Review by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan, Kimberley Nixon, James Nesbitt, Paul Garret,
Niamh Quinn, Paul Kennedy, Conor MacNeill, Greer Ellison, Kat Kirk | Written by Daragh Carville
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £17.99 | Runtime 86 minutes | Directed by Lisa Barros D'Sa & Glenn Leyburn
In a move clearly designed to start throwing off his Harry Potter shackles, Cherrybomb sees Grint drinking, smoking, snorting coke and having sex. And still being one of the dullest actors the UK has ever produced.
Malachy (Grint) is spending his summer working at the local leisure centre, run by David Crilley (Nesbitt). When Crilley's daughter Michelle (Nixon) returns home from living with her mother in London, Malachy and best mate Luke (Sheehan) vie for her attention. Yes, it's Rebel Without a Cause with a touch of Skins and Sleep With Me thrown in for good measure.
Young Rupert is clearly outshone by Sheehan and Nixon in this belfast-based "coming of age" tale of three teens engaging in a summer of recless fun. As well as the aforementioned drinking and drugtaking, the trio and their friends also engage in a bit of theft, joyriding, breaking and entering, and vandalism – you know, all the behaviour that the normal British teenager gets up to these days. Behaviour that would have the average Daily Mail reader frothing at the mouth, and in need of a cup of tea and a good lie down. Despite good performances from both Sheehan and Nixon, and a pretty rocking soundtrack (that does, ues, include the song Cherrybomb, but not the original version) the film is let down by a lacklustre script that fails to excite.
EXTRAS ★★ A 23-minute featurette called The Making of Cherrybomb (which is pretty self explanatory); and Getting Intimate With Rupert and Robert, which is 10-minutes' worth of interviews with Grint and Sheehan,which appear to have been taken from the press junket for the film.