He may not be the biggest,he may not be the toughest but boy does Paddy Considine scare the shit out of me in this. Intense.Fuck me he's intense.
A straightforward revenge flick with some truly terrifying scenarios played out in a nameless Midlands town,this is Shane Meadows gone ga ga. Paddy Considine's ex-para Richard is obviously a cross between Rambo and Taxi Driver just like it says on the DVD sleeve. Only his methods put both Stallone and De Niro to shame. Meadows directs with his usual full-on kitchen-sink-realism and you can tell his actors are ad-libbing on occasion.
This movie belongs to Considine,but Toby Kebbell is utterly convincing as his "touched" brother who gives a sensitive portrayal of a mentally impaired youngster. Violent,smart,disturbing. One of Britain's most honest directors delivers all of these emotions and more.

I flippin love Paddy Considine, after seing his directorial debut Tyrannosaur, which left me stunned, i was delighted to see him in this and pretty much the same effect. The glorious modern british kitchen sinker. Grim, disturbing and hilarious at the same time. Top notch British film making and then some.

Not at all what I expected from the poster - superb take on a revenge story.

God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that.
-Richard

Looking at Paddy Considine's filmography I realize that I've seen films he's been in, but this is the first time I've taken notice. I'm looking forward to rewatching those films mainly to see what parts he was playing.

The man stands at 5'9", but you'd swear he was 10' tall in this film. If anything it's Considine's performance that makes this film worth watching. At first he seems to be your typical revenge character on the surface, but the further you go into the movie you realize there is much more going on with the character. A truly great performance.

Intelligent and unusual take on the revenge flick. Well-plotted and cleverly edited. Considine is marvellous.

Schöner Soundtrack aber der Film hat mir gar nicht zugesagt.

Fantastic revenge flick

Revenge film about a man who after seven years in the military returns to the town where he grew up in rural England. It turns out that while he was away something happened to his mentally challenged brother and he aims on finding who did it. Could have been something deeper than just a revenge film.

I'm not sure how this film passed me by - it's a cracker. Powerful, funny and a great soundtrack.

I like Paddy Considine. In Hot Fuzz he is a great comic and in The Bourne Ultimatum he does a great job as the journalist, Simon Ross.

In Dead Man's Shoes, he does not have a lot to work with... That's not to say that he is bad, but with a bare bones script and a story that is more about the past than the present, he is left with a shell of a character.
The film itself suffers from its indiness, and the story is pretty obvious and the twist is handled pretty ham-fistedly, but it is interesting and striking at times.
Watch it if you need an indy flick with some gore and weight.

Dead Man's Shoes isn't nearly as physically brutal as I was expecting, which I count as a good thing. Paddy Considine gives a phenomenal performance that perfectly walks the line between stoic to the point of being deranged and being completely overcome with constant emotion. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that so seamlessly integrated multiple flashbacks into the plot. And the way those flashbacks constantly fed plot points to the viewer helped to keep the purely revenge-driven story line highly engaging.

Paddy Considine looks like a friendly little bunny, which makes it even better when he snarls things like YOU, YOU CUNT at inept gangsters, then chops them up and puts all the bits in a suitcase for later.

It's funny but it's sad. But it's great. But it's also really, really sad.

[The live rescore at Southbank Centre was pretty great.]