An important story to tell no doubt, but as a film it's a disappointment in my opinion.

Of course I cared for the characters from the first second due to the obvious subject matter, but that's as far as I ever got. It's a long 143 minutes, with one scene in particularly lasting an age without really doing much; except the final act of it. A film needs to do more, if this was a documentary - even a docudrama - then fair enough but it isn't.

It also wastes a pretty top notch cast. John Boyega is in this, portraying Melvin Dismukes. The amount of times he's just there standing around doing n... read the rest.

Based on a true story, and on the facts - insofar as they will ever actually be known - this is a gritty and quite depressing depiction from Kathryn Bigelow of one traumatic night in the city. It was during a night of rioting that a squad of police officers respond to reports of gunshots at a city hotel. Upon entering they discover a group of black youths, a couple of white girls - and what follows is a potent mix of racial hatred, bigotry and violence as the boys in blue leave what integrity they might have had at the door and leave again with three dead bodies and nine others savagely beaten... read the rest.