CINEMA: Clubbed

Based on the book Watch My Back by Geoff Thompson this is a trawl through the seedier side of life in Britain’s clubs during the 1980s. It follows the fortunes of Danny (Mel Raido), a family man who has cheated on his wife, been kicked out of the family home, and is now rather lost.

His fortunes change when he gets beaten up by some thugs and decides to start fighting back. He meets Louis (Colin Salmon), Sparky (Scot Williams – a dead ringer for Jonny Lee Miller in Trainspotting) and Rob (Shaun Parkes) at the local boxing club and as they become mates they invite him to join them as bouncers on the door of the local nightclub. But things are not all as they seem because Sparky is a loose cannon – accepting backhanders to let in the drug dealers – while Rob is on a mission to bring down the local crime boss, and the internal tension at the club soon escalates into all out war.

Clubbed deals with material that has been well covered by previous films (‘hard’ men, tribalism in inner cities and drug culture) and although certain individual performances are good (Shaun Parkes in particular) the problem is you never feel any real sympathy for central character Danny as he brings most of his problems on himself. It also lacks the great sense of energy and dynamism that epitomised the 1980s and ultimately is rather bland.

Dee Pilgrim