Lucy and Speed

Whilst on a surface level LUCY AND SPEED plays like a clear homage to BUTCH CASSIDY via Tony Scott, for mine the film more inadvertently revealed itself a bit more dark than its 1980s neon pastiche represents. We're talking Eric Red via LONG KISS GOODNIGHT territory here folks.

Flipping the script of robbers usually acting out of desperation for motivation, the wall street era and all its white powder-fueled greed crashes onto screen with a set straight out of Dick Tracy. The adrenaline flows and a black comedy of errors ensues, guns ablazing.

At 120 bpms for living life the titular Speed character doesn't stop for anyone, defined by grandiose plans of being "cool" though cocaine is a hell of a drug and distorted views are part and parcel for addicts. Lucy on the other hand works as an enabler, the cheerleader in crime and the connection between the two is strongly established throughout, to me paying homage to the superficiality of the decade with aplomb. Goddam whip cuts are big this year for 48!

The sets here are great. The soundtrack is superb. Locations are killer and the energy is off the charts. Buddy film tick tick tick.

Final payoff is laugh out loud gold.

But I have a few minor nitpicks with the film, and for some they will be what has made the film succeed as per my evaluation of the film so far.

The first thing is my bugbear of the characters being in sunglasses throughout the film. With cinema the eyes are quite genuinely the window to the soul and taking away that direct introspection into character meant they were not quite as defined as they could be. Moments would have been all it took to give the film a beat or element of vulnerability.

Secondly I get the tributes and homages, but with us being thrown into the action without understanding the character motivation for me the film ultimately works on whether we like the characters or not. They're generally funny, memorable and manic at times but again I felt a beat or 2 could have been added to give them slightly wider/likeable personality traits because the main things they are defined by is 'being cool' and superficiality.

The sound was interesting because whilst the soundtrack was out of this world I felt like the audio levels did fluctuate a little bit. And last nitpick is the happy accident left on a final cut take.

Overall I really really enjoyed LUCY AND SPEED. I think you did a lot of things better than many teams ever have in this competition I just would have loved to have seen a little more heart given to the characters. But that's just me :)

Adored every second of the non-stop high-adrenaline velocity that 'Lucy and Speed' brings to the screen. Living legends in the cast, couldn't see anyone else taking on the titular characters.

Bravo, and best with the rest of the competition! Hope to see it forward.