Dead Man Running Review

It's not just the economy that's undergoing a recession. There's a poverty of ideas in UK cinema; a regressive, cheap-as-chips mentality that foregrounds bargain-basement entertainment. While retro hooligan films (Awaydays, The Firm) and horror comedies (Lesbian Vampire Killers, Doghouse) entreat us to party like it's 1989, Alex De Rakoff's latest, brought to the screen with the aid of Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole, aims squarely for the mid-1990s, like The Heavy before it.

As The Prodigy booms from the speakers and strippers boredly bump and grind, 'Economist'-reading crime lord Thigo (50 Cent, somewhat implausible as the head of an international syndicate, even though he is one) bemoans the financial climate: "This fucking credit crunch has ripped the lining right out of my back pocket." Calling in his debts, he orders ex-geezer Nick (Tamer Hassan) to repay a £100,000 loan in 24 hours, then threatens Nick's wheelchair-bound mum (Brenda Blethyn). "We are going at this old school," lisps Fiddy, chewing on his amazing teeth.

Old school it is - this is the same basic plot as 1998's Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels - and as Nick (imagine the cockney love child of Shrek and Antonio Banderas) and best mate Bing (Danny Dyer, doing his best as usual) hustle at cab ranks, dog tracks and raves, the comparisons with Guy Ritchie's early work loom even larger. There are cameos from Snatch's Robbie Gee and Alan Ford, a best-of-British soundtrack (including 'Fools' Gold' - again), and reams of gangster slang (of which "e-tard", used to describe a club casualty, is the choicest). Someone, it seems, has been taking notes.