Back Add a Comment Share:

Feature

East London 2012. Deeva (Parminder Nagra) has to return home from Paris when her brother Vipon is arrested for a shooting outside of a local club. Unwilling to accept her brother's uncharacteristic dilemma as the whole truth, Deeva questions Vipon's friend and acquaintances to find out what was really going on that night and the darker story behind it.

 
This British drama doesn't feel too far removed from the sort of drama ITV would show across a couple of nights rather than a movie. It's probably a little too edgy for a mainstream channel but its sensibilities are very much based in the world of British TV.

The unfolding plot keeps asking questions but it's never all that engaging if I'm honest. It's sort of a given that Vipon is innocent and Twenty8K takes the age old mystery stepping stones of making everyone a suspect before we hit the largely routine "oooohhh it was them that did it" ending.

 
The film celebrates London quite nicely, with big glossy aerial shots of the city and a just about believable look at the city's youth and crime scene (though it has to be said, it's quite as gritty as it thinks it's being).

 

Video

This is a sharp, detailed video image that once again looks very much like an HD presentation of a TV show rather than having the slick stylings of a film. The transfer has a creamy HD look to it with reds and blues popping off of the screen throughout. Blacks are nice and deep, skin tones and textures are above average and everything says 'High Definition' every step of the way. Lighting is strong and natural and the blinking lights of London at night look very good as they glow off of the screen. It's a pretty looking transfer throughout but it never quite hides the low budget of the project.

 

Audio

The DTS-HD Master Audio track provides a crisp clear audio track but the timid score screams British TV drama in the majority of the scenes. There's a couple of well placed bassy beats and the soundtrack has its share of urban/dance music flavours to add a bit of drive here and there but these really only provide spikes in a largely flat, quite typical track for the genre and indeed the budget.

 

Extras

The 'Interview Gallery' has eight cast members to choose from but at best we only get about 90 seconds out of each of them. The 'Cast and Crew Featurette' doesn't offer a lot more than that either at a mere 4 minutes and thirty odd seconds. There are also two music videos, the trailer and some 'Also Available' trailers.

 

Overall

Twenty8K wants to be edgier than it is and only really offers slices of the real world it's trying to depict, instead it falls back on crime solving clichés to keep the mystery going. The disc looks great, sounds pretty good but offers up little in the way of extras. This one deserves a look if you like the genre and the culture its set in but it's not exactly going to set British film making on fire on the world stage.