i'm on the road like lines that are yellow

THE MOVEMENT DOCUMENTARY

If you've had to sit through any of the films that make up Peter Jackson's multi Oscar-winning Lord Of The Rings trilogies, you'll know that they are all pretty long. 'The Return of the King' is the longest of the three, clocking in at a seat-fidgeting 201 minutes (nearly three and a half hours). However, the length of the running time is more than justified by the amazing special effects, fantastic scripts and stories and the superb appearances from a host of Hollywood A-Listers, including Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen and Sir Ian McKellen.

The Movement Documentary is the same length, has no special effects, no script, story or coherent sense of structure and features mainly Ghetto, Scorcher and Wretch 32.

While this comparison may seem like a tenuous one, it is important because as much as I like The Movement – particularly Ghetto – they are demonstrating what can only be described as child-like optimism in hoping that anyone would be interested in watching them go about their day-to-day business for this length of time.

Having said that, there are some entertaining moments on this DVD; the Boy Better Know freestyle features some particularly impressive bars from Ghetto, Wiley and Skepta, and Mercston and Ghetto's tour of Bow has some funny bits too. The inclusion of so many music videos is a nice bonus and the footage from the making of The Streets' 'Prangin' Out' remix, in which every MC - apart from the typically business-minded Skepta - has left it until the day of recording to write their lyrics, becomes funnier and funnier the longer it seems to take (Ghetto claimes at one point, “it's not a good look, cos we've been writing these bars for four hours”), coming to its comic climax when Frisco arrives, stating - “I've only got two lines so far, so I'm getting back in the lab right now”. We can only assume that he is referring to a metaphorical 'lab', as he remains where he is sat and carries on writing.

Basically, this DVD has all the right elements but they're just never put to proper use. For example, during the section on Scorcher's release day from prison, we get a good couple of minutes of motorway scenery en route, we get Wretch telling us how early they've all had to get up and we get the boys having trouble finding a parking spot. The only thing we don't get is the moment when Scorcher actually comes out of prison. There's a cut and, suddenly, he's out and we're walking back to the car.

This sense of anticlimax sums 'The Movement Documentary' up pretty completely, to be honest. Despite the quality - and personality - of the major players (Wretch, Scorcher and [especially] Ghetto are all excellent MCs and lyrically they're leagues ahead of most of their peers) this DVD drags terribly towards the end and the fact that there is so little actual rapping or freestyling is a real let-down. The Movement have the talent to be one of the best grime groups around but they need to understand that this doesn't make their every move must-see entertainment. Let's hope they can do better on Volume Two; they undoubtedly have the potential to.