Twin Town [1997]

The film's real theme is the social divide between the different sides of the city expressed through the drug habits of the characters - the posh crook in the ranch-style 'Ponderosa' bungalow trying to get in with the big money heroin set versus the petty glue-sniffing underdogs. The bit where they escape in the yacht might not be the strongest ending in the world dramatically, but it made me split my sides just at the thought of swansea east low-life beating the other side at their own game (and nicking the yacht into the bargain!)

I don't think you have to be from Swansea to enjoy these themes, most big towns probably have similar social divides and tensions, and the myth that there is a single drugs culture is pretty universal too!


This film is pure quality.   March 7, 2003
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

What can I say about this film besides the fact that it is one of my all time favourites. I suppose being from Swansea where the film was based makes it even more hilarious as I actually have met characters like those in the film.
The opening sequences just set the scene for the whole film. A crazy car ride with the twins taking a chunk out of Terry Walshes car resuling in the first line of the film being "F**king Dead. F**king dead as F**k!"
There are some absolutely classic scenes in the film, the Hot dog van being one of my favourites, the one with Mrs Mott and the Diazepam in the stolen BMW and who could forget the boys stealing the hearse with their fathers coffin in from outside the church!
As the film progresses, the theme does get a little darker and grittier, there are what some would call unsavoury scenes. However, it has to be said, the whole film from beginning to end is just a ride through a crazy little town called Swansea full of drugs, car thiefs, bent coppers, local gangsters and their henchmen, prostitutes and supprisingly some real community spirit and family love shown supprisingly by the twins.
Lets all go sing on Mumbles Pier.


My film of the decade   September 7, 2002
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Black humour at is best. A wry and unapologelic look at the seedier side of the South Wales social divide (with a few jests directed at the English thrown in). The 'twins', brothers marked out as losers at the start, are shown with their discordant but aimable family- well meaning parents and 'tart-with-a-heart' sister.
After a scene-setting but fast paced start the plot thickens in a local police/ rugby/ mafia-style drugs wrangle where the 'twins' finally triumph in an eloquant and poiniant finale to a Male Voice Choir. A memorable film with some brilliant one-liners (which have become de rigour in my household and family!)it still has great charm and sense of humour- not to everyone's taste but one I would strongly recommend to all who like the British style of humour.


Hilarious Comedy   August 19, 2003
Georginetto
13 out of 20 found this review helpful

From the very start this movie gets you in the right moood. Swansea's working class is portraid greatly in this comedy. " I want my Compensation" Fatty says and that says it all. . This is a good movie that reflects on values not forgotten by what appears to be low lifes but are heroes in their own sense and world.


Twin Town deserves better   August 16, 2006
Mr Peckham (London)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

I enjoyed Twin Town. If this film had been made in Italy, or Spain, or France, it would have been acclaimed as a great "foreign" black comedy, and won a BAFTA or two. Because it was made in a "foreign" part of the United Kingdom, British film critics damned it. Well, what do you expect?