A case study: "Just for the Record"

By way of a case study, let's consider "Just for the Record", which according to the Film Distributors' Association opened on May 7, 2010 - although repeated checks of listings magazines around the time suggested it opened on a grand total of precisely zero screens. A micro-budget spoof of micro-budget British filmmaking - starring many of the individuals who've made micro-budget British films such depressing chores to sit through over the past few years - it proved unexceptionally terrible, despite the high expectations established by Geoff Bell's opening line ("You couldn't direct a turd out of an arsehole"); Craig Fairbrass, playing a miffed financier, sums the whole enterprise up nicely with his reaction to the fictional film-within-the-film ("Faaaaaaack me, what a load of old shit").

Well, fair enough - and the absence of any press screening presumably meant the distributors had high hopes of Just for the Record becoming a cult audience favourite. (Yes, I said cult.) But let's consider some of the reviews of the film posted by users of the lovefilm website, to wit:

We usually love Danny Dyer's movies but this one is BAD!!! Don't bother wasting your time its really not worth it!!!

For a film premise that had huge potential (modern day, 'Spinal Tap' on the film industry), this film was very much a let down from the start. The premise of the film looked good from the synopsis but after watching just 5 minutes of the film I was left confused and disgusted with the direction and purpose of the film. Horribly written, awful characters, poor casting and a director with no imagination. It's a let down from the start - I had to stop watching after 45 minutes. This 'Film' (if you can call it that) shows that regardless of poor dialogue, awful characters, poor casting (I could go on...) 'ANY' script has the potential to be produced, as long as you have some big names involved in the project. Complete DUD - Stay away from watching this. All copies of this film should be burnt and everyone should pretend that this film never happened (I'm sure actors involved try to).

as this film had Danny Dyer in i thought it would be good.How wrong could i be, this fill if awful. Dont bother.

O M G What was the point of making this film i've written better stuff on toilet paper while waiting for the plop.