Spivs
(2004)
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Jack, Steve and Goat are three East-End lads who do anything they can to make a quick buck. When they get involved with Villa, they achieve the financial rewards they've always dreamed of, but it comes at a price; for the lorry in which they smuggled their goods also contains a group of illegal immigrants... NOTE: This title is currently only authorised to rent in specified outlets. |
In a crime caper that inhabits the same London underworld as Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things, Ken Stott plays the ageing leader of a minor-league con team that falls foul of a vicious bunch of people-smugglers. Although it doesn't have the class of the Frears film, at least director Colin Teague's follow-up to gangster drama Shooters is topical (illegal immigrants imported as fodder for the UK sex trade) and pacey enough for most of its 90-minute running time to fly by. Stott's on customary good form and he receives solid support from Nick Moran, while there are notable cameos from the likes of Jack Dee and Paul Kaye. However, the interesting premise is ultimately undermined by an intrusive sentimentality and descends into yawn-inducing melodrama as the East End wideboys get sucked into protecting two young refugees from brawny east European heavies.