even minor characters, and his premise more realistic.

** out of *****

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2 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Kidulthood > Adulthood, 14 July 2008
8/10
Author: SeanyB2007 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I was excited to watch this film, I saw Kidulthood when it first came out in 2006 and it wasn't very popular then. I think that anyone who is considering going watching Adulthood without having already seen Kidulthood should think again. The whole plot revolves around what happened in the first film.

Anybody who has seen both films should agree that Kidulthood is the better of the two. The storyline is clearer and easier to follow and it is not as dark or as serious as Adulthood until the very end. However Adulthood is an amazing film with an excellent performance from Noel Clarke as a director and an actor. Even though I don't think that Adulthood lived up to its predecessor, It is definitely worth a watch.

I think that Adam Deacon steals the show, as he did in Kidulthood and I like how the film shows how peoples lives can change as a result of an event such as the death of Trife in the first film. For example, Jay is clearly affected more by the death of his friend and he turns to dealing drugs and theft whereas Mooney (or Robert) goes to University and studies law.

I love the concept of both films and could watch either of them over and over.

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