On The Beat

This is a sequel to one of my absolute favourite films from the competition last year. Without context this is an excellent musical, actors who can actually sing, people we're told are attractive are played by attractive actors, this film rose above so many common pitfalls of the competition. Featuring at least three distinct, pretty catchy songs and some great performances this film really is a complete package. I did find their approach to Ultra quite interesting, taking more of a spin-off style, following the best actor winning Charlie Flowers from last year's adventure and following him on his next case. Flowers was one of the most fully realised, hilarious characters I've ever seen in the competition so I was a bit disappointed not to see as much of his charm shine through, we didn't get to see a lot of what made the character special. As I said before, without context this was an amazing little short and it still is, it's just tough to judge it because it's either a great approach to Ultra i.e. doing a spin-off; or a bit thoughtless, simply having the same actor play someone in the same profession as last year.

ON THE BEAT might be one of the best approaches to Ultra in the competition, which from what I've seen has managed to trip up almost every 'established' team who've taken it on. ON THE BEAT is the BETTER CALL SAUL to ROLLERS' BREAKING BAD, and I think the 'spin-off' method is something a lot of other teams maybe should have done as well. The songs are great, the story is gripping and it was genuinely a treat to see the best Charlie Flowers from last year back on screen, though as Richard mentioned, he didn't quite have the same charm of thoughtfulness as he did in ROLLERS, which would have been nice to see. Reminds me of how much Jeff Goldbloom's characterization changes between the first and second JURASSIC PARK films. Still, far and away one of the best 48hours films I've seen this year, will definitely make it far and could even win.