Dead Man's Shoes - review

Another Brit film that looks like a TV drama - a fixed camera set up on legs; pan left or right to follow the characters as they cross the frame. Apart from one or two moments where Meadows decides to give it a bit of style, this film looks very land. In fact, modern TV dramas look more cinematic than this. The acting was extra-naturalistic, in the Ken Loach style.

The use of black and white footage, complete with fake scratches, for the flashbacks is so bad, like an hobbyist playing with his edit software he's just got for Christmas... it's almost comical.

This film suffers from the British film-making disease of underdevelopment. We see this guy on his trail of revenge, slaughtering everything in his path. We never feel any tension, because there's never any doubt - his targets are hopeless, and await their fate like lambs. There are several moments where the gang have the upper hand, and a clear opportunity to remove their problem, but they do nothing. They run away.Not much of an opposition then.

Do we learn much about our protagonist? Not really.

There's an nice twist at the end, but really, adding a bit of heavy-weight choral music doesn't make up for a lack of depth in the script and the director's vision.

This film conforms to me Meadows is still a schoolboy, making films for a laugh with his chums; so they can all drink cheap cider, smoke joints and snigger at themselves.