Dead Fish

Dead Fish is one of the films the Brits are famous for where a small event triggers a sequence of violent and fatal events. Such films contain plenty of mixing ups, peculiar characters, betrayals, and desire for money both by "good" (petty scamps, debtors, idlers) and "evil" (killers, mobsters, robbers) characters. And those are played by good or great actors: here the most outstanding are Gary Oldman, Robert Carlyle and Karel Roden whose performance does smoothen several shortcomings or immoderate scenes in the plot. As for the latter, the first half is stronger and more interesting, the remaining has lingerings and ends with trivial culmination. Nevertheless, it is pleasant to watch (especially due to the actors mentioned above) plus several scenes are really witty and amusing. 7 points for sure from me!

It's a British film with the typical British crazy humor but also with a strange and a bit confusing plot. It has its moments in spite of not being a great film. The cast is good. The most sonant name is Gary Oldman, but there're other good actors. One that I find hilarious is Robert Carlyle, also in this movie, but not only. I think this guy is quite funny and his characters are always comical, in one or another way.

This movie is not great but it has a large amount of comical scenes and the plot is quite entertaining, even being confusing. So I think it's not as bad as some users here in IMDb told it was! I score it 5/10.

If the DVD-cover states that a movie is in the style of certain others you should already be warned! Generally it's a dead giveaway for cheap imitations or failed attempts to contribute to the genre. 'Dead Fish' is a clear example of the latter, with a great cast and good production standards but yet it still fails miserably.

The reason is simply because it's all a bit too improbable and over-the-top. We have Gary Oldman as the hired gun falling into love on first glance with a girl using exactly the same phone? Jimi Mistry as a pothead whose behaviour should have killed him long ago? Billy Zane whose character is the most unlikely secret agent you'll ever see? The coming back to life of Terence Stamp?

And the list could be longer still, handy you're a locksmith if you carry a hit mans' phone who gets his orders from station lockers! On the positive side there's Robert Carlyle as the foul mouthed loan shark and gorgeous Elena Anaya as the love interest. But even they cannot save a movie that's just trying too hard.

Don't be fooled by gifted actors like Gary Oldman or Robert Carlyle. They simply can't save this movie. It really tries hard to be cool, but fails in every way, and then it tries some more.The story is very confusing, and in the middle of it, you just don't care anymore. Many of the scenes are way too long, with lines that tries hard to be funny,and doesn't make it..but still the scenes move on still trying. The editor must have lost the entire movie in a blender, and then stapled it together. The acting between Billy Zane and Karel Roden makes me crumble into my rear end. This is just a pathetic attempt to make a hit like Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels. Charley Stadler...sober up!

I must admit I quite enjoyed this film. I think it works best as an over-the-top parody of such movies as "Lock, stock..." or "Snatch". The plot makes no sense, rhyme or reason. If you're after a cohesive plot, you'd better look elsewhere. The characters are at times funny and at the same time verging on annoying (think the character played by Brad Pitt in "Snatch", only stretched to the entire cast and entire duration of the film). Absolutely no way for suspension of disbelief here. So, again, if getting immersed in an action film is your thing, look elsewhere. All in all: noisy, clumsy, over-the-top, silly, but for some unknown reason the overall experience for me was actually not so terrible.