Dead Cert

This movie wasn't entirely terrible but it certainly won't be embracing my DVD player for quite a while. It semi works as a gangster flick, in brief a rival gang tries to take over an established patch. This has worked in the past and could have possibly worked now. Considering the cast of British stars that appear in it, Craig Fairbrass, jason Flemyng and Dexter fletcher to name a few.

But then... The vampire bit seems to pop up. It feels like they couldn't really pick a decent way for the movie to go and decided it would be a good idea to throw a couple of bloodsuckers in. The culminating scene near the end of the movie becoming like a poor mans from dusk till dawn.

It falls slightly short of a gangster flick and slightly short of a horror flick it's one of those that I'm sure you will be on the fence about. The only real qualm i had with thee movie is billy murray's romanian character... Without a hint of a romanian accent Try the film by all means but don't get your hopes up to high.

A bit like my old school reports, Dead Cert invokes comments such as "Must try harder" or "Can do better" and "Needs to pay more attention."

A London gangster-vampire hybrid, which is a fine idea in itself, Dead Cert is a case of ambition running way ahead of ability in, well, just about every department! So badly do the two concepts fail to meld, or work even on their own individual basis, it makes me wonder what kind of script the film has. Did it even have one or were the cast allowed to busk their way through? There's certainly no sign of firm direction on show here.

Budgetary constraints are obvious, but time and again talent can cover for this if the core elements are present and correct. But where there is no drama or tension, where the characters are so flat as to be thinner than cardboard, then why should the audience care?

For a vampire movie, then the blood within the veins of "Dead Cert" was running awfully thin.

The story is about a group of Romanian thugs who move in on a British club owner, wanting to take over his business. Settling it all with a single fight, the Romanian wins and they take over the club, soon turning everyone within into vampires. However, the British gangsters want their club back and take up the fight against the vampires.

The storyline was fairly simple, and it was a good enough attempt at trying to mix the traditional vampire genre with the gangster genre, however, it took the movie more than halfway of its entire length before it got up in pace and started to become interesting. A sad fact, though, as I am sure many would fall through out of sheer boredom before that even happens. Then when the movie does pick up pace, it is nothing more than a mediocre experience.

Not boasting a super big budget is reflected in the production value, although I will say that I found that aspect of the movie to actually be good. They made what they had work and clearly didn't need a big million dollar (or pound) budget. However, the movie was just weighed down by a slow pace and a fairly uninspiring story.

As for the acting in the movie, well they did have some pretty good names on the cast list. Jason Flemyng (playing Chelsea Steve) had a small role, though his face always brings something great to a movie. Dexter Fletcher (playing Eddie Christian) also did a good job. Billy Murray (playing Dante Livenko) was the centerpiece of the movie, so to speak, with the most impressive role and performance. And lets not forget Steven Berkoff (playing Kenneth Mason) was also in the movie.

For a vampire movie, then "Dead Cert" was below average. It just lacked that motivation, characters that had personalities and weren't just generic characters, and most importantly, it lacked that special dark, romantic feel to it that all good vampire movies have.

So if you enjoy vampire movies, perhaps "Dead Cert" is not the best of choices, but still it did provide adequate entertainment, though I can honestly say that I will never watch it again, it just wasn't that appealing.

DEAD CERT is nothing more than a British rip-off of the ultra-cool vampire flick FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, with the action shifted to London and a cast of mildly familiar faces from British TV rather than big name stars. The biggest, and unfortunately, crippling, problem that DEAD CERT faces is that it was made with a very low budget, meaning the whole thing looks cheap, and also amateurish in places.

One-time hard-man Craig Fairbrass (DARKLANDS) plays a Cockney chap who's ploughed his life savings into opening a new club, only to have it taken over by Romanian gangsters who also happen to be vampires. Don't you just hate it when that happens? As in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, the first half is a typical gangster film while the second is a vampire-heavy set-piece.

Compare this to FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and you'll be disappointed, because it's nowhere near as good. The calibre of the script just isn't there and the special effects are entirely limited. Still, I went in expecting absolutely nothing, and as a result I found myself enjoying this. There are frequent funny moments, and it's great fun seeing all the familiar faces. The attempted additions to the vampire mythology are a hoot - apparently vampires are afraid of dogs and instead of using crucifixes, you only have to have something you have faith in. None of it makes much sense but it is fun.

Chief vampire duties are handed out to EASTENDERS actor and one-time insurance advert man Billy Murray, who perhaps wisely doesn't bother attempting an accent here. There are brief cameos from the likes of Jason Flemyng and Danny Dyer, along with a larger slice of the action from laughable one-time Hollywood star Steven Berkoff, who really does seem to have fallen on hard times. Watch out for THIS IS ENGLAND's Perry Benson and 300's Andrew Tiernan in supporting roles, and a fairly meaty part from the impossible to dislike Dexter Fletcher. Interesting, most of the main stars seem to have doubled up as producers, alongside Martin Kemp, so there's a lot of enthusiasm here; it's just a shame it's not matched by quality.

I wanted to disbelieve the bad reviews so went ahead and watched it anyway.... Absolutely was a waste of time. Fair to say I stayed awake, but that was only because I kept waiting for the vampire parts to begin. And when they did, they didn't make much sense to me. Maybe because of the accents, maybe the volume was too low, or maybe the movie just sucked but I had a hard time understanding what the heck was going on. Right to the very end.

On a positive note, the acting wasn't bad.... just what they were told to do was. These were some of the strangest behaved vampires I'd ever seen and I often shook my head in disbelief at the storyline. What I felt most during this movie, was annoyed.