Ten Dead Men is like a B+ film school project. Most of the filmmaking is low-budget and elementary but competent. The storytelling is a little better than that, though it's marred by a few too many things that make no sense at all. The acting is perfectly acceptable, even with a lead actor that has all the on screen personality of a throbbing boil. The action scenes are thoroughly energetic, sort of like crossing The Transporter with the Mortal Kombat video game. Basically this British revenge flick is like a dollar store version of one of those countless American action films from the 1980s, with just a bit more imagination.
Ryan (Brendan Carr) is a mob hit man who left his life of crime to be with his girlfriend (Pooja Shah). He's forced back into his old life, however, and crosses his old boss (Terry Stone). That results in his girlfriend being killed in front of him and Ryan being left for dead. He, in a completely inexplicable and irrational manner, recovers and starts hunting down the ten men responsible for destroying his new life. What follows are action scenes that are as over-the-top as you can get when your movie has a budget of about 13 pounds, more flashbacks than you can shake a stick at and acts of retribution that range from the mundane to the ridiculous.
To say the narration is the best part of Ten Dead Men may sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, but Doug Bradley guiding us through Ryan's tale of vengeance like he was telling his children a bedtime story is very inviting. It draws you into a story that is otherwise unexceptional and helps get you past those points where the film tosses logic and plausibility into the rubbish bin.
Now, there's no getting around how cheap-looking this thing is. The judicious use of computer effects does give a kick to some of the acts of violence, but Ten Dead Men looks more like it was filmed by a talented group of friends with a video camera and a tripod than it does a professional production. At times it looks fine, but other times it really seems like these filmmakers did not know what they were doing.
If you're looking for a non-stupid, bloody and violent movie, and don't mind substandard production values and the occasional bit of nonsense, check out Ten Dead Men.
Ryan (Brendan Carr) is a mob hit man who left his life of crime to be with his girlfriend (Pooja Shah). He's forced back into his old life, however, and crosses his old boss (Terry Stone). That results in his girlfriend being killed in front of him and Ryan being left for dead. He, in a completely inexplicable and irrational manner, recovers and starts hunting down the ten men responsible for destroying his new life. What follows are action scenes that are as over-the-top as you can get when your movie has a budget of about 13 pounds, more flashbacks than you can shake a stick at and acts of retribution that range from the mundane to the ridiculous.
To say the narration is the best part of Ten Dead Men may sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, but Doug Bradley guiding us through Ryan's tale of vengeance like he was telling his children a bedtime story is very inviting. It draws you into a story that is otherwise unexceptional and helps get you past those points where the film tosses logic and plausibility into the rubbish bin.
Now, there's no getting around how cheap-looking this thing is. The judicious use of computer effects does give a kick to some of the acts of violence, but Ten Dead Men looks more like it was filmed by a talented group of friends with a video camera and a tripod than it does a professional production. At times it looks fine, but other times it really seems like these filmmakers did not know what they were doing.
If you're looking for a non-stupid, bloody and violent movie, and don't mind substandard production values and the occasional bit of nonsense, check out Ten Dead Men.