4.3.2.1 (2010)

"4 Girls, 3 Days, 2 Cities, 1 Chance. ". While Jo (Roberts) is chained down in a dead end supermarket job, her friends are all out on their own separate adventures: Cassandra (Egerton) is jetting off to New York to meet her Internet boyfriend; Kerrys (Warren-Markland) is on a one woman crusade fighting for female liberation and Shannon (Lovibond) is on a one way trip to meet her maker. REVIEW From the director of Adulthood comes a shaggy dog story that seems to go on forever: Each girl has her little segment over the same time period before their stories meet up at the end. There are some ingenious touches here and there, but this is certainly a lot less clever than it thinks it is. None of the individual parts rises above the mediocre, and most will bore you before the end with the unpleasant characters and the overuse of street slang. Note to the writer: throwing in gratuitous sex scenes might be a good diversion, but it can't distract us if the plot is poor and the performances aren't up to standard. It's also slightly ironic how this supposed celebration of 'girl power' is probably one of the most sexist films I've seen in it's depiction of women as either dumb bimbos or sex obsessed lesbians. It's perfectly watchable, but I can't help thinking there are better movies on TV right now, more deserving of your time.

Lorenzo von Matterhorn

A generic and immature offering. The film is entertaining, if you can slide aside some terrible performances. It's something a teenager would write after watching Lock,Stock. Pulp Fiction and GO. Those fast paced crime films reveled in their daft dialogue, awesome soundtrack choices, and large ensembles. Unfortunately, 4.3.2.1 seems as though nobody read the thing before making it. The huge amount of coincidences do nothing but cheapen the film. As the four stories are revealed, some seem to have nothing to do with anything, while others have so much going on it's impossible to give a fudge. Why did I need to see the story about a girl going to New York, being tricked into sex, etc. I don't know. Other than it opening up some American locales and bizarre Kevin Smith/Mandy Patenkin roles appearances. I don't mind a few "What are the odds?" moments in my movies, but this film is dependent on them. In a true sign of incompetent writing, every time the film hits a dead end, a lucky coincidence kicks the story down the road. If you stick films on and don't intend to think about it ever again, then you should watch this. It can be a bit infuriating for others.