The Kid (2010)
Based on the real life story of Kevin Lewis, the film follows his childhood of abuse, his descent into a life of crime and the way he put his life together again afterwards.
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I love this movie so much
Simply A Masterpiece
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
There must be less than one in a thousand that make it with the background of Kevin, the protagonist of this movie. And he does it with the help of his own story only, which, of course, would quickly wear thin if it was told by millions, which, of course, is the reason why so few of these stories are published.Why not tell the story of one who did not succeed, the story of the 999 others? Well, such a story would not glorify the system that produces these stories, now would it? If you take the story of teen Kevin - now, there was a good story that ringed true! The first half of this film is a 10. The second half, I would like to describe as a -10 if I believed in negative numbers, which I do not.And for all of those who do not understand what I am saying with this review because they are not very used in thinking at all, I give a hint. It's a pyramid, you see. And it's a pyramid because that stabilizes power the best. And in a pyramid you see, one has to climb down from above to let one from below climb up so that the pyramid stays the same. Got it? Get it. Good!
In contrast to the other reviews I must say that this film was surprisingly bad. I am not sure where it went so wrong really, but it is probably the casting. I just could not see one person that was actually believable in his/her role. The mother of the boy was just so badly acted I felt actually embarrassed in the cinema. Also I think they could have done much better with the casting of the lead. I am not from UK, but the poor people from the council estates where the characters came from do NOT sound like some posh Chelsea public school prick. He was much better in the Pride and Prejudice. Only character that was even slightly OK was the guy that played the Kid in his early teens. I actually could see that kid being abused at home. All in all the film fell flat on many occasions, too many stereotypes, too many things we have seen already.After an hour I felt so board I started playing with my phone.I know I may sound like a overly negative person, but I go to movies 2 times a week and don't remember the last time I walked out on the movie before the end. Unfortunately The Kid was the case... 3 points for the effort though as obviously someone worked on this film, but I would never recommend this to anyone....
We saw the pre-release showing of THE KID and we were also treated to a pre-film introduction and an after film Q & A session with the films director NICK MORAN (Director - TELSTAR, Actor - Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels, and Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows parts 1 & 2).THE KID, is the true story of the despair to riches tale of KEVIN LEWIS who grew up in a violently dysfunctional family on a badly deprived South London council estate, who eventually managed to drag himself out of the quagmire and up, and out into the sunshine of a decent life for himself finally getting credit for an internationally acclaimed best-selling inspirational novel "THE KID" based upon his own life story The director of the movie NICK MORAN, had a close association with Kevin Lewis (who the film is based on) during the making of the film – and this paid great dividends in the directors ability to capture and portray on film the anguish and torment that occurred through Kevin's life and his struggles to barely survive. After being removed from his own family for his own safety then moving through a succession of failed placements with Foster parents and care home institutions Kevin finally finds a decent environment where he starts to prosper until the untimely death of one of the foster parents that puts him back into a downward spiral of commitments and debts Kevin then finds a "pseudo-family" in the form of some undesirable characters from the underworld that offer to help him but in reality they are just using his naivety to exploit him for their own gain at much cost to himself in the shape of some very violent "street-fighting" matches with no rules and no-holds barred ... appearing under the pseudonym of "The Kid"Against the odds Kevin manages from the very depths of despair, to finally turn his life around for the better The music for the film is inspiring, along with the casting the three actors who play Kevin through early childhood – through his school years to his later years are very good (especially the parts played by Augustus Prew and Rupert Friend as the middle and later Kevins).There are strong support roles played by Edward Fox and Shirley-Anne Field as the "good" foster parents and Bernard Hill as "Uncle David" – but the star of the show without doubt is the casting of Natascha McElhone (Californication, Solaris) – just how they can transform such a beauty into such a ugly, murderous, psychopath of a deranged Mother is something to see she steals every scene she is in much akin to Charlize Theron's performance in MONSTER who knows perhaps Natascha may well follow a similar (deserved) path down the awards trail The Director mentioned in the Q&A session that the film was shot on 16mm film – and when this is blown up to full screen size you can sometimes detect a slight graininess with some shots – however I don't think this detracted at all from the ambiance of the filmThis isn't meant to be a "pleasant" movie, it is quite hard-hitting (sometimmes literally) and the violence will not be to all tastes – as it is based on a true story and therefore keeps closely to the narrative of the book but, I do believe that it is worth seeing and hopefully you'll get the pay-off of a feel-good factor at the end THE KID is 111mins long, comes out on general release on FRI 17th Sept 2010, and it should be noted that the film contains some violence that would not be suitable for all ages
A great story well handled by Director: Nick Moran, who guides us through the life of the main character Kevin Lewis. The film is set in the 1980's and early 90's and looks and feels right with camera work and film lighting that supports the storyline. However, it is Rupert Friend's performance that sets the high standard for this film. The character is carefully observed to provide a man who is not aggressive but can explode when pushed. For me the biggest achievement is that the film deals with violence and in no way glamorises it.Why would you go and see this film? Because it is a story of a mans survival thoughtfully made and performed and the temptation to make it into a 'Lock Stock' fairytale has been resisted.