OK, but neither as funny nor creative as it could have been

A man walks into a British social club for a drink and a smoke. As he walks along the bar, there seem to be very few situations where he doesn't get into some sort of minor fight. After several tries he finally makes it (pint in hand) to a table and sits down to light up  sadly, he is not the only one getting involved in the pub fight mentality and it isn't long before it is all kicking off again.

This short was billed as a sort of violent dance and I was interested enough to take a look. Despite a slow start that suggested this would be just one repetitive joke, the film did get better although never as good as I had hoped. I may be reading too much into it but I thought it used the working mans club scene well with the very British focus on yob culture, fighting and drinking; the main fights are set alongside line dancing  that other mainstay of social drinking clubs. As a piece of social commentary it has nothing but I don't think that was the point to be honest. Instead it tries to be funny and amusingly violent.

As a comedy I didn't think it was inventive enough to really be hilarious although most of it is amusing in a silly manner. The one thing that I did find distasteful was the very brutal violence directed toward the woman character. Maybe I'm being a prude but I would have preferred it to be an all-male affair; of course some viewers may find the idea of violence for the sake of humour to be a little distasteful anyway, but my morals are not set that high! In terms of being a dance of sorts it isn't good enough. The fights are not that inventive apart from once or twice  I didn't expect Jackie Chan stuff here but if it had pushed the boat out with some funny moves then the film would have been better. The cast do OK to seem calm and portray it all as an everyday thing but they could have been funnier.

Overall this is an OK film that is worth seeing once maybe just to see what it's like, but don't expect too much. The violence is not that inventive and is a bit brutal at some points and, although it is amusing, it is never clever enough to really be hilarious. A strange short film find but not one I'll be hunting out again.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

A bloke walks into a pub... Six actors punch, kick and wrestle their way through the Wild West of an East London drinking establishment

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