Isle of Dogs (2010)

Isle of Dogs: Directed by Tammi Sutton. With Barbara Nedeljakova, Edward Hogg, Andrew Howard, Gwilym Lee. When London gangland boss Darius Deel discovers his new trophy-wife Nadia is having an affair, he hunts down her lover Riley and a deadly game begins.

“I saw this film at Frightfest 2010 in London and rather embarrassingly I was sitting in the same row as the director and some of the stars. I say embarrassing as there are quite a lot of laughs in this film, but most are unintentional. Small things like a firedoor sign (clearly filmed in a hotel rather than a country house) to a suitcase u0026#39;fullu0026#39; of money that appears to have about £200 at most in it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnfortunately itu0026#39;s not just the small things that are laughable in this film. The characters are stereotypical (bumbling police, foul mouthed wisecracking boss, hit-man with a heart), the dialogue is trying to be genuine/gritty whilst also amusing and fails with both, and there are some glaring plot holes. There are several scenes that are way too long and talky whilst the music booms over the top trying to add gravitas to characters going over the same points again and again.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe acting isnu0026#39;t too bad on the whole, the major characters are a gang boss, his wife and her lover whou0026#39;s also a hit-man for said boss. The boss puts in a decent performance that owes a lot to Ben Kinglsey in u0026#39;Sexy Beastu0026#39; and Vinnie Jones from Guy Ritchie films, that said he clearly had fun with it and that comes across. The Wife is a Czech actress whou0026#39;s main functions are to walk around pouting and having some rough and tumble with various protagonists both of which she does fine. The hit-man performance is very strange though. Ed Hogg seems to go from maniacal to breaking down crying in every scene in the most uneven performance Iu0026#39;ve ever seen. Ed is the only actor I recognised from another film having seen u0026#39;Bunny and the Bullu0026#39; in which I thought he was very good, which just makes his performance even more confusing and ultimate I just think he was miscast also being too slight and having too weak a voice for the role.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the end the film wants to be a cross between a Guy Ritchie film, Severance and Sexy Beast but fails to be as fun or interesting as any of them. I doubt there will be any major release of this film, but there are laughs to be had (however unintentional) but I certainly wouldnu0026#39;t pay for them!”