Dead Man's Cards

At this year's Edinburgh Festival, this movie truly made my week. Having for days been dragged through venues awash with self-conscious student theatre, the unpretentious grit of this film put me back on track.

No navel-gazing drama here, but a wonderfully darkly lit wide-screen world, filled with recalcitrant doormen (Paul Barber and James McMartin), a deluded wanna-be cowboy bar owner (Tom Bell), a cuddly crackhead (Andrew Scofield), and an array of Scouser cameos, delivering some of the off-hand comedy that flickers up here and there.

No message-laden, finger-wagging narrative either – instead we're dealt a strangely suspended, grimy, but somehow life-affirming status quo. One or two of the film's fight scenes might just be the other side of violent for some – but these punches look real and like they might actually hurt – rather than the usual slickly choreographed superhero stuff. Do not try this at home.

Do, on the other hand, go and see this movie – it feels real too.

I enjoyed this gritty violent and quite amusing gangster flick. Its such an awful world that some people live in, it makes you grateful for what you have! Perhaps I am easily pleased. I don't care, at least I rarely get disappointed! I love British cinema. Its my home. People should be less critical, cinema is usually fiction, or someone Else's portrayal of real events. It cannot, by its very nature be 'REAL'. Unless its a first person documentary, even then its their take on events. Chill out and enjoy what out there; sometimes you have to turn your brain off; that does not mean you can't enjoy a bag of popcorn and a bottle of pop and make an evening of it!

A story of non-violent men in a terribly violent life.

Suffering from an unfortunate title and a stupid poster, this movie is easy to brush off, since scores of bland, copycat movies have already been made about the gritty backstreets of London. However, give this one a try. You won't be disappointed. In fact, it's a gem in its niche genre.

Paul is a bouncer. He has a face that looks like he's been run over by a train. His job is beating people up. He's the kind of man that you don't want to cross paths with.

However, just like the movie's poster and title, this first image is misleading. Paul is also surprisingly aware. He's aware of the people around him, he's aware of how they feel, what they think. He's good at his job not because he hits harder than the other guys, but because he's alert of the customers and can sense trouble before it starts. The only thing he couldn't predict (or predicted, but couldn't stop) is his ex, who left him for a shady (and of course, richer) club owner.

Tom, a successful ex-boxer but down on his luck, is hired by Paul. Paul has followed his career, knows him better than he knows himself, both respects and pities him for refusing a payment to take a dive in the past, and also recognizes his weakness, which is his own weakness: although these are tough guys by definition, dealing in delivering and taking brutal beatings on a daily basis, they also have strong emotional, human sides, which they subconsciously hide. In their gritty world, humanity is a weakness and there's no place for it. Any snotty drunk kid can pull a gun and shoot them, any loser who they escort out could be waiting around the corner with a knife the next evening. They need to be alert at all times, and above all, they always need to have cool heads.

The film doesn't really have a deep story, or what you could call a plot, but it has interesting characters in a setting where you don't expect to find anyone interesting. It won't be among anyone's top 10, or even top 100, but it's definitely worth seeing.

Watch for British legend Tom Bell, in a small role as a pub owner.

Dead Man's Card's is a very good vs bad sort of London East End Western. It even has a saloon. The set up of the bar/nightclub, gave me some pause. It seemed too small to need two obviously A-grade bouncers. But I stayed with it and saw that, on certain nights, they somehow fitted in large crowds. By then I was starting to admire all the different characters. This is a very well cast and acted British crime movie, with an authentic script. I liked how the picture became more and more complicated. There was one character, a former mate of one of the bouncers, whom I thought the writers must have added in order to make up a full hand of character types, the problem being his story never really made any sense at all. In fact the premise for the movie fell a little short in my opinion. Like I said, a little bit too Western, but enjoyable if you like British realism and certainly worth a 7.

Very watchable, Brit crime drama, with a decent cast of actors and the fine Tom Bell, as a club owner called Billy the Cowboy. I really like the gritty feel to this one where others will no doubt see low budget. it has a realistic, low level Gangster vibe and when the retribution is dished out, it pulls no punches. I really miss the great acting talents of Tom Bell, in my mind the finest ever, British Actor.