Dead Cool

While this film presents itself as a comedy drama it is neither funny nor dramatic. It makes the common mistakes like trying to say too much and be too clever and inevitably fails to achieve either. The initial failure is in the script which never finds a focus, and is endlessly wordy without being witty . The Direction is however worse driving whatever might of been made of the script into the ground. The cast no two of whom appear to be reading from the same page act like a lot of scared rabbits caught in a cars headlights waiting to be run over. In short its the sort of mess thrown together with tax shelter money that gives British Cinema a bad name. While the time and effort required to make it has been wasted forever you can save some time and effort of your own by switching channels in the unlikely event that this drivel makes a sale and turns up on your TV.

This is an amusing and feel good film with some laugh out loud scenes about the affects of being forced into an extended family. Here two parents with children try and make a fresh start. The plot is seen through the eyes of one of the children but works for all generations- Grandparents seeing their kids make fools of themselves- parents wanting the right to their own lives and kids not understanding why they can not be the center of their parents attention. Good performances from Anthony Calf, Imogen Stubbs and Steven Geller but Liz Smith, as always, is the scene stealer. Well observed - and mandatory viewing for anybody with children (or parents) considering starting a new relationship.

I still can't understand why this movie got an average of 7.4. Did I miss something while watching it? To me it seemed like another low budget,wannabe "dramedy" with terrible acting and terrible plot. Don't trust the scores, don't watch, it's mediocre at best! The story seemed "ok" at first, but then it just became stale, boring and led nowhere. The movie had potential, it touched a sensitive subject and had a pretty interesting idea about a ghost father etc... But it didn't lead nowhere, David Cohen simply blew it! I was expecting an exciting comedy where the diseased father tries to stop his ex-wife from marrying another man, but that's not what I got at all. All it was is just a boring drama that wasn't even all that sad, not even a bit! Seriously, do yourself a favor, don't even consider watching it...

This was a really enjoyable feel good movie with a good British feel about it. The cast is its main sell though. Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction, Desperately Seeking Susan) glows on screen as Diedre a self help guru, whilst Imogen Stubbs (Sense and Sensability, Twelfth Night) James Callis (Bridget Jones I & II) and Liz Smith (The Royle Family, Vicar of Dibley) play a close knitted a very funny family. Check out Liz's bad wig! The film is centred around Steven Geller (Bootleg, Mike & Angelo), a very talented young actor who I'm sure we will be seeing a lot more of in the future. He plays a complex and demanding David exceptionally well, and in my opinion carries the movie. Overall I look forward to the DVD release, and would recommend Dead Cool to everyone.

One of the problems with Dead Cool is the under developed story. It tries to tie in too many story lines without fleshing them out, leaving the audience bewildered and uninterested. Several key scenes have been cut down for time restriction, leaving out plot explanations. This is especially apparent in the supernatural scenes which stand out as confusing. They are certainly not needed. All the "other worldly" plot lines are unnecessary and only distract the viewer from the story unfolding. Other unnecessary parts of this film are the CGI shots that don't do anything to unfold the story. Several actors stand out in Dead Cool, but for all the wrong reasons. There are not a lot of good actors/ actresses in it. It is all a bit wooden and gives the film a 'made for television' feel. It is lacking in script and visualisation. If you want a family comedy/drama there are thousands of better films out there, this one's neither funny nor dramatic.