X
- 2006
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
- 2006
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
Summary A genre-defying film blending horror, supernatural elements, comedy, and social realism. Set in a Midlands village, it explores the underbelly of contemporary rural Britain in communities where crime is unchecked and drugs, intimidation, and power games are blandly accepted as the fabric of daily life. (Magnolia Pictures)
Directed By: Shane Meadows
Written By: Paddy Considine, Paul Fraser, Shane Meadows
- 2006
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
- 2006
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
Dead Man's Shoes
52
7.6
Where to Watch
Summary A genre-defying film blending horror, supernatural elements, comedy, and social realism. Set in a Midlands village, it explores the underbelly of contemporary rural Britain in communities where crime is unchecked and drugs, intimidation, and power games are blandly accepted as the fabric of daily life. (Magnolia Pictures)
Directed By: Shane Meadows
Written By: Paddy Considine, Paul Fraser, Shane Meadows
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
52
50% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
29% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
21% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 14 Critic Reviews
52
50% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
29% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
21% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
For all Dead Man's Shoes' well-paced, well-observed boondocks melodrama, its premise seems simultaneously slender and overheated.
This is no simplistic vigilante movie. Like Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance" trilogy, it explores the nature of the beast of revenge, leaving the audience in a sweat of dread.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.6
80% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
10% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
10% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.6
80% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
10% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
10% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
I've never seen a movie so criminally underrated. Reading some of the other reviews it appears that something has been lost in translation in it's journey over the Atlantic. This is an accurate portrayal of small time crooks in rural Britain. It manages to be both funny and horrifying and leaves you uneasy till the closing credits. The dialogue is punchy and quotable, and Paddy is it his very best in the classic British revenge flick.
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Brilliant film that unfortunately doesn't t do the transatlantic switch well due to it's loyalty to real England. It makes me chuckle that one reviewer said the characters were unrealistic, this is obviously written by an American whom through terrible movie portrayals of evil-villains and posh butlers believes every Brit to be on first name terms with the queen, dine on crumpets with rotten teeth and glug tea down with our pinkies raised. If you've been to England, real England you'll know how accurate these portrayals of small-town drug dealers are. This is a great film in my opinion and in England it's heralded as such.
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Meadows loses control as he goes along, veering into assorted noodling and sacrificing the knife's-edge clarity of the early going for something arty and artificial.
The imagery is exotically grungy and jumbled by flashback, but in the end, the picture's more pulp than juice.
Film plays as a quirky Brit riff on everything from U.S. slasher pics to revenge oaters but without Meadows' usual psychological complexity.
Like so many movies of its kind, Dead Man's Shoes gets hopelessly lost in vicious process, and so loses all sight of anything you might optimistically call insight.
There are flashes of grim humor interspersed with the murders, but not enough wit to elevate this movie beyond its primary identity: grisly revenge fantasy.
Richard: [narrating] "God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that".
the story to Dead Man's Shoes is about Richard has he always protected his simple-minded little brother Anthony. When Richard leaves the rural village where they have grown up to join the army, Anthony is taken in by Sonny, a controlling and vicious local drug dealer and his gang of lads. Anthony becomes the gang's pet and plaything. Seven years later, Richard returns to settle the score. One by one, he hunts down each member of the gang and executes them in increasingly elaborate ways as flashbacks reveal the extent to which his brother suffered at their hands. "Dead Man's Shoes" is a genre-defying film blending horror, supernatural elements, comedy, and social realism. Set in a Midlands village, it explores the underbelly of contemporary rural Britain in communities where crime is unchecked and drugs, intimidation, and power games are blandly accepted as the fabric of daily life.
"Revenge is best served cold", that's what they say and Dead Man's Shoes is that cold dish of revenge.
Shane Meadows the director of this movie who later on did This is England. In this movie I felt that Shane Meadows was building up to this big finale of Richard's vengeance over those who messed with him. Richard feelings and emotion really sticks to the screen without him saying anything, and all that storytelling was told only by it's tone and cinematography that really set's up the cold killing that's going to happen and Shane Meadows really mixed the tone of this movie perfectly to the point where it actually came off effective. Shane Meadows is a excellent director and Dead Man's Shoes and This is England are the perfect films to show off he's skills and talent at film making. Nicely done Shane Meadows.
In my opinion Paddy Considine gave probably the best performance of 2004 and in his career. He made his character Richard a interesting and understandable anti-hero. Him going out for revenge and him slowly tasting them at getting them one at a time is simply revenge story classic right here. You see Richard a lot but he doesn't talk all that much, yeah he talked a couple of times in the movie and towards the end of the film. I always like it when a hero or anti-hero never talks in film, it gives a character a deep edge to them and making them look like a complete bad-ass, and that's why Paddy Considine gave a stunning performance because he did all that and it's him simply at his best.
The cinematography in the movie really does set the tone of the film really well has the movie has that clean open environment but it also has that revenge looking tone that really fitted the movie perfectly.
The writing was good, the acting from everyone was brilliant, the director of the movie did a awesome job directing the movie and the movie's ending which I'm not going to spoil it but let me tell you it's really sad and quite moving.
For problems with the movie I have none to be honest, but the reason why I'm not giving it the full perfect rating is that I don't it's quite on the level of 5/5 star's and yes this did happen before with one of my reviews as I brought up that it's not quite on that level on a high rating, if you understand that. But I will totally recommend seeing Dead Man's Shoes because it is the best British revenge drama that we ever got.
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This picture is amateur hour at it's worst. From the shoddy editing to the campy screen writing (if it wasn't completely improvised, hard to tell when no real actors were actually hired), Dead man's shoes never aspires to be much more than a low budget B-movie at best. The user reviews that you will find in here are just a joke. Apparently the entire production crew signed up to pen down lavish acclaim which will have you rolling your eyes in disdain if you've actually manage to see the film. Be honest and rate a movie according to it's overall quality and in comparison with other movies no matter if it's a high or low budget film.
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Awards
British Independent Film Awards
• 8 Nominations
Empire Awards, UK
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
London Critics Circle Film Awards
• 2 Nominations
