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Released 30th October 2009
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What is it that Danny ‘one-take’ Dyer does best? You’ve guessed it: Playing the entertaining East-End light relief, with a tough-guy cockney accent in a drug-infused gangster movie. Director Alex De Rakoff (The Calcium Kid) seems to have discovered the elixir of eternal film magic; the return of the Danny Dyer and Tamer Hassan double act. Surely, any film with The Football Factory stars in, is an instant box office hit?———-
Four years on from Nick Love’s The Business, Hassan and Dyer make a sadly unspectacular comeback in another scheming action-packed gun run. The pair’s relationship hasn’t changed, and no sleight-of-hand will disguise the fact that Hassan and Dyer are sticking to what they know. The return of Tamer Hassan as reformed Nick Kane and his loyal sidekick Danny Dyer as Bing are not the only tricks the Dead Man Running director has up his sleeve. Expect performances from Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson and Ashley Walters (or Asher D from So Solid Crew), and if it sounds as though the celebrity appearances are stacking up like a pack of cards, hold on because the ringmasters co-producing this Brit flick are Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole. This pair is sure to stir up a crowd, promoting the beginnings of the Rio Ferdinand Live the Dream Foundation, which gave work placements to young people on the set of Dead Man Running. Oh, and because they’re wildly famous football players.
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The clown act of Dead Man Running is Danny Dyer’s Bing - Nick Kane’s dependable best friend and it is Tamer Hassan’s diamond in the rough of London that holds the plot together. The surprise performance in De Rakoff’s of Dead Man Running is the fragile but sharp Brenda Blethyn (
Atonement). Although the film is a gangster run, drug-fuelled shoot ‘em up with too many moneymaking schemes even for the Hassan/Dyer hustling duo, Blethyn steals the show in her role as the wheelchair-bound mother of Nick Kane. Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson looks sharp in dark suits and fast cars, wielding an air of power very comfortably as the notorious loan shark Mr Thigo. However Jackson’s Mr Thigo does not bare his teeth on his hunt for Nick Kane’s blood, which you would not expect from such a charismatic-looking cast.
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Dead Man Running is a home-kit creation of all traditional British action films. De Rakoff has packed it with car chases, drugs, guns, ‘Ladies of the Night’, cockney rhymes and fist fights. Set mainly in the underbelly of London life, it pushes the striking city lights and plush venues up against the cigarette-stained dog tracks of the East End. Alex de Rakoff has pulled together an impressive and daringly mixed cast, and creates some luxurious settings, but his under-adventurous storyline is what leaves this film trailing.
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By Laura Taylor
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Synopsis:
Ex-con Nick Kane (Hassan) is making a fresh start in life. Doing things by the book, he opens a travel agency with a little help from notorious loan shark Mr Thigo (Jackson). But with the sudden downturn in the economy, Mr Thigo wants his money back, fast. Nick is given just 24 hours to come up with the £100,000. With Mr Thigo’s henchmen holding his wheelchair-bound mother (Blethyn) captive, Nick and his best mate Bing (Dyer) take off on a manic mission across the UK, dealing with drug lords and taking Nick from his ‘straight and narrow’ path.
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Film Facts:
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Official UK site: http://www.deadmanrunning.com/
UK release date: 30th October 2009
Director: Alex De Rakoff
Writers: Alex De Rakoff (written by) & John Luton (story)
Cast: Tamer Hassan (‘Nick Kane’), Danny Dyer (‘Bing’), Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson (‘Mr Thigo’), Monet Mazur (‘Frankie’) and Brenda Blethyn (‘Mrs Kane’).
UK Distributor: Revolver Entertainment
Certificate: 15
Run-time: 90 minutes
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Video on Real
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Trailer:
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