Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Wordiezett So much average

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Rozinda I hoped this would be good on the lines of The Full Monty. Carlyle played his part very well at first but towards the end goes off the rails, I assume because the script forces the actor to make the character become such a jerk that the wife's final decision and even more the astonishing behaviour of the child attempt to make some sense.Ifans was a crashing bore. The daughter's hostility to her father was totally inexplicable. One understands she's upset that apparently he hasn't been in the habit of seeing her much if at all since the parents split, but her complete disinterest in her father and complete devotion the rival is simply unbelievable in my view.Carlyle's character is ultimately disappointing since he fails to achieve what he has decided he wants just now, ie reuniting his family. If Ifans' character had anything dynamic or even interesting about him, I could have lived with the finale when the wife chooses the new lover instead of the ex-husband. But Ifans' character is just a colourless wimp.I feel that what really spoils this film is how the child is acted. Where's the trauma at seeing her father again if she genuinely loathes him. Or if she's scared he'll interfere between her and the substitute father she's apparently chosen (though in no way clear why), ie Ifans' character? Instead, the child is measured and calm and appears to have no doubt she'll get what she has decided she wants, and sure enough she does.The wife is also confusing. She appears to want to be with Ifans. Then Ifans moves out (GOOD ! I said. Him and that ridiculous pink vehicle, it was dreadful). Then suddenly Carlyle's character after arousing all my sympathy (and especially because of his daughter's near total blank feelings for him) suddenly gets silly. The wife is totally unreadable at this stage, you can't see any conflict, she just seems to accept whoever's there.Carlyle character's thug friends are also a muddle. It seems they are all crooks and Carlyle has helped beat up some guy and steal money to make the trip south. The thug friends follow and all of a sudden with no clear explanation invade the ex-wife's home and terrorise those inside. I never made out why they did this. It was ridiculous. Perhaps the idea was to tell us that the Carlyle character was a violent thug too so don't support him. But this isn't at all clear.Then all of a sudden, when you think maybe Carlyle's character has redeemed himself somewhat in spite of his sudden silly behaviour, the child makes the decision and then the mother suddenly goes along with it.A very confused script in my view. Especially a loopy script for and direction of the child who might as well not have been in the story at all as she doesn't contribute anything to it really until suddenly she near enough says to her mother, I'm going with "Ifans" and Mother runs out to do the same.

Jackson Booth-Millard I'm not sure if I would call this a great British film, but it is good for some of the story and casting. Basically Dek (Rhys Ifans), a decent but somewhat dull man, enjoys a happy existence with beloved girlfriend Shirley (Shirley Henderson). They live together with her 12-year-old, Marlene (an introduction for Finn Atkins) - her daughter by the sexy but delinquent Jimmy (Robert Carlyle), who flew the coop years ago and hasn't been heard from since. Dek loves Shirley, so much, that he proposes to her on Vanessa Feltz's show, yes she is in it. Jimmy sees the TV proposal and returns to town convinced that he can try to win back his wife and daughter, however he faces formidable opposition from almost every side. Also starring Ricky Tomlinson as Charlie, Kathy Burke as Carol, Vic Reeves as Plonko the Clown and Bob Mortimer as Kung-Fu Clown. With quite a lot of argument and family issues, this is a good all-star British film. Good!

DomT Right, now where do I start?... If you had the choice of watching this film or something else, then choose the something else. This is definitely a film I will not be watching again. I watched this film with a class of students, and all of us felt the same way about the film - it was poor.Expectations were not met. The 'known' actors who starred in the film did not pull it off in this one, they were poor. Actors known to us in life to be comedians and funny e.g. Ricky Tomlinson do not use these qualities to their advantage. This maybe however due to the fact that the poor scripting did not help them use their qualities successfully. These comedians have a specific audience and as this film wasn't a good one, their audiences will have been disappointed with what they had seen. If this film was supposed to be funny then it failed miserably. I rarely laughed at some of the clips. However I could tell that certain scenes were aimed to make the audience laugh - which they didn't.As you can guess I did not like this film at all. I will not be watching it again. In fact this film has put me off all Shane Meadows films completely. I advise you to watch another film if given the chance.

Jonathan Ley Firstly, let me say how much I like Shane Meadow's work (particularly 'A Room For Romeo Brass'). However 'Once Upon a Time in The Midlands' is, in my opinion, his weakest work to date. That's not to say it isn't a good film, it is, but somewhere along the line the Meadow's formula went wrong. It smacks of too much development, something Meadows complained about himself, almost as if Film Four wanted to bottle the distinctive spirit of his earlier work, mass produce it and sell it to the widest audience possible. The characters end up as caricatures and whereas previous Meadows films examined the wonderful humanity and quiet dignity inherent in everyday life this one ends up in danger of being patronising to its subjects. The title and tag line are great but I wonder if they weren't thought up before the actual story and at the expense of the film. I personally found the Western elements a little superfluous, the deluge of famous faces distracting (what on Earth are Reeves and Mortimer doing as clowns?!), and the Glasgow gangsters subplot unnecessary. Once these elements fall by the wayside however, as they do in the second half, the film settles down into telling a decent little story. The central love triangle comes to the fore and we actually begin to connect with the characters. All the performances are good but special mention must go to young Finn Atkins who is outstanding. If this is your first taste of Meadows then don't be put off, just know that there are better films in his back catelogue than this. The 2 disc DVD is worth investing in though as the extras include Shane's World and a really nice documentary on the film's promotional tour.