My top 10 gangster movies #8 Dead Mans Shoes ( 2004)

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Not every great gangster movie involves sharp suits, cool gun play, piffy lines and cool dialogue, the plot hanging on like a smoldering cigarette on the bad guys lip in most of those. Dead Mans Shoes is very different and grungy in the genre. Its a British movie from the unfashionable Midlands, the region of Nottinghamshire to be exact. Very few mob films here are based outside of London. The rural settings aplenty just add to the absurdity and tempo of this enjoyable cult classic here. Director Shane Meadows gangsters are total losers , not a gun in sight, running the drugs trade in a small rural town from a dingy social housing and a Citroen CV6, as goofy car as you can get for a mobster. Its a dark comedy starring Paddy Considine as the antihero returning to his hometown from the army to sort these clowns out for an act of extreme violence on his family. He is going up against a handsome gang leader played by Gary Stretch, who in real life is a champion boxer at the time the movie was made. I wont tell you anymore on the plot as it will spoil the big twist but its very different and atmospheric crime movie you need to see. Its funny, violent when it needs to be and has some memorable scenes and dialogue, one of those movies that builds the mystery nicely for the denouement. Its folksy soundtrack adds another level or melancholy to complete the movie. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419677/