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Yardie

Play trailer 0:59 Poster for Yardie Released Mar 15, 2019 1h 42m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
53% Tomatometer 77 Reviews 53% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
A man's quest for retribution brings him into conflict with a vicious London gangster.
Yardie

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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

View All (77) Critics Reviews
Peter Rainer FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles) 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. Sep 24, 2019 Full Review Yolanda Machado TheWrap The acting is decent, the cinematography is well executed, and the music is on point, but the delivery and the tone are completely mismatched. Mar 15, 2019 Full Review Michael O'Sullivan Washington Post 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. Rated: 2.5/4 Mar 15, 2019 Full Review Calum Cooper Source (Scotland) 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. Rated: 2/5 Jul 14, 2024 Full Review Charlotte Harrison VultureHound Tonally uneven, too slow at some points and too speedy at others; it makes for an okay, if rather forgettable watch. Rated: 2/5 Jan 28, 2020 Full Review Katie Smith-Wong Flick Feast [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. Rated: 3/5 Nov 11, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (30) audience reviews
Laja F 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. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/17/24 Full Review Elixir G Honestly Idris did a great job as his first time behind the camera even though the story was predictable. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 04/26/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 04/01/20 Full Review charlie l It's deeply flawed narratively. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Yardie

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Cast & Crew

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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)