Writer Geoff Thompson is a former bouncer who allegedly advocates hiding in the company loos to write your next best-seller so that some poor chump unknowingly pays you to do it while one of your workmates has to do the work you neglect. Works for him, I suppose, but not the most honest of attitudes (if it's true).
This film is based on his autobiographical novel and it's quite a decent little film (although James Marquand's similarly themed Dead Man's Cards beats it by a country mile in all departments). The story is sort of believable - although morally dubious - but it's let down by a failure to establish a believable sense of period and a poor performance from Colin Salmon who might look the part but is totally unbelievable as a philosophical hard man who takes Thompson alter-ego Mel Raido under his wing. Salmon's lack of presence is counter-balanced by a good performance from Scot Williams as Sparky, one of a cadre of three bouncers who become Danny's (Raido) surrogate family when his marriage (and life) fall apart. Raido himself isn't that believable as a hard man thanks to an unfortunate resemblance to 50s British comedian Norman Wisdom. Despite this disability he delivers a decent performance while never really managing to win the audience's sympathy.
The violence in this film is graphic and liberally sprinkled throughout the film, as is the kind of language that made films like Rise of the Foot Soldier, another recent Brit crime-flick, so laughable. No doubt it's authentic in some milieus but sometimes realism paradoxically serves to undermine the truth of a scene...
This film is based on his autobiographical novel and it's quite a decent little film (although James Marquand's similarly themed Dead Man's Cards beats it by a country mile in all departments). The story is sort of believable - although morally dubious - but it's let down by a failure to establish a believable sense of period and a poor performance from Colin Salmon who might look the part but is totally unbelievable as a philosophical hard man who takes Thompson alter-ego Mel Raido under his wing. Salmon's lack of presence is counter-balanced by a good performance from Scot Williams as Sparky, one of a cadre of three bouncers who become Danny's (Raido) surrogate family when his marriage (and life) fall apart. Raido himself isn't that believable as a hard man thanks to an unfortunate resemblance to 50s British comedian Norman Wisdom. Despite this disability he delivers a decent performance while never really managing to win the audience's sympathy.
The violence in this film is graphic and liberally sprinkled throughout the film, as is the kind of language that made films like Rise of the Foot Soldier, another recent Brit crime-flick, so laughable. No doubt it's authentic in some milieus but sometimes realism paradoxically serves to undermine the truth of a scene...