No budget turd, unbelievable performances. Only thing good about this film is you can see how bad it is in the first two minutes so you can shut the thing off and stick it in the microwave on high before you die of boredom. Compare this film to a grade school play that your kid isn't in, so you don't have to watch it. The makers of this film ought to be embarrassed. They probably would have made more money by dancing in front of the bus station holding paper cups and calling for spare change. It sure would have been more entertaining to watch. Here is a tip for the makers: Next time you have an idea for a film, watch television instead, preferably reruns of "I Love Lucy". No reason we should be the only ones suffering. Avoid this refuse.

Every Danny Dyer fan should see this film. And so should he.For those who don't know, Danny Dyer is an actor has built an inexplicably successful career playing geezerish mockney gangsters and football hooligans. He also presents "Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men", a morally-questionable piece of reality TV in which he pals around with various low-level gangsters, celebrating their violent actions. Recently, Dyer made the sort of viciously misogynous "joke" one of the characters in his films, or one of his new gangster pals would make in a cheap lads' mag renowned for its Neanderthal attitude to women, and sparked a national outcry. Dyer very quickly backtracked, claiming to have been misquoted, expressing bewilderment as to how such a misunderstanding might have occurred. This is what happens to people who hang around with gangsters and criminals: they lose their distance, their objectivity; they become trapped in situations they did not initiate. Their laddish power fantasies turn nasty; spiral totally out of control. I found myself thinking of Danny Dyer and his fans a lot while I was watching DIARY OF A BAD LAD, Pleased Sheep Productions' ferociously intelligent study of the media's obsession with, and complicity in, modern criminality. The story is a simple one, a morality play for the modern age. Disgraced film lecturer and would-be documentary filmmaker Barry Lick has a project he believes will be the making of him: a no-holds barred documentary investigation into the alleged criminal activities of a dodgy local businessman who for legal reasons he can only identify as "Ray Topham". Recruiting a team of his own former students, Barry's quest leads him to "Topham's" "Security Consultant", Tommy Morghen, who offers all of the access the filmmakers could wish for. But Tommy is a smarter player than Barry and his callow crew could possibly imagine, and is exploiting them for his own ruthless ends…What gives Bad Lad its unique edge is its approach, the dextrous way in which it blurs the boundaries between the real and the reconstructed. An object lesson in low budget film-making; in making the best of use of available facilities; the film is shot entirely in grainy TV-documentary style, with scenes actually cut together from much longer in-character interviews and fly-on-the-wall sequences. Dialogue is a mixture of tight scripting and controlled improvisation. The cast is a carefully selected mixture of professional actors and "real" people. The filmmakers play fictional versions of themselves - young filmmakers just out of university, enlisted by their former tutor for a project that all of them see as a ticket to that much-coveted media job. Writer / Producer / Star Jonathan Williams really is a former film tutor, and director Michael Booth was one of his students. Various shady local "characters", such as Nicky Lockett (MC Tunes) appear as "themselves". This intricately-constructed quasi-reality really allows the actors to shine. All are on peak form. Joe O'Byrne delivers a mesmerising performance as the charming, terrifying sociopath Tommy Morghen, Donna Henry is a brittle mixture of defiance and vulnerability as exploited drug courier and porn starlet Joanne, and there are stand-out tragi-comic supporting turns from Clyve Bonnelle as an ill-fated junkie and James Foster as one of Tommy's more hapless victims.The result is one of the most plausible and convincing faux-documentaries ever made. So authentic is the film's recreation of the modern documentary style, and so credible its performances and depiction of Northern Gangland, that when lead actor Joe O'Byrne appeared in character as the gangster Tommy Morghen to introduce a screening at the BBC in London, somebody actually called security. But such attention to detail is only half the story. What gives the film its teeth is the extraordinary, multi-layered script, which is able to slide effortlessly from wince-inducing comedy of embarrassment into bone-chilling cruelty and violence and back again, and which boils with rage at our gangster-fixated, morally empty Reality-TV-dominated freak-show culture. The real monster in the film is not Tommy Morghen, it is the increasingly deranged and self-justifying filmmaker, Barry Lick, who tells one traumatized documentary subject, with an almost Satanic relish: "We can do anything we like - you signed a release!" With such an attitude, Barry's future in TV would seem guaranteed. The only problem is, he signed a contract of his own

I saw this film in Manchester at the Deansgate cinema and I enjoyed following the fortunes of the characters in this lively portrayal of the North West's criminal underground.The film's characters were the best part of the film for me. Each character gave the film an edge which made the film addictive. From the ruthless gangsters to the lads stuck with a overdosed addict on their hands the films moves you from black comedy to quiet interest in how the criminals ordered and profited from their world.The true test of a good film is whether you could watch it twice and still be entertained and I think this film falls into this category well.An excellent film, well worth seeing.

Caught this one in Manchester at Kino. An interesting and well made movie that uses it's low budget combined with it's central theme to full advantage in order to keep the audience entertained. Perception is a funny thing and Diary of a Bad Lad uses this to toy with it's viewers throughout. For the first time viewers it may appear to be a genuine documentary which helps catch them off guard before playing with their expectations until the final seconds. Quite where it is heading (or, indeed, how far it will go) is never certain and this allows Diary of a Bad Lad, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left before it, to keep people on the edge of their seats. It should also be noted that the film is very funny and a showcase for some great British acting talent. This is the kind of independent movie that doesn't "need" support - it deserves it. Definitely worth seeing if you get chance!