Dead Draw

The story behind the movie. First film from director and writer, Brian Klemesrud, he was actually still working on the details of the script when he was to meet Gil Bellows about another movie being made, Mushroom Man. Unknown to Brian Gil had seen a copy of his draft for Dead Draw and he wanted Brian to make the movie and he would play the role of Harrison. Brian was still thinking it over when Gil contacted him and told him he needed to start shooting it in three months. They ended up shooting the movie in a total of 18 days after getting the money to fund it.

The movie is about the heist of 25 million dollars from a bank, where specific safety deposit boxes are selected. Harrison (Gil Bellows) is their leader and it is his 19th heist and he said it would be his last one. Everything is well planned and executed and their getaway appears to be flawless then things go awry.

Loyalties will be tested and secrets exposed, as they realize someone set them up and they seek an escape from an apparent trap. Time ticks away as they try to find out who the rat is while they seek an escape.

It does have some surprises and might be predictable to some people but I do think it was entertaining and not bad for a first film where the director was rushed into it.

I Can't understand all the really bad reviews, Because I thought it to be really Good and I will even recommend it. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 2/14/2021

This is a movie about a gang of thieves is put together to rip off a drug cartel who keep their money in safe deposit boxes in a nondescript bank in the Midwest, and of course "things go wrong". I hope it's not a spoiler to say it's basically a non-Tarantino version of Reservoir Dogs.

It's well acted, and they do keep you guessing, but like most neo-noir movies, you can't think too hard about the characters' actions and motivations, or you'll realize they're doing a lot of things that don't make sense.

I wouldn't have paid money to see this at the theater, but it was a decent way to pass an hour and a half on a plane.

On the surface, the premise of bank robbers falling out with each other as time pressure builds is not particularly original. Yet Dead Drop manages to bring something fresh to the genre. Well plotted and filmed, the pacing is excellent as flashbacks filling in the characters and tense action in the present time intersperse and blend well with each other. Dead Drop is well acted, each character believable and understandable. The music is appalling, so bad it must be deliberate; discordant, miserable, something to get away from, just like the participants and situation. Most of the scenes are extremely well shot and there is a lot of tension in some the scenes that are held for that extra moment. While nothing truly remarkable, Dead Drop is better than most and well worth the effort to see.

I know very well the many difficulties independent filmmakers often have when trying to make a movie, a lot of them coming from the fact that these filmmakers usually have a lot less resources than filmmakers of big budget major studio films. So I will give some praise for the filmmakers of "Dead Draw" for coming up with a story that could easily be filmed on the pittance of the budget they had on their hands. While the movie is low budget, the seams don't show. Unfortunately, that's about the only praise I can give for this movie. The main reason why the movie fails is its script. For about two-thirds of the movie, we are subjected to so many flashbacks - and flashbacks that aren't for the most part that interesting or insightful - that it's impossible for the main story thread to build up any momentum or suspense. As a result, most of the movie plays out really flat and dull, punctuated occasionally by some murky plot touches that just add some confusion to the narrative. I think the filmmakers were trying to be somewhat different than many B-movies, but honestly I think they would have been more successful had they told this story in a more conventional way.