Dead Man's Cards

I enjoyed this gritty violent and quite amusing gangster flick. Its such an awful world that some people live in, it makes you grateful for what you have! Perhaps I am easily pleased. I don't care, at least I rarely get disappointed! I love British cinema. Its my home. People should be less critical, cinema is usually fiction, or someone Else's portrayal of real events. It cannot, by its very nature be 'REAL'. Unless its a first person documentary, even then its their take on events. Chill out and enjoy what out there; sometimes you have to turn your brain off; that does not mean you can't enjoy a bag of popcorn and a bottle of pop and make an evening of it!

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.

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.

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.

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.