User Reviews

It's like a cheap children's film but with swearing and a bit of murder.

Greetings again from the darkness. This is billed as "a modern take on the classic tale of Oliver Twist". The problem with that is this feels neither modern, nor in line with the renowned Charles Dickins novel. Mostly it feels like a failed attempt at copying Guy Ritchie's SNATCH, or the KINGSMAN movies, or even the NOW YOU SEE ME movies. Directed by Martin Owen with a script by John Wrathall, Sally Collett and six other credited contributing writers (in addition to the inspiration from Dickens), this film simply lacks the entertainment value necessary for any type of positive recommendation. So I won't be writing much here, only addressing what we see on screen.

Raff Law (Jude Law's son) nabbed his first starring role as Twist, a street artist living on his own. One day he stumbles into Dodge (Rita Ora), Batesy (Franz Drameh), and Red (Sophie Simnett) who introduce him to Fagin (two-time Oscar winner Michael Caine), who presides over this group of criminal misfits. The offer of free clothes, decent housing, a team to work with, and a possible romance, is enough to entice Twist out of his rooftop tent.

This is really a simple art heist movie with multiple scenes of parkour included in place of real danger or creative thrills. David Walliams plays the target, and as a bonus, ripping him off would settle an old score for Fagin, and the over-the-top psychopath Sikes (Lena Headey). Somehow out of step in a movie with no real step is a recurring gag featuring a traffic cop played by Leigh Warden. It's unclear if this was held over from an early slapstick version of the film, or if it was intended to portray Twist as an outlaw.

Noel Clark maintains his dignity as Detective Brownlow, and Ms. Headey attempts to liven things up, but mostly the characters are forgettable due to an all too simple story and a lack of development. The annoying music doesn't help, and neither does the lack of any insightful social commentary (a Dickens specialty). It seems obvious the filmmakers were trying to create something edgy and modern, and go so far as to open with a jab at Carol Reed's 1968 musical OLIVER!, by having narrator Twist state there will be "No singing. No dancing. And no happy ending." If a filmmaker risks re-making or re-imagining a classic story, they must be ready for the comparisons. This one falls well short of that 1968 version, as well as David Lean's 1948 OLIVER TWIST, with Alec Guinness as Fagin.

In theaters and On Demand starting July 30, 2021.

I will start out by saying that I completely agree, this film clearly struggles with finding an audience and is clearly confused with who it's meant to appeal to. The violence it's "watered down/cartoonish" enough for a PG rating but with all the swearing (frequent uses of the four letter words including an F bomb) it wouldn't get a PG rating in the US. Another thing I found strange was the soundtrack which kept jumping between modern day hip hop and 90s-00s britpop, which further raised the question...Who is this film meant to appeal to?

I would in no way call this movie terrible as many of the reviews suggest. It's your standard paint by numbers art caper set to the story of Oliver Twist with a ridiculous amount of parkour added in. Parts of the movie are fun but nothing is really original, it feels like the type of movie you could watch on TV and not feel like you wasted your time. That's the level of entertainment I received from it at least...

I didn't really know what to expect with this movie but I was still underwhelmed by it.

It was extremely dull and just dead behind the eyes. I found it to be a chore to sit though.

I don't want to be horrible but the acting was absolutely awful. It was so lifeless and just really bad. Every single actor was bad.

Also a warning that most of this film is just running sequences that normally end up on rooftops. I'm pretty sure that some parts were shot on a go pro.

It also had this like sugary sweetness undertone which clashed so much with the "English crime" tone. It was like a kids movie but about a gang in London?

It was really bad.

I can honestly say this movie was hard to sit through. I started to get headaches from the running and jumping scenes that added very little to the movie. Michael Caine was also awful. It's like he took the easy money then put in no effort. Then again there wasn't much to put effort towards. I'll be honest, most of the acting here was awful from Caine to Ora to Headley. Only Noel Clarke worked. Give this a miss. Another Sky production that fails to be worth it.

Just awful, what seemed like a cool idea got bad....real quick. Not even the likes of Caine and Headley could save this drowning puppy, and the less said about Rita Ora the better.

Well that was two words. But you know what I mean, right?!

Firstly, I have to say, Rita Ora was terrible in this film. She has absolutely no acting chops at all - you could see her literally reading the script in her mind. Just terrible.

Talking about the script... it was poor. So, so, poor. I really don't know how this project managed to get the green light with a script of that quality.

Rafferty Law was also bad in this film - poor acting, again. Although not as bad as Miss Ora.

I could go on, but I think that watching this film has resulted in me losing too many brain cells. So, to avoid the same fate, avoid this film at all costs!

Avoid like the covid plague. Acting awful, story awful!

I wish I had taken those bad reviews and believed them. It really is bad.

Michael Caine just took the money. I thought Jaws the Revenge was bad. This is worse.

Do yourself a favour and avoid!

Ruins everything he's in. Don't waste your time. Also the film sucks anyway he just made it worse. The only way it could be any worse is if they cast that talentless jack Whitehall in it

Ok, this is no academy award winning entry, but the script was pretty good, the actors did fine jobs, their interplay was notable, and it tied up nicely at the end.

Definitely an entertaining movie!

It's an adaptation of Oliver Twist that's not an Oliver Twist adaptation. It's not high art, even though it revolves around it. It's just an entertaining representation of high art, that's meant to be enjoyed. The movie states as much, multiple times in several ways throughout it's runtime. So lower, alter or simply give up your expectations and you're going to enjoy it.

A film about parkour parkour did I mention it's a film about parkour? No? Well it's a film with "'Ello I'm Michael Caine" and Parkour.

My first review but had to be done, and if I save but one of you from terrorising your senses by watching this then I'd be a hero! It's dreadful...so avoid.

The acting the writing and the utter pointlessness of most of this movie is an embarrassment to British film. Even the legend michael Caine was awful. The worst film I have ever seen without a doubt. Extremely frustrating and pointless from start to finish.

Updating the classics has always been a double edged sword. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In this adaptation Dicken's novel is transported to modern London with street smart kids working for an irrascible Fagin played by Michael Caine. Large chunks are missed out of the original and characters are adjusted. Sykes is a woman and Nancy is the same age as Oliver. Taken as a stand alone this movie is not a bad effort. Some of the running over London's rooftops is good fun. Where the movie suffers is in continuity. Where are we in Dickens script.....or otherwise. But the only real problem is the portrayal of Sykes. Playing him as a Lesbian woman is quite a good idea but she is just not nasty enough. Mean in spirit, action and words but really just another thug with a gun. Sykes in the book or portrayed by Reed was a vicious bully but also a very complicated charactacter. This new Sykes tries to be nasty but comes across as flat and one dimentional. I enjoyed the movie, especially the portrayal of a modern street gang, but all seriously lacking the guts of the original.

The trailer for this film looked beyond cheap and terrible. The adverts are on the radio all the time and even that sounded awful and that's just audio. Tiny snippets of the acting looked terrible more like a parody film. Why would you do a film and base it around parkour which was like a trend 15 years ago. Try and imitate Kingsman style directing with a budget that looks like something for kids to make at school and mix in terrible actors for a serious film...except for Michael. Good god Rita Ora needs to go away she barely even has any musical talent let alone anything else

Bad acting, garbage so called stunts not a cinema movie not a TV movie barely comparable to a 90s tween show save an hour and a half and stare at a wall with your eyes shut. Avoid like a family of four running round tesco with no masks attempting to cough and splutter on you.

If you're expecting glossy effects, dark twisted(pun intended) scenes, then this isn't for you. It's a pleasant entertaining movie with a great cast and family movie atmosphere. Rare in this day and age of blood guts and horror trash. Well done to the cast and director for providing a modern Oliver.

Wow honestly the worst acting I've seen for a long long time you get better acting on eastenders! The rest of the cast even made Michael Caine look like a bad actor! The longest hour an half of my life! Shockingly poor!

This is a great take on the dickens classic. Lena headey nails it as sykes and with micheal caine can do no wrong. Great movie and all round entertaining. Get it watched.

With little or no expectation, we found Twist not half bad. Ok, so the acting wasn't fantastic, but I've seen a lot worse on much bigger titles. The soundtrack was awesome, which did help too. If you've got an hour and half spare, give it a go.

Can't even call this a Sunday movie watch when there's nothing else on, and even worse I can't believe I watched the whole thing hoping it will better, if you take acid maybe give it go but other than that please don't waste your time.

Felt middle class writers and actors were trying to be edgy and street, cringe

So many familiar faces. Terrible movie. I suspect it's sky financing cheap movies due to lack of big movies made 2020 and to save buying big movies... I have rated 4 cos it was presented in 4k.. but.....god it's bad.