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Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Just perfect...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

best movie i've ever seen.

Loach has once again made a film about working class Britain, and filled it full of humour and heart.But as always with his films, soon after the humour comes a lot of pain, and even at the beginning when the two lovers meet, it's under depressing circumstances, and the relationship between them never really gets any better.Loach always manages to get great performances from all of his cast, and special mentions to Carlyle and Tomlinson, for putting in some very respectable performances. But the issue here is the class struggle, hence the title and the killing of the rats. To other classes, is this demographic of people classed as rats?The film asks a lot of questions, and thanks to the bleakness of the film and the settings, a lot of i is justified. But then Loach shows us that we are all the same when it comes to the bottom line, and no amount of scaffolding can change that.It packs a punch, but it's so full of rich humour and characters, the bleakness is almost lifted.

Ken Loach doing his usual social documenting of working class nitty grittiness.It's "Boys from the Blackstuff" meets "Auf Wiedersehen Pet"; indignant about the selfish "Me Me Me" property developer greed of the Thatcher years – but leavened by typical Scouse (and Manc) sarcasm, and softened with a short if not so sweet romance.Robert Carlyle is Stevie, fresh out of jail, and having a go at life outside Scotland; gets taken on as a construction worker; is found an empty council flat to squat; is quickly shacking up with Susie, a fragile, troubled, Irish singer. He's soon back into his petty thieving ways; knocking off machinery from the site. "Labourin is rubbish, boxer shorts is better (selling of)" seems to be the extent of his aspiration. Stevie and Susie are both "unstable" characters so arguing is bound to be happening; he's having to drag her out of bed: "Depression is for the middle classes – the rest of us have got an early start in the morning". Then he gets news his mothers died – so he's off up to Scotland for the funeral. Cue a black comedy scene at the crematorium with inept swinging of urn – mother ash thrown all over the party of mourners.Returning, Stevie is just in time to see Susie sticking a needle up her arm. It's at this point Robert Carlyle breaks out into a warm up version of Begbie from Trainspotting: nut-ting people in the gob, stamping on their wotsits etc. And as for Susie: She's dumped. End of. No sympathy with junkie smack-heads has Stevie. Or Begbie. Or even Robert Carlyle.Ricky Tomlinson is in the film too – as a mouthy Trade Union sympathiser, his Commie vitriol redeemed by sarky gags and loud laughing; a bit like a younger version of Jim Royle, minus the beard.Towards the end i was thinking: someone's gonna be falling off this dodgy scaffolding without his tin hat on in a minute – and sure enough, he was. And Them Barstewards are gonna have to pay for that. We need some Natural Justice here. Lets burn the whole flipping lot down. Any volunteers? Yeah. Stevie will do it. With glee.The film is unaffected in its down to earth portrayal of the working class bloke: the thieving cheating lying lazy barsteward that skives around as cheap casual labour on building sites while fiddling the dole type of working class bloke. The type that doesn't really give a monkeys. As long as it gets paid. Even if it doesn't get paid enough. Cus the company employing it is an exploitative cheating lying greedy barsteward too.Its a right riff raffy racket is the Building Trade. Seems to be the message. Something i – and all of us – knows already. So nothing new there then. But my – and your – cynicism will get a nice pat on its back.I wouldn't want any of this lot building a house for me.

This is a good film but what is great about it truly is the acting. I agree with the other poster here that the acting is phenomenal and the main actors in this movie truly shine as though they really are the characters they are playing in this film, 100% believable in their roles. Big congrats to the cast of this one for their great work. I only saw this by happenstance because my friend taped it on a cable channel years ago by mistake and we were looking for a tape to record a show while we were out and I said not to tape over this because it looked interesting, how about that? It's about the working class in England and seems to be very realistic about these hard working people who sometimes have very dangerous jobs they simply don't have any other choice of making a living. I am surprised never to have heard of this movie before but if you get a chance to watch it I would say check it out for sure if you are a fan of good acting :)

In some ways I felt as though I'd died and gone to heaven the first time I saw Riff Raff, an out and out honest look at working class men of varied, and sometimes dubious, backgrounds connected through their work on a construction sight in London.The cast of characters defines the term 'mixed bag'. I couldn't help but think of a half dozen or so Archie Bunkers on the job site, each one with their own set of priorities, talking about the most important thing in the world, to no one but himself. It all brings a smile to my face.Our closest look is at Stevie (Robert Carlyle of "The Full Monty"), a former petty thief, who works with a crew converting condos for the nouveau riche, while he's forced to break into an abandoned building just to find a place to squat.Director Ken Loach expertly focuses on the lower class in Britain (witness his brilliant 1999 feature-"My Name is Joe") where the honesty laced with humor of his viewpoint tends to provide humanity to an otherwise ignored sect. To shine a bit of light on an otherwise dismal existence as it may.Loach's characters are never overly redemptive: they don't hit the lottery; aren't left millions by a dead aunt; or marry a rich suitor. And the ending here is a bit short, trite. But they usually come through the film a little stronger having weathered their travails, feeling a little better about themselves. I dare say we come through feeling a little better about ourselves as well.