Doomed from the Start: Dead Man's Shoes - Kind Hearts and Coronets

I'll try to get my hands on these films by next week!

I'll try as well. I'm really looking forward to re-watching 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' again.

I'll watch at least one of them this weekend. Probably both!
I swear!

Loved Loved Loooooved Dead Man's Shoes.

The guy playing Richard just oozes being insane and dead set on getting his revenge. It's a simple story, and short. But very well executed.

The kills are terrific, and so creepy. He really hunts them down and fucks with them.
My favorite scene has to be when the gang sees Richard on the street and Sonny goes to confront him acting all tough. Richard destroys him verbally. It's amazing. Specially the way he cuts to the chase right away: "The lads have this funny thought..." "Yeah, it was me".

And WTF i just went to IMDB and found out it's Paddy Considine! I spent the entire film thinking "he looks like Considine, but not quite" Awesome.

Regarding the third act, i don't think it's redemption. He didn't quite Spare the life of the last dude, he fucked him up for life by making him kill him! Richard knows he went too far, there's no coming back after all "the carnage" and he want's to be with his brother. Besides, the clips showing us the time he met the kids and what he showed them with the knife, he was right, he was a monster and maybe if left alive could go on doing worse things.

Anthony is played by the guy who played Jonny Quid in Rockanrolla. Love that dude!

Great pick Mr Adam. I'll try to squeeze in Kind Hearts and Coronets before the end of the weekend. And WTF people? Why is NO one following this bitch anymore?

Another thing I love about Dead Man's Shoes is the soundtrack, it's such a nice mix of folk and electronica, it's too bad the CD is out of print.

Shane Meadows is one of THE best actor's directors working today. If anyone here hasn't seen THIS IS ENGLAND, I suggest you check it out immediately. The performances are so real they're astounding.

Yeah, This Is England great, what surprised me most was how good Thomas Turgoose was as Shaun. It was also interesting to see where the whole skinhead culture started out and then the irony of it being appropriated by right wing fascists.

Kind Hearts and Coronets was a great film!

I loved more the Idea than the execution, but it was very good. The thing that i did not like was the weird comic tone that the movie showed and that every murder was so easy to commit. NO one investigated him? No one asked any question? That for me took something away from the film.

Also, the ending is open, right? We are led to believe that his memoirs will be read, but they are shown there untouched, he can easily go back and take them with him!

Couldn't recognize Guinness at first, took me a while to find the voice.

Thanks again Mr Adam, 2 fine movies!
I wish we had more people talking about them though!

Bad News Bear guy was decent as Rorschach, but watching Dead Man's Shoes for like the 9th time the other day made me wonder how great Paddy Considine would have been in the role. Can just picture him channeling himself in the last scene of DMS, taking that mask off and screaming "DO IT!".

As for Meadows, I read somewhere that his next one is a horror film. Can't wait.

And hopefully more people will watch these films and engage in discussion!

(I'm looking at you Judas and Phil!)

Two very different revenge films, I like that Kind Hearts approaches it from an upper class quintessential perspective while DMS is the gritty working class revenge picture.

Kind Hearts feels like it could've been written by Oscar Wilde, it's very englishness and politeness despite it's dark subject matter makes it fun to watch. Alec Guinness show's Eddie Murphy how it's fucking done, no fatsuits here, just a remarkably assured actor taking several different roles and imbuing each one with a peculiar humanity. The twist at the end was brilliantly done, I honestly didn't see it coming and I should've. The film is absolutely scathing in it's attack on the upper class values.

Dead Man's Shoes feels like what we'd get if Ken Loach ever made a genre film. I've only seen Twenty Four Seven and thought it was good. Meadows gives us a bunch of villians who feel very familiar, I grew up with guys like those, they're just twats which makes it easy for Richard to dismantle their group so easily. I like that his mission of revenge is really just about Richard feeling guilty that he could'nt save his brother and he was embarrassed by him. The reveal that Anthony was dead really threw me until I actually thought about it for a few minutes. Toby gave a performance as a mentally disabled guy that didn't feel put on, he didn't go full retard but he was still good. Considine is an absolute machine, you see he's capable of anything. I think anyone who's had a younger brother could probably relate to this film, I'm sure we've all had to protect our little bro's at some point and got our asses kicked, I know I have. Great film.

Two great revenge films that prove there is more than one way to approach that particular subject. Kind Hearts manages to sustain its satirical comedy without letting the story become saturated by the dark nature of Louis' endeavor; it balances its humor and commentary with his acts of vengeance against a backdrop of upper class English propriety. It's a satisfying story of getting even that never drops the ball on the funny (and is surprisingly tense considering the light-hearted tone), and yes, Alec Guinness is utterly outstanding here. Kind Hearts portrays revenge as a means of advancing and bettering oneself; Louis not only exacts vengeance for the offense the D'Ascoyne's made against his mother, but also to ultimately acquire a better station in life for himself.

The Dead Man's Shoes, on the other hand, is a classic depiction of revenge's inability to assuage us of our emotional pain. It's a real sucker-punch of a movie. It's gritty through and through and unapologetically bleak; the plot unfolds in a couple of ways I didn't expect, and at the end when all is said and done there's still no relief for our protagonist. This is Considine at his finest.

I was surprised to see that the film was co-written by Considine and dedicated to a family member of his, so this was obviously a very personal film for him.

I saw Dead Man's Shoes and I still don't see what the fuss is about. The reveal is a surprise twist, yeah, but I still thought this was a pretty minor, although good film. I probably sound like a real jerk right now, sticking a needle into the balloon and then covering the hole. Why is this? I don't know, the film doesn't have many flaws in particular. It boasts a great lead in Paddy Considine. The story is actually surprising and a bit shocking. Perhaps it's that I saw This is England first, and that's the work of a director who has fully developed his own directorial style.

Wait, what reveal are we talking about? That Anthony's dead all along? 'cuz that one was telegraphed almost from the very first shot. Not to mention all the times the bad guys should have seen him and never reacted to him (considering what was going on). Sonny himself looks over at where Anthony's standing and doesn't even blink!

Anyways, good movie! Just saw it last night. I ordered it from Amazon.com after reading some good reviews in different places (plus I love revenge flicks). I have to admit I was a tad bit disappointed at how subdued the violence was, but that's probably just because everywhere I read they hyped up the "ultra-violence" in the movie. And, really, Death Sentence is Cannibal Holocaust compared to this. But, ehn, that's a perfunctory nitpick at best.

On a side note, I seem to be having a Toby Kebbell-themed week. On Sunday I talked up RocknRolla with my girlfriend and finally convinced her she should see it, on Monday we caught a matinee of The Sorcerer's Apprentice out of boredom and curiosity, and last night I popped in Dead Man's Shoes after remembering I owned it. I didn't know he was in either of the last two! Funny coincidence, in'nt it?

Don't follow them up with Prince Of Persia. He's there, and terrible.