Since the success of Guy Ritchie in British film industry many writers and directors have tired and fail to copy his formula of gangsterism and comedy. Dead Man Running is no exception, a poor attempt of a film that should have been straight-to-DVD had it not had 50 Cent, had Rio Ferdinard and Ashley Cole financed the film or promoted on the BBC's Film Programme.
Nick (Tamer Hassan) is an ex-con who is struggling to play his debts, looks after his recently disabled mother (Brenda Blethyn) and with his friend Bing (Danny Dyer) tries to see sky holidays to Dubai because, eh because. He is also a man who owns a £100,000 debt to a ruthless American gangster, Mr. Thigo (50 Cent), a man struggling to get his money back since the credit crunch. He picks Nick to make an example of him, that he has to get £100,000 in 24 hours or he will kill him and his mother. Nick and Bing have to use every trick in the book and everything they can to get the money.
Dead Man Running is just a cheap looking film attempting some stylish tricks and is filled with poor acting, action and comedy. The plot itself is just a rip off a Guy Ritchie film, some small time crook ends up crossing a big gangster and the crook has to pay him back quickly, that's what happened in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Rocknrolla, but at least those films have sub-plots. Alex De Rakoff is no Ritchie, he does not have his directional or writing abilities. There are some stylist moments in the beginning when Thigo talks about the effects of the credit crunch on dealers, using football commentary when a group of kids are transferring cocaine to a council estate and when Nick and Bing are driving up north. But it looks cheap: the few action scenes like the bare knuckle boxing being shot too close and cut too quickly to truly tell what is really happening.
As a whole the film is very predictable and the plot turns and twists can be seen from a mile off. There is a ridiculous idea that Thigo has men all over London (despite being an American gangster) and been following Nick through a giant tracker in coat pocket and even if we can buy that he did not notice that, he sits on a train next to a teenager already on the train who is working for Thigo and he steals his money. That is just impossible. I could buy that some teenager steals the money simply through bad luck but no, that was too much plot convenience for the audience to suspend their disbelieve. There is too much luck and at the end the mother was able to kill her captor, so taking away what little tension there is.
Except for one mildly funny joke the humour falls flat and the story as a whole is weak. It could have been an interesting to see a gangster who operates across borders, having his fingers in a lot of pies and working as a banker to major gangsters and operations to a lot of people, but no, that is ruined. De Rakoff admits that the character started of English but was turned into an American because of the credit crunch. But what really happened was Rakoff found out that 50 Cent was available, so rewrote the character to be America. His nationality made no different because he just operated like a British gangster we have seen in dozens of gangster films before hand.
The acting is just sub-par. It is not good and most of the actors just phoned in there performances. Danny Dyer was not as annoying as he can be and he did not play the cockney hard man he normally plays. It was clear that 50 Cent was only on set for a couple of days and he has shown time and again he can not act. I would say go back to rapping but that would be just as bad.
At best Dead Man Running is a generic Brit-gangster film we have seen time and again. It offers us nothing new and is not worth your time. It is a dull film that is stupid when you put any real world logic to it and you may as well watch a good gangster film again.
Nick (Tamer Hassan) is an ex-con who is struggling to play his debts, looks after his recently disabled mother (Brenda Blethyn) and with his friend Bing (Danny Dyer) tries to see sky holidays to Dubai because, eh because. He is also a man who owns a £100,000 debt to a ruthless American gangster, Mr. Thigo (50 Cent), a man struggling to get his money back since the credit crunch. He picks Nick to make an example of him, that he has to get £100,000 in 24 hours or he will kill him and his mother. Nick and Bing have to use every trick in the book and everything they can to get the money.
Dead Man Running is just a cheap looking film attempting some stylish tricks and is filled with poor acting, action and comedy. The plot itself is just a rip off a Guy Ritchie film, some small time crook ends up crossing a big gangster and the crook has to pay him back quickly, that's what happened in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Rocknrolla, but at least those films have sub-plots. Alex De Rakoff is no Ritchie, he does not have his directional or writing abilities. There are some stylist moments in the beginning when Thigo talks about the effects of the credit crunch on dealers, using football commentary when a group of kids are transferring cocaine to a council estate and when Nick and Bing are driving up north. But it looks cheap: the few action scenes like the bare knuckle boxing being shot too close and cut too quickly to truly tell what is really happening.
As a whole the film is very predictable and the plot turns and twists can be seen from a mile off. There is a ridiculous idea that Thigo has men all over London (despite being an American gangster) and been following Nick through a giant tracker in coat pocket and even if we can buy that he did not notice that, he sits on a train next to a teenager already on the train who is working for Thigo and he steals his money. That is just impossible. I could buy that some teenager steals the money simply through bad luck but no, that was too much plot convenience for the audience to suspend their disbelieve. There is too much luck and at the end the mother was able to kill her captor, so taking away what little tension there is.
Except for one mildly funny joke the humour falls flat and the story as a whole is weak. It could have been an interesting to see a gangster who operates across borders, having his fingers in a lot of pies and working as a banker to major gangsters and operations to a lot of people, but no, that is ruined. De Rakoff admits that the character started of English but was turned into an American because of the credit crunch. But what really happened was Rakoff found out that 50 Cent was available, so rewrote the character to be America. His nationality made no different because he just operated like a British gangster we have seen in dozens of gangster films before hand.
The acting is just sub-par. It is not good and most of the actors just phoned in there performances. Danny Dyer was not as annoying as he can be and he did not play the cockney hard man he normally plays. It was clear that 50 Cent was only on set for a couple of days and he has shown time and again he can not act. I would say go back to rapping but that would be just as bad.
At best Dead Man Running is a generic Brit-gangster film we have seen time and again. It offers us nothing new and is not worth your time. It is a dull film that is stupid when you put any real world logic to it and you may as well watch a good gangster film again.