Billy Elliot DVD > Reviews > "What lads do wrestlin'?"

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	one of the best films ever
Disadvantages:	none that i can see

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Billy Elliot is one of my favourite films of all time and I enjoy it immensely each time I watch it (and i rewatch films a lot). Clearly a lot of people agree with me as it was a very successful and popular film, and not long ago was made into a west end musical by sir Elton John. Not bad for a kid from an unheard of town in County Durham, eh?

The story of Billy Elliot is fairly simple yet great. Billy Elliot is an eleven year old living in Everington in County Durham in the 1980s during the time of the miner's strikes. His family situation isn't great: they live in a poor area, his mam died a few years ago, his grandmother who lives with them is fairly senile, and his brother and dad are miners on strike and are rarely very happy with life. Billy's dad makes him go to boxing once a week even though he's pathetically bad at it, and so the boxing teacher makes him stay behind to practice on the punch bag. One day while doing this he ends up joining in with the ballet class being taught at the other end of the hall, where he discovers his talent and passion for dancing.

The rest of the story pretty much tells itself but its an amazing story and a heart-warming film. The acting is really good: especially Jamie Bell as Billy, who always manages to look fairly annoyed which suits the character well, except of course for when he's dancing.

However one of my favourite things about the film is the soundtrack, which contains some of the greatest songs from the last many years. The Clash's London Calling, and one of my favourite songs ever, 'A town called Malice', feature, to name a couple. You can buy the soundtrack to the film on CD which I might do since i love the music on the film so much.

In conclusion, I would recommend Billy Elliot to anyone, except for people who don't like films :). There's something in it that everyone will like, and of course, who doesn't love geordie accents? Summary: fabulous geordie ballet film ;)