Rollin' with the Nines

Touting itself as ‘the first true Gangsta movie to be produced and shot in the UK’, this crime thriller turns out to be a familiar package of gun-porn, car chases, and would-be tough-guy dialogue, all delivered with the intrusive self-consciousness that seems to bedevil low-budget British offerings aiming at Hollywood slickness.

The localised scenario has the latest south London urban music scene wannabes losing their founder (Simon Webbe of popsters Blue) over unpaid debts to a trigger-happy drug dealer, before the latter suffers the fatal ire of the victim’s sister (Naomi Taylor, somewhat overstated), who in turn starts shifting his regular supply. On the case, however, is a dodgy geezer detective (Terry Stone). Proceedings flip-flop from lip-smacking over burgeoning coke-powered enterprise to the window-dressing of cautionary-tale responsibility. The urban soundtrack may be the selling-point – there’s even a crack dealer cameo from Dizzee Rascal – but this rickety affair is deeply unpersuasive even on the exploitation-movie terms to which it undoubtedly aspires, notwithstanding a solid performance from Vas Blackwood as the dealer with divided loyalties.