Boston Kickout

If you’re curious what Andrew Lincoln was up to before battling zombies in The Walking Dead, or what John Simm was up to before turning into a time-traveling detective in Life On Mars, or what Marc Warren was up to before indulging in a bit of Hustle, than BOSTON KICKOUT, a gritty kitchen sink-drama from 1995 set in Stevenage, will provide the answer. Just released in 4K Blu-ray, the film celebrates its 30th Anniversary.

To put it upfront, the film doesn’t have a padded out plot in the traditional sense. More to the point, it depicts the humdrum existence of a bunch of teenagers in Stevenage, at one point hailed as a new town with plenty of opportunities though for our anti-heroes (actually, anti hero is too grand a word for them) it’s a place where they feel stifled, trapped and bored. This boredom, combined with a lack of opportunities, is in part the catalyst for a ‘game’ they play at the start of the film, it’s called Boston Kickout and involves vandalising gardens and greenhouses of their various neighbours. Charming!

The lads in question are Phil (John Simm), Ted (Andrew Lincoln), short fuse Robert (Marc Warren) and Steven (Richard Hanson). They drink too much, smoke too much and generally indulge in creating chaos and mayhem with bugger all to do in their lives - at one point, while out for a nightly spin (drunk, of course), one of the lads accidentally chucks his bottle of Vodka out of the window. As they stop the car in order to retrieve the bottle, Phill happens to spot a deer peeking out from behind a bush. Fascinated, he attempts to take a few pics with his very professional looking camera (do you normally take a camera with you on a nightly spin and anyway, how could he afford it?) when one of the others does something to scare the deer away and thus ruin Phil’s photographic opportunity. “You fxxxxxg asshole” yells Phil angrily.

During another night out in town, Ted (drunk again) drives his car into a shop, though it looks like he did so on purpose, wrecking everything in the process. No wonder that Phil, who has a very strained relation with his Dad, has had enough of Ted and decides to spend more time with Robert. Bad idea, seeing how Rob is borderline psychopathic and with his near shaven head, looks like the perfect skinhead in the making. He also always had grand ideas with regards to earning big spondulix without the need to take a proper job, but his lack of intelligence scupper any success with regards to carrying out his various plans - not to mention his overall aggressive demeanour and generally giving Phil a hard time. Meanwhile, Steven tries hard to please his parents, but only succeeds in resorting to dope use and worse.

Out of the lot, it’s Phil who has to deal with the bulk of disappointments and frustrations. There seems to be a turning point when his cousin Shona (Emer McCourt) arrives from Ireland for a holiday (what, in Stevenage?) and Phil falls for her hook, line and sinker. His happiness is short-lived however when, in a moment of insane impulse, books a trip on a ferry and turns up at Shona’s family home on Emerald Island. He’s ecstatic, she’s less so… Later that evening in a pub, complete with pints of Guinness and a Ceilidh band playing, Shona let’s the cat out of the sack - namely that to her, their romantic encounter was little more than a holiday fling and that she wished he wouldn’t have turned up at all at her Mum’s house. There’s also the fact that she is the mother of a two-year old child, something she conveniently didn’t tell him while on holiday. Shona to Phil: “There is no us! There is you, and there is me, but no us and that’s it!” Oh dear.

Things get from bad to worse when back in Stevenage, Phil’s dad attempts suicide though ironically, this act of desperation marks a turning point between father-and-son relations. then there’s the botched robbery… Well, you need to watch the film if you want to find out how the story ends for our four lads. If it all sounds a bit bleak than yes, it is - how could it be any other way but it’s great to see Simm, Lincoln and Warren in impressive early performances (that also goes for the lesser known actors here) and the bleakness is uplifted courtesy of a 90’s killer soundtrack (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays etc).

The Limited Edition 4K UHD+Blu-ray release offers the following Bonus Material:?Various commentaries / ‘Making of Feature’ / ‘Made in Tokyo’ - brand-new and exclusive short film by director Paul Hills / 4K restoration trailer / UK and US trailer / Deleted scenes / Storyboard / Stills gallery / Postcards / Poster.