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Yardie

Play trailer 0:59 Poster for Yardie 2019 1h 42m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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53% Tomatometer 76 Reviews 54% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
A man's quest for retribution brings him into conflict with a vicious London gangster.
Yardie

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Yardie proves debuting director Idris Elba has a distinctive eye that benefits from a strong personal connection to his material, even if the end results are somewhat uneven.

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Critics Reviews

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Peter Rainer FilmWeek (LAist) 09/24/2019
Fairly routine... I wish the ethnic aspects of this film had come to the fore more and that they had played down the druggie stuff that we had already seen a million times. Go to Full Review
Yolanda Machado TheWrap 03/15/2019
The acting is decent, the cinematography is well executed, and the music is on point, but the delivery and the tone are completely mismatched. Go to Full Review
Michael O'Sullivan Washington Post 03/15/2019
2.5/4
What sets Elba's movie apart is the distinctive world he creates, in the rhythm of the music, in the raw, gritty poetry of the language, and in the powerful mythology it mines. Go to Full Review
Calum Cooper Source (Scotland) 07/14/2024
2/5
The film does have its moments, both narratively and occasionally with how it portrays some scenes, but there just isn’t enough flare to its story or how its gritty themes are presented. Go to Full Review
Charlotte Harrison VultureHound 01/28/2020
2/5
Tonally uneven, too slow at some points and too speedy at others; it makes for an okay, if rather forgettable watch. Go to Full Review
Katie Smith-Wong Flick Feast 11/11/2019
3/5
[Idris] Elba isn't afraid to keep it real when it comes to visualising D's slow descent to darkness, transitioning from colourful Kingston to run-down, gritty London. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Laja F 07/17/2024 I grew up in London in the 1970s and could relate to the movie. It may be cliche, but then that was the reality at that time. I loved the film. Loved the patois, the authenticity is so rare these days. See more 12/27/2020 THIS WAS REAL, IF YOU HAD AN EXPOSURE TO THE CARRIBEAN COMMUNITY AND IF YOU HAD AN EXPOSURE TO DEALING WITH RUDE BWOYS, YOU WOULD KNOW THIS MOVIE WAS A SINCERE TRIBUTE. NOTHING WAS FALSE ABOUT THIS AT ALL... USUALLY A DEPICTION OF A COMMUNITY IN THE MEDIA ENDS UP BEING AN INSULT, BUT THE MOVIE YARDIE WAS A COMPLEMENT TO THE COMMUNITY. See more 04/06/2020 A young boy known as 'D' is growing up in 1970's Kingston when he sees his older brother gunned down while trying to bring peace to two warring gangs that have brought terror to the streets. This leads him onto a path where he finds himself working for Kingston gangster King Fox who soon despatches him to London to broker a deal with a vicious London gangster known as Rico. However, when he encounters the man who shot his brother ten years earlier things soon spiral out of control and D finds himself on the run from everyone after the deal goes south and secrets are revealed about who was really behind the shooting. Yardie is a decent portrayal of a young innocent's decent into darkness who is very much a product of his surroundings and the people he calls family. The film is Idris Elba's directorial debut and I felt he did a very good job at briniging some unique characters to the screen. The only character that did feel a little out of place was Stephen Graham as vicious London gangster Rico. Stephen Graham is more than a decent choice of villain but why have him with a really dodgy Jamaican accent? It's not the worse accent I have ever heard but the scouse does slip through occasionally and it would have been much better to have him play a Londoner, seemed like a very odd choice. Apart from that, it was an enjoyable crime thriller. See more 04/01/2020 I do love me some Idris. I did not care for this. I wanted to like it, but it didn’t really make any sense. I will admit I don’t know a lot about my Jamaican culture. Maybe there is some type of big connection between sounds and drug dealing but the movie failed to make it make any sense. It just failed to make any of the story really flow at all. While I also am no expert in the way Jamaicans speak, it seem the actors were over doing it a bit. Overacting quite a lot. See more charlie l 10/10/2019 It's deeply flawed narratively. See more 09/28/2019 This is flamboyant, colourful stuff. It's style over substance, with little social or political context. You need a major pinch of salt, as thugs roam the streets with guns and machetes. And there's not a strong female character to be seen. With the humour and violence sit uncomfortably together. So the film doesn't work, but for all that is an entertaining ride. See more Read all reviews
Yardie

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis A man's quest for retribution brings him into conflict with a vicious London gangster.
Director
Idris Elba
Producer
Gina Carter, Robin Gutch
Screenwriter
Martin Stellman, Brock Norman Brock
Distributor
Rialto Pictures
Production Co
Warp Films, BFI Film Fund
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
British English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 15, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 16, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$35.6K
Runtime
1h 42m
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)