Dead Man's Cards

Boxing, back street lowlife and brutality abound in James Marquand's stunningly shot directorial debut, Dead Man's Cards. It's the tale of a struggling boxer (co-writer James McMartin) who takes a job as a bouncer at a dodgy Liverpool club and becomes involved with the city's underworld. Decent performances from Samantha Janus as his wife and Paul Barber (The Full Monty) as a fellow bouncer, don't quite distract from the muddled narrative and some poor plotting. Mathew Whyte's knockout cinematography almost saves the day, gloriously gritty and expansive on a shoestring budget. Marquand, whose late father Richard directed Return of the Jedi, has come up with a promising debut which lands some hard-hitting blows. [Colan Mehaffey]