Dead Man's Cards

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.

A film which wasn't the best, but it was something! Being a fan of crime movies including gangster films I wasn't disappointed with "Dead Man's Cards." It was gritty and dark and of course showed us that some clubs are controlled by criminal elements! Many who have connections to the underworld of the city, that drug dealers use clubs to sell their gear in. They do this by paying off the bouncers and legitimate firms to employ bouncers to tell their bouncers to turn a blind eye for certain drug dealers and they'll collect a percentage of the profit.

I loved this film and would recommend it to any fan of the British Crime Genre, this does homage to the likes of Layer Cake... just with Scouse accents! Also, I would recommend "The Rise of The Footsoldier" to fans of this kind of film! Violent and bloody terrific!

Liverpudlian ex-boxer, Tom Watts (James McMartin), one day finds himself impotent, jobless and burdened with a wife that is intent on leaving him. His life takes a twist, however, when he is hired as a bouncer and is immediately sucked into a dark and violent world of drugs, guns and gangsters who do a lot of unpleasant shouting and swearing. Conducted by James Marquand and funded by his own production company (Stray Dogs Films) 'Dead Man's Card's' resembles a drunk boxer: it certainly cracks a mean punch, but it lacks direction. The amateurish acting is not helped by an unimpressive script; however, the sinister and seedy setting is still competently created by Marquand. And although the story takes a dive in the closing rounds, the film is still a commendable debut from Stray Dog Films.

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.

Very watchable, Brit crime drama, with a decent cast of actors and the fine Tom Bell, as a club owner called Billy the Cowboy. I really like the gritty feel to this one where others will no doubt see low budget. it has a realistic, low level Gangster vibe and when the retribution is dished out, it pulls no punches. I really miss the great acting talents of Tom Bell, in my mind the finest ever, British Actor.