Dead Cert

Released By: Shout! Factory
Released On: 09/27/2011
Director: Steven Lawson
Cast: Craig Fairbrass, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Janet Montgomery
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The Film:

When life hands you rowdy East Ender lemons…make Cockney vampire lemonade! It might not be the best motto, but it seems to have worked somewhat for Steven Lawson, co-writer and director of Dead Cert.

Following the basic look and feel, even utilizing some of the same actors, as other well-known English crime-dramas (think Guy Ritchie), Dead Cert centers around the life of hard man and club owner Freddy Frankham (Craig Fairbrass), who supplements his income by running bare-knuckle boxing matches. Content to have left most of nasty business to other roughnecks like Eddie Christian (Dexter Fletcher), life seems to be going okay for Eddie until a strange Romanian by the name of Dante Rivenko (Billy Murray) arrives on the scene, interested in setting up shop in Freddy's club. Despite warnings about the undead from a man reminiscent of Dr. Loomis, Freddy decides that going toe-to-toe with the ballsy Romanian is the best course of action, and finds out that there's no 'arder man than an undead 'ard man.

Walking the line between a British mobster film and a supernatural bloodletting can be a task, and Dead Cert tries hard; even though it largely misses the mark on many occasions. The performances from a solid run of cast members certainly don't hurt, and Fairbrass and other well-established actors do a fairly convincing job of crossing the genres with decent and sometimes comedic results. The “crime film” aspect of Dead Cert is as it should be, with grit and grime galore, and the vampire element is action-filled with some decent gore and nasty stakings.

There are a few downsides to the film; the main one being that even though Dead Cert features a great cast, you get the feeling that a lot of the dialogue is just filler and the characters suffer as a result of the lack of connection. Additionally, with a strip club-like atmosphere and vampires, it will inevitably draw comparisons to From Dusk Til Dawn, a much better film. There are also plenty of scenes that tend to drag on, which has a negative effect on the pacing of the film. All in all, though, Dead Cert does have some film-worthy moments, with a lot of blood, profanity, action, and funny Cockney dudes.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Dead Cert looks great on Shout! Factory's blu-ray with a 2.35:1 transfer, and sounds better with a DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio track. Some of the more intentionally gritty scenes feature an overblown contrast, but for the most part, the picture is solid. The DTS track makes good use of the surrounds, with some snazzy bass effects as well.

The first extra on the disc is The Making of Dead Cert, a 30-minute featurette that interviews the major players and features on-set footage. Characters and the logistics of working on a lower-budget film are discussed, but unfortunately, this SD feature looks like garbage and sounds about the same. It's watchable, but about as sharp as a heavily compressed .avi file.

A full-length Commentary is also featured, with actors Billy Murray, Craig Fairbrass, Lisa McAllister, and Producer Jonathan Sothcott. As much as they sound like they're having fun, expect a lot of description of what's happening onscreen.

A Trailer rounds out the extras.

The Final Word:

Dead Cert sounds like a better film than it is. While the performances are definitely excellent, the rest of the film lacks……teeth.