The plot: Given 24 hours to pay off his massive debt, a reformed gangster descends back into the underworld he struggled to escape.Dead Man Running isn't a bad film, but it's strictly by-the-numbers. It lacks the brutal realism of something like Refn's Pusher trilogy or Hodges' Get Carter, operating in a universe more like Guy Ritchie's, where the underworld is populated by idiosyncratic acquaintances, crime bosses with dangerous reputations, and oddball sidekicks. The biggest difference, however, is that this seems like something of a breezy overview of the genre, where each character is given a brief cameo, rather than any kind of reinterpretation. Nobody really has much to work with, but it does give the film a certain simplicity that many people found lacking in Get Carter and Revolver, which are often accused of having overly intricate plotting.It's not an original movie, but it's enjoyable enough for what it is. If all you want is a simple, mildly violent crime thriller, then this will fit the bill nicely. If you're looking for something a bit deeper or original, I think you'd be better off skipping it. You'll just be bored or annoyed by all the clichés.

'Dead Man Running' sees the cinematic Cockney wide boys Tamer Hassan and Danny Dyer join together for yet another jolly boys outing on the big screen. Except this time instead of playing raging football hooligans destroying East London one shop window at a time, they are instead pushed into the world of the British Gangster flick. Which sounds like potential entertainment, but it really isn't. It'll help you fill an hour and thirty minutes of free time, but you won't be rushing to see it again at the Cinema, or out to buy the DVD, or see to it on pay-television...The opening scene of the film shows that the recession has had far and wide reaching consequences across the economic board as the underworld boss Mr Thigo (Curtis '50' Jackson) decides to draw in every penny from all the outstanding loans he is currently owed. While Nick (Hassan) is the unfortunate customer who is going to be made an example of by Thigo to make sure everybody pays up promptly and without hassle – Barclays Banking this is not. Nick is given twenty-four hours to acquire the hundred grand he owes Thigo otherwise he and his mother (Brenda Blethyn) will be sleeping with the fishes. Cue a frantic race across London with his business partner and working-class friend Bing (Danny Dyer) in tow as they attempt various different activities while trying to raise the debt and stay alive.Hassan and Dyer play the typical characters you have seen them time and time again, and it is now becoming a little annoying as well as entirely predictable and boring. Nick is a former 'hardman' who was a resident at Her Majesty's service before taking the legal and law-abiding route so he could care for his family. While Bing is his right-hand man who is willing to do almost anything to help Nick obtain the £100,000 that he owes. Yet there is one gleaming performance in this stiff, wooden cast which is that of veteran British actress Brenda Blethyn who plays Nick's caring, soft, yet incredibly versatile mother who provides not only the biggest laugh of the film, but also the tensest scene as we uncover a secret she has kept buried under her blanket.I was never expecting a brilliant film from Alex De Rakoff's British crime flick 'Dead Man Running', but I was expecting more considering the decent cast it contains. It fails to harbour the primarily British cast's potential and instead delivers a predictable narrative coupled with a terribly clichéd script. The biggest problem however is the fact that despite being evenly and well paced, the film has nothing which will keep an audience's attention for longer than five minutes.

I didn't know what to expect from this film except that the poster made it look like an honest-to-goodness thriller that could've been made any time in the past 40 years, and that appealed to me. In the event, it's a well-played noir mostly set in London (though you get no real sense of the city, and it's a shame they had to show Big Ben) in which Nick (engagingly played by Tamer Hassan) has 24 hours to find £100,000 or he, and his mother (as always, a superb performance from Brenda Blethyn) will be 'buried in a shallow grave'. Well-paced, with a reasonable twist, it's only a shame that most of the dialogue is quite lame, and everything has a second-hand feel, but that's deliberate, I feel, and we need more movies like this that have a heart of noir while only seeking to entertain. The audience I saw it with, in Wandsworth, were thoroughly entertained.

Danny (rent a London wide boy) Dyer is yet again paid to play the same old tired London wide boy. His fellow type cast actor tammer Hasan is even in here the other London wide boy. so just by having these 2 actors you can pretty much guess the whole movies plot. BUT WAIT there is a twist not just DAN AND TAN we have that great of the hoodlum rap genre mr 50 cents, as he is in the u.k. I think we shall now call him 50p for future reference. This movie even has big football movie connections it was funded by non other than Rio Ferdinand...that's right I said that huge football star Rio ferdanando..or something like that. Any way having explained to you all who's in the movie and who's connected to it with the funding I now come to the review of the said movie. OK here it is 2 wide boys need 24 hours to raise cash quickly or there nasty money lender will do a number on one of them.. With no charm or style this movie chugs a long at a fair pace you can even see some local celebrities from the u.k. in it. What this film lacks in originality it does not make up in dialogue.I could list reels of embarrassing London wide boy chit chat , but it was embarrassing to sit through let alone repeat.This is a cash making machine that teenage boys will rent out to see how British gangsters should operate. 50p is the main pull here and to be honest just like his acting as a yobo singer who talks fast he does bring something to the movie… Can put my finger on it..O yes I remember when he came on screen acting the cool and sophisticated money lender I thought of David bowie… You know when bowies in a movie its going to be dreadful but get great reviews because his fans love him, well that's what I thought of 50p acting. Can't sing cant dance cant act…he will go along way.Its almost blueprint in how not to make a movie about British life. This is yet another movie about the so called underworld of the u.k. made by people who have no idea about the underworld of the u.k. funded b millionaire football players and rent a yob actors this is so artificial it's the most plastic gangster movie yet. If you really want to see a movie and it has to be about gangster in the uk , then I suggest the Manchester movie "a very British gangster"