Among Dead Men (2008) User Reviews

I wish the fights were filmed better

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 9 February 2010]

Weakly shot action film about a man who makes his money in illegal fights. After he accidentally kills someone and is sent to jail his former boss conspires to get him back into the ring.

The actors aren't bad, they all look mean and imposing. Their fights are pretty good, or would be if they weren't ruined by bad camera work which keeps the view in constant motion, often looking away from the action. The film is further weakened by some interludes of quiet contemplation and deep narration which look good but feel really out of place. Points for their trying to be more than just an action film but just as many away for not making it work.

Its a snoozer.

A true fail.

[Cookiesfordinner · 2/10 · 13 December 2012]

At first I was excited to see this! As the first fight popped up, I was pumped. Then I watched it and it was truly a fail. I kept on watching and realize how the acting felt like a YouTube video... The camera moves more than it should, it closes up so much. It gets you dizzy and makes you take medicine. The fighting scenes were a big disappointment, even children of Asia could do better. It is truly the worst fighter movies I have seen. Hate all you want, but on the range of movies I watched. None can get worse than this. Even martial art videos chereograped on YouTube are way more entertaining than this. Fights on this are so slow and truly a laugh. I am big fan of fights and this one made me lose that pride. Also, the ladies on this movie have butter faces and they can't even make me happy because their acting is literally worser than a middle schoolers drama class. This is truly your fail movie.

Let down by being made in the first place.

[danblukk · 1/10 · 29 August 2011]

I don't know what film the other reviewers were watching but this has got to be one of the worst films I've ever seen.

OK, so the film had zero budget to play with, man does it look that way.

The camera work looks like it was filmed on a home video camera. The main fighter uses the same fight moves in every single fight he has with the same sound effects, groans, thumps, whacks etc. All used over and over again from the first fight you see. Apart from the fact you can hardly watch the fights cause the camera works shakes about so much or is far to close up to the action you cant really tell whats happening. I can see the were trying to make it look more brutal with the shaky camera but it just gets annoying.

The best fight by far was when the lead actor fought a Chinese kung fu guy and thats mainly cause of the other guys kung fu moves and it's sad to watch the lead actor using the same group of punches and knees to defeat everyone he comes up against.

I tried to watch as much of this film as I could. I could tolerate all of the above to get through it but by far the worst bit was the acting which eventually made me turn it off and flick through it.

I'm a huge martial arts film fan and have sat through some of the worst acted stuff about, going back to the old Chinese dubbed stuff which I could still sit though but this I just couldn't take no more.

Anyone wanting to watch a brutal no holds barred fighting flick then stick with something like Undisputed 3.

Brilliant !!

[leiritaze · 10/10 · 7 August 2010]

According to Filmtreat.com this film Have already returned is budget several times.Low Budget Films with a budget under 1.000.000 USD are in General and most of the time of poor Quality standards in matter of production Values and actions sequences.This 7000 AUD Feature Film Has more Grunt and Humanity then most of The Newly Fantasized UFC Fever MMA Pseudo Martial Art Flick.This no Budget little film managed to win a Award for is Fights in 2008 International Action On Film Festival relying only on the strength and Talent of is Actors, Director and writers.What a amazing achievement on is own,of course we can pick many faults due to low end equipment and some can also pin point the quality of the Audio recording of the Voice Over but at the end of the day Nobody can ignore that this guys got Talent and are to be watched closely when they would manage to get another project under a proper financial scheme.I have found the real strength of this Film to be the underlying message that the main Character was more of a victim of is own making that only redemption would take him out of this deadly Game, Very touching and very Human.

Let down by poor acting

[pcoxfilmco · 6/10 · 17 April 2010]

According to the box office link, this film cost $7000 to make. If true then the film makers should be applauded. Putting that to one side, this film becomes one of extremes. It goes from good to bad then back again which makes the overall viewing experience a frustrating one. Some of the acting is very good but this is overshadowed by several poor performances. The sidekick character is one noticeable culprit, as is the love interest. The fights also suffer from extremes. The first brawl and the villain's back alley fight against three toughs are fast and exciting, but unfortunately when it really counts, the standard is sub par. The fight where the leading man kills his opponent and his final confrontation with the villain are exceptionally weak and these are the fights which should have been the strongest. Overall, the film is a mish mash of ideas that lack consistency. The bizarre narration is poorly written and leaves the viewer scratching his head while many of the confrontational scenes work quite well. The leading man is physically awesome but one dimensional, the bad guys are good as are some of the smaller character parts. Where this film stands out though is in the camera direction and editing. With such a low budget, maybe my criticism is too harsh because there are big budget films out there that don't match up to this one. To wrap up, this film is good on a technical level but it's a shame that some of the on screen talent just weren't up to scratch.

Great Debut Film, shows a lot of potential

[the_blade08 · 8/10 · 12 April 2010]

I've heard rumblings of this film for the past few years as it was shot in and around The Gold Coast and my home town of Brisbane. Was pleased to see that it finally got a release, albeit everywhere else but Australia! Got a copy off Amazon and I would have to say I was quite impressed by what I saw.

The story is pretty simple, former street fighting champ goes to jail for killing an opponent. Upon his release, he wants to go straight, but the powers that be are trying to force him back in the ring.

For a debut film I would have to say I was very impressed with what the filmmakers were able to pull off with what looked like quite a low budget. The piece is tightly edited together with some great camera work, especially in the action pieces. The film moves along very nicely, with enough action to keep everyone pleased. The fight scenes are a plenty,most of them very brutal and frenetic. The film shows of the Gold Coast well, with plenty of exotic locations and exotic woman to keep everyone interested.

The acting on the whole was pretty decent, lead man El Rico plays it well as the ex-fighter just wanting to go straight. The bad guys are very imposing, with main enforcer Wade Bull giving the film some of its most brutal and violent moments.

On the whole, Among Dead Men is definitely worth a watch. There are some plot inconsistencies and love interest does feel forced at some points, but all in all this is a great debut film. With his eye for sharp dialogue and even sharper action scenes, director James Richards may be one to watch. Here's hoping one day it will be available here in Australia!!

Great show-cast of Talents

[hart-sandford · 10/10 · 10 August 2010]

After following the progress of Action Director James Richard i finally acquired a copy of Among Dead Men who is now widely distributed in the united states by Amazon.com and Walmart superstores.I have watched and watched this film over 4 times now and thought to myself.what a incredible display of talents.The directing is exquisite and the Camera work spot on.The actors performances are actually good and I have enjoyed the lesser characters equally to the leads.This is a great little independent production that has been well promoted and sold by phase4films over the united states and Canada.The ethnic diversity of the casts is making this film a real melting pot of cultures taking the viewers from Hawaii to the Gold Coast of Australia in a blink of a eyes.The music is also a important factor of this martial art stunner with is full steam feature of style ranging from Kick Boxing,wing chun Kung Fu and Chinese boxing.all scores will be settled in this game of death.