Distributed by

Entertainment in Video

Cert:

Cat.no: EDV 9074

Running time: 93 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 12 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Interviews, Trailer, 'Making of'

Director:

Andy Hurst (You're Dead)

Producer:

Marco Weber

Screenplay:

Andy Hurst

Music:

Robert Folk

Cast:

Maitland: John Hurt (Contact, Dead Man, The Elephant Man, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Frankenstein Unbound, Heaven's Gate, Midnight Express, Rob Roy, Wild Bill, You're Dead, TV: I Claudius)
Eddie: Rhys Ifans (Dancing At Lughnasa, Heart, Notting Hill, Twin Town, You're Dead)
Ian: David Schneider (The Tribe, TV: Friday Night Armistice, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge)
Jo: Claire Skinner (Clockwork Mice, I.D., Life is Sweet, The Wingless Bird, TV: A Dance to the Music of Time)

You're Dead tells the tale of three bankrobbers - the experienced Maitland (John Hurt), plus partners-in-crime Eddie (Rhys Ifans) and Ian (David Schneider). The premise is simple - enter a posh London bank at 5.50pm, ten minutes before the time-lock safe door is usually opened, score the cash while waving around bullet-free guns, then leave after twenty minutes with enough money to live forever without worry.

Told in flashback, the film mixes in happenings inside the bank as the quick in-out turns into a prolonged siege lasting days, with an interview between undercover cop Jo (Claire Skinner) and Professor Corner (Barbara Flynn), head of the mysterious Cyclops corporation. It all feels like such a mess as one set of predicted circumstances is played out after another - people die, but a few minutes later they're alive because another theory is being tested. Add to this a 70s-flashback where Barbara Flynn can be heard saying "You've destroyed the evidence" (I won't say who to), while she's obviously saying something else (looks like 'fraudulent'), all of which makes for very scrappy film-making.

So, we have a bank robbery, a shoot-out, a bank manager who lets them in in the first place, swearing, some humour that doesn't really make you laugh, John Hurt not really trying, Rhys Ifans effecting a cockney accent instead of his usual Welsh tones, David Schneider grinning away as usual and Claire Skinner in ice-queen mode. Oh - doesn't sound too good does it?