Dead Man's Cards

Thought that nightclubs were run by nice charming businessmen who wouldn't hurt a fly? Although Dead Man's Cards is one of the grittiest crime thrillers in British cinema since the gold standard of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, it should be enough to at least make you wonder if nightclubs aren't really controlled by the long arm of nasty criminal types, whether in knuckle dusters or smart suits.

I started watching this movie not expecting to like it, and there being more f-words in the first few minutes than my mother could have endured without fainting, felt my expectations were going to be fully realised, but it wasn't long before I had to admit I'd got it wrong. Dead Man's Cards breathes life into a genre that too often sags under the weight of its own excesses, and comes up with a hand of aces.

Ex-boxer Tom gets a job as a bouncer at a dive, much to his wife's disgust, and is soon initiated into the refined way of doing things. "If you wanna do someone in, take 'em out the back - no cameras," advises fellow doorman Paul. This being an age of political correctness, they undergo one of the legally required courses in non-violent restraint, which provides more opportunities for grim humour as Paul shows the instructor how to get out of his judo holds. Club manager Billy (Tom Bell) dresses as a cowboy, lives in fantasy land, and likes to think he's in charge until there's some argument about the going rate for security, at which point he hastily backtracks. Tom's wife wants to "do something like a normal couple" and whisks hubby off to communion, but he's still recovering from the night before and has to rush outside the church to vomit. He and Paul try to maintain their decency by brute force in the face of pressure from bigger club owners, but there's a limit to everything, including how many conflicting loyalties you can juggle especially with drug-fuelled hangovers and a slutty gun-toting barmaid determined to take advantage.

Many British gangster movies since Lock Stock (with the notable exception of Sexy Beast) foundered on too much comedy, complex and unrealistic plots, unconvincing characterisation or simply lack of talent. Dead Man's Cards cleverly succeeds where others have failed. Its only fault is that you could possibly struggle with the Liverpudlian accents, or it may be too violent for some viewers, but if the subject matter offends, you've been warned! There's no overriding message that I could discern, no lingering Oscar-worthy close-ups where we are invited to admire some unspoken subtext, just thumpingly honest entertainment that doesn't pull its punches. Director James Marquand's has scored a hit with first feature film, and we can only hope that, rather than be tempted to make Dead Man's Cards II, he goes on to make more equally original and incisive work.

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.

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.

I happened upon this movie by chance on Amazon late night recently. It is reminiscent of many of the small-scale British movies that came out in the 2000s. It does not have extravagant cinematography or anything extreme as far as sex or violence goes. Despite being unremarkable, this film still manages to be entertaining.

The two leads are well-cast and do the bulk of the acting in the movie. There is enough backstory provided for the audience to believe in the two leads. The villains of the movie who turn up at the bar are forgettable. The bar owner who dresses like a "Yank" had some good lines.

The fight scenes are very quick. They do happen with enough frequency to keep the viewer engaged with the story, though.

This is not a must-see film by any means. If you enjoy watching men be men on screen drinking, fighting and coming to terms with their mistakes in life, then this is a film for you.

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.