User Reviews

So.... Boring what to say about... don't spend your time on films like this better watch a cartoon its more entertaining i really couldn't got the point of the director some gangsters was looking for something some lesbo girls was kissing and was beaten up by the gangsters thats all the things i got from this film also the acting was terrible hmmm i don't really understand why people keep making films like this if you look at the newspapers you will find more interesting plots than this one Whats your problem IMDb why i must write 10 lines for while the plot of whole movies such like this wasn't more than 10 lines i don't understand this.B O R I N G...

I wanted to like this, I really did. But try as I may, it failed to grab me. The story doesn't really work at all. There are different threads running that do not tie up at all. Its like a project gone wrong. The 'actors' in this 'movie' are really very bad. It is about as bad as a badly choreographed play in elementary school. Imogen Church is curiously blank and Annette Kellow tries to hard. Alan Ford does a fair job as Hansen but any semblance of acting quality is ruined by Russell Jones whose voice appears to have not broken yet. Or perhaps he has not yet learned how to control it.

3/10

I have been lucky in getting a preview of this film starring Alan Ford. I had an idea of what to expect considering the aforementioned actor and I was not disappointed. I love everything about raw gritty British gangster films - but for those of you who are getting a bit bored of Guy Ritchie's endless take on the genre then check out this fresh breath of air. There is a very real and dark atmosphere to this film where you feel like you are involved in the storyline and you can feel the tension that the characters are enduring. The thrill of not knowing where the plot is going to go next is something I have not felt for a long time. I also enjoyed how the two lesbian characters were portrayed. Again, there was a high degree of realism in the way the characters interacted with each other that I think a lot of people will respect as so often a lot of filmmakers get it so so wrong! Well worth a watch!

I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw Tim Biddiscombe's film, Night Dragon, is getting a commercial release this summer. I have been one of the lucky few to have seen it so far. A friend of mine had been invited to the premier of Night Dragon in the directors home town. Knowing that I was a big fan of Alan Ford, through his roles in Snatch, and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, that friend invited me. I was told the film was an all British affair and had indeed been privately financed. Although this was no glitzy West End premier showing, it was an exciting event, particularly as I wasn't sat too far from Mr. Ford.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy the film as much as I did, but I found Night Dragon a very pacey, well written thriller, with an excellent twist at the end. I thought the story was excellent, as indeed was the acting and the filming as a whole. I was gripped throughout and the time just flew by. At the films conclusion, there was a standing ovation from the packed audience and it really felt as if I was part of something special. Tim Biddiscombe gave a short speech and I don't think he could have been any prouder if you had just given him an Oscar.

Afterwards, there was a post-film party, which I managed to blag my way into. At some point (after a few beers), I managed to collar Tim and congratulate him on the film and to wish him luck with its release. Tim was happy to stand & chat and I was really impressed to hear some of his stories of the demanding conditions in which Night Dragon was made: I would love to have been there when the police closed off a London street in order that a scene involving a speeding car and stunt crew could be filmed. Apparently, about 100 local people came out of their homes to watch and some even invited various crew members into their homes for cups of tea and applications of make-up to the actors.

I give Night Dragon 10/10, because, without corporate financial backing, it is an incredible achievement to have brought to fruition and I firmly believe this kind of hard work and talent deserves rewarding. I even got to meet Alan Ford and have my photo taken with him. Impressed? Yes, I was!

Liz (Imogen Church) works for mobster Hansen (Alan Ford). Hansen saved Liz's life once, and she repays him by doing some dirty work along with slightly psycho Christian (Scott North) and smoothly psycho Beckett (James Fisher). Liz pretends to fall in love with lawyer Millie (Annette Kellow), who is on the team prosecuting Hansen. Liz finds her feelings for Millie turn real, and isn't in on the plot by Christian and Beckett to get the location of a secret witness out of Millie, one way or another. Millie is bound with barbed wire, given a mysterious drug called 'Night Dragon' (the second dose will be deadly), and Liz finds herself trying to both save Millie's life while still trying to repay her debt to Hansen.

The beginning of the film makes no sense. The film is British, so it takes a bit to get used to the heavy accents, but the editing is so off, I had no clue what was going on until finally getting a grasp of a story about ten or fifteen minutes in- which is normally deadly in a film that runs just over an hour. Once we get the back story on Liz, however, co-writer/director Tim Biddiscombe and co-writer Drew Cullingham deliver an ultra-violent, messy little thriller. While a drawback to the short running time means that the action comes at the expense of character development, the action is still very good. The film was done on the cheap, but the gory makeup effects are amazing, and the fight sequences are simple but professionally done. Biddiscombe turns the few interior sets like Millie's kitchen and bathroom, into claustrophobic torture chambers, with both locations the settings for fistfights, stabbings, and shootings. Think of a film like "Extremities," which was a theatrical play first, and you get a sense of how well Biddiscombe uses his locations. The cast is first-rate. While we have seen the mobster characters before, Ford, Fisher, and Thomas are fantastic. Fisher's calm demeanor and Thomas' screwball murderlust play nicely off of each other. Church is somehow sympathetic as Liz, and she lets us sense her feelings for Millie without coming out and saying it. Kellow scores as Millie, being angry at just the right time, and making the most of a character who spends the majority of her screen time sitting on the floor of a bathroom, hands tied behind her back, and tears of blood flowing down her cheeks. The final twist ending would also have played better if the film makers didn't get artsy with the sound design. It feels tacked on, and while effective, I still had to rewind it and watch it a couple of times to see exactly what had happened. Rob Palmer's musical score is dynamite, and the song choices are great. The film was shot on video, but the sound is understandable, and it seems like every punch, kick, and stab have their own memorable sound effect. "Night Dragon" (also known as "NightDragon") is a mean, gritty little film, nicely executed. It stands as an excellent example of microbudget film making, not letting its financial shortcomings get in the way of telling the story. If not for the first few, and last few, minutes, it would be a crime classic.