Dead Man Running (2009) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

UK 2009
Director: Alex De Rakoff
Cast: Tamer Hassan, Danny Dyer, Brenda Blethyn, Philip Davis, 50 Cent, Monet Mazur
Rating:
Release Date: 30 October 2009
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes

The Movie Review

Dead Man Running film still 1


DEAD MAN RUNNING
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Doing a job as a movie reviewer, I've got to swallow whole any movies coming my way. Bad, good, screwed or brilliant. So to escape this, one of my little hobby is to blind pick or blind buy the tickets of any movies using only instinct. Of course the fun part is to choose unknown movies, sometimes it's bad luck but sometimes it's good luck. This time, it's great luck! Dead Man Running has already got me hooked up from the start with its very cool opening credits scene using excellent camerawork accompanied by extra cool personal fave song of mine, "Breath" by Prodigy!

The story is about usury, or better known as Riba in Indonesia. A good but financially broke ex-con, Nicholas (Tamer Hassan of Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009)) has borrowed some money from the heartless loan shark Thigo (Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson). Of course the consequences are anything but uplifting. Thigo gives Nic 24 hours to pay the money or his lovely mother (Brenda Blethyn) would meet grisly demise. Nic, with the help of his friend Bing (Danny Dyer of Malice in Wonderland (2009)) are doing some remarkable stuff in desperate attempt to collect the money. But it is also actually intended by Thigo for Nic and Bing to fail. Nic will not give up, and Bing is ready to help him. What exactly are they going to do?

For goodness sake mate! See this action flick, if you love fast action movie with the like of Crank (2006), you would be entertained by this! I knew I was already intrigued to see it till the end, but I never thought that it would be such a modern man movie. It's not only about gunfights but it's also about duel fighting, car chasing, and cool friendship. Kaa ching! This time I feel relieve having spend the money to see this wacky movie. Not as wacky-wacko as Crank 2 (2009) or surrealistic as Gamer (2009) but Dead Man Running has the upside of being more believable to the real world instead of almost superhero-like character of Jason Statham in Crank.

What makes all of the scenes very good? It seems the movie was shot only in a single day, with all the actors could maintain such high spirits in this fast pacing action flick! They move, they shot, they move, they fight, they steal a car, they....well see it for yourself mate! Some scenes remind me of one of Asterix titles, Asterix and the Cauldron or Asterix et le Chaudron (in Indonesia: Asterix dan Panci Sup Bawang). It's the one where Asterix owes a lot of money kept in an Onion Soup cauldron and doing interesting missions with the help of Obelix. Anyhow, it's nice to see a great friendship between men without being over-the-top cool or melancholically emotional, Tamer Hassan and Danny Dyer's performances just great. But Brenda Blethyn is just awesome, she has the most exciting character and she played it excellently, her character would make you gaping and smiling at the same time.

The beauty of this movie lies mainly on the twist in the story, and there are many things going on to see and enjoy. A great combination of action and comedy all in the same without overshadowing each other. If you love the British Hot Fuzz (2007), then you gonna love this. Stylish, cool, mood-fitting soundtracks with another top-notch song by Stone Roses "Fool's Gold" with very cool percussion to accompany stylish scene. And once again, cleverly creative storyline!