Twenty Four Seven

Twenty Four Seven 1998

In a typical English working-class town, the juveniles have nothing more to do than hang around in gangs. One day, Alan Darcy, a highly motivated man with the same kind of youth experience, starts trying to get the young people off the street and into doing something they can believe in: Boxing. Soon he opens a training facility which is accepted gratefully by them and the gangs start to grow together into friends. Darcy manages to organize a public fight for them to prove what they have learned. A training camp with hiking tours into the mountains of Wales forge the group into a tight-knit club society. With the day of the fight drawing closer, the young boxers get more and more excited.

Trailer

Cast

	Danny Nussbaum	...	Tim
	Toby	...	Woody (the Dog)
	Bob Hoskins	...	Alan Darcy
	Bruce Jones	...	Tim's Dad (Geoff)
	Annette Badland	...	Tim's Mother (Pat)
	Justin Brady	...	Gadget
	James Hooton	...	'Wolfman' Knighty
	Darren O. Campbell	...	Daz (as Darren Campbell)
	Krishan Beresford	...	Young Darcy
	Karl Collins	...	Stuart
	Anthony Clarke	...	Youngy
	Johann Myers	...	Benny
	Jimmy Hynd	...	Meggy
	Mat Hand	...	Wesley Fagash

Ratings

Votes	Average
Males	994	6.9
Females	99	6.4
Aged under 18	1	10.0
Males under 18	1	10.0
Aged 18-29	440	7.3
Males Aged 18-29	389	7.3
Females Aged 18-29	51	5.8
Aged 30-44	520	6.9
Males Aged 30-44	482	7.0
Females Aged 30-44	35	6.4
Aged 45+	128	6.2
Males Aged 45+	114	6.1
Females Aged 45+	13	6.5
Top 1000 voters	106	6.3
US users	138	6.4
Non-US users	934	7.0
IMDb users	1,417	6.9

Reviews

A Real Treat, 10 June 2001

Author: Todd Honig from Hollywood, California

Shot in sumptuous black and white,this is one the most energetic films I've seen in a very long time.Bob Hoskins(in the kind of role Robin Williams can play in his sleep,and often does)is at times funny,at other times dead serious,but always real in this story that centers around the boxing club he has built to give the young men in his small town something to do instead of sitting around feeling sorry for themselves and throwing their lives away.All the performances are first-rate,but the family unit of Danny Nussbaum,Bruce Jones and Annette Badland are particularly strong.If this movie had been made in Hollywood it would have been over-produced,over-cast and overdone.The film never lowers itself into the cheap sentimentality that this genre of film often falls into.The way that Bob Hoskins brings these guys into his confidence one by one by convincing them they're the ones keeping the other guys in line is awe-inspiring.And there's a great soundtrack to boot.Mr Meadows,I know the money can be very tempting but resist the call of Hollywood as long as you can.The concessions you'll have to make to get your work produced just aren't worth it.Bravo,Shane,you're one helluva filmmaker.

Arguably the best film of the year., 18 January 1999
Author: Dodger-9 from York

For my money this is the best film of the year. Best in that it didn't cost a fortune but packs as much of an emotional wallop as any blockbuster with 200 times the budget. Bob Hoskins plays Darcy, the burnt out soccer coach whose past history is told in flashback through his diary. It tells of how he trained up a team of no-hopers into becoming boxers with something to live for. Shot in luminous black and white, the feature debut of Shane Meadows is a remarkably sensitive, blisteringly funny portrait of hopelessness in Nottingham. The city has always had its problems but is also one of the most vibrant places on earth and Meadows captures the balance perfectly.

The sulphurous black and white photography adds much class to the production and the team of largely unknown actors handle things admirably.

The movie also features one of the most realistic fight scenes ever committed to celluloid when Hoskins and Coronation Street's Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) lay into one another. Both actors walked away with broken bones and this is jut one element of why 24/7 is a cut above the average movie. It's life captured on film with few romantic films. But the message is as powerful as one of Hoskins' punches in the ribs. Meadows will inevitably get more money for his next picture and will no doubt be sucked into the Hollywood mainstream which will probably be the death of him. If that happens, let's hope he doesn't lose sight of the genius which he embedded into every frame of 24/7.

Precious, angry, alive., 12 February 2001

Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland

This wonderful film ironises the feel-good 'Rocky' tradition to critique an ideology - Thatcherism - that poisoned a nation still searching for the antidote. Like all Meadows films, this is great fun, with authentic-seeming performances matched by remarkable style which mixes stylised naturalism and sketch-like sequences. But looming over the larks is a depressing framing story - we know the plot ends up here. The unbearable tension is wondering how. The answer is heartbreaking, showing how the thatcher years brought Britain to the brink of fascism, where an underclass are either bullied or ignored to a point where the only means of expression is self-destructive violence. The 'poetic' voiceover is a mistake, especially for a director of Meadow's visual intelligence, but he'll get there. A great feature debut.

Hard, gritty black & white stuff!, 26 January 2002

Author: mifunesamurai from Australia

A gritty black & white film from the 25 year old director, Shane Meadows. Darcy, (played by Bob Hoskins in one of his better roles since MONA LISA & THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY), decides to take a bunch of restless teenagers off the streets and into the boxing ring. Then we go through the process of the bonding and the struggle as the boys come good. It begins as a realistic social drama and ends that way. I was glad to see that it didn't sell out.

Delightful character study, 12 September 2008

Author: Prof-Hieronymos-Grost from Ireland

In 80's England where the unemployment rate is just as high as its crime levels, Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins) decides to help the local lads by setting up a boxing club that will focus their anger and energies in the right direction. With the financial assistance of local crook Ronnie Marsh, Darcy soon finds he is getting results until a devastating incident destroys what he has built up. As with all Meadows films, this is another fine character driven film, that plays with your heart strings, while not pulling its punches in the violence department, its full of golden moments and is extremely entertaining. Its full of backstory and character exposition and is required viewing from the best director in Britain today.

One of the best of the Thatcher era films!, 3 December 1998

Author: paul-90 from San Mateo, Ca

Hoskins is superb,again. Ranks up there with Mike Leigh's Thatcher films. Gorgeous photography-great music-a little thin on background for an American to comprehend the full drama.