Another gun-toting cockney-gangster film you say? Well yes, but it’s a goodun. Even mobster loan sharks are feeling the pinch of the credit-crunch in this gritty yet comedic day in the life film starring Tamer Hassan, 50 Cent and Danny Dyer.

Nick (Hassan) has 24 hours to repay a loan of £100,000 to Thigo (50Cent) or else pay with his life. As the film twists and turns it becomes apparent that Nick is being made an example of, and all his efforts to achieve his deadline are being deliberately thwarted by Thigo and his men. Despite its relatively unoriginal sounding plot, the film is constantly surprising, full of dark twists and turns that leave you guessing without confounding you completely. If you’re a fan of Guy Richie films you’ll definitely like Alex De Rakoff’s Dead Man Running, as it flatters Richie’s style whilst managing to exist in its own right.

I must admit I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film, as it set itself up to be just another formulaic gangster romp full of stereotypes and rhyming-slang that no one uses any more, however it was in fact a pretty clever gangster romp that was entertaining enough to forgive its gender stereotyping and the rhyming slang was delivered in an ironic, self deprecating manner (mainly from Dyer, I might add, who would just sound plain wrong without chucking in the odd “apples and pears” into conversation…)

I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Nick’s mum (Brenda Blethyn) being held hostage by a threatening but world weary heavy (Philip Davis), who she manages to charm and outwit in an endearingly middle-aged manner. Blethyn and Davis manage seemingly effortlessly to inject humility, humour and realism into an otherwise potentially far fetched plot, keeping it grounded without bogging it down with sentimentality.

Bankrolled by the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole, its no surprise that Dead Man Running is a testosterone injected tale, full of useless, manipulative or simply vacant yet scantily clad women, however it is surprisingly restrained in many other aspects. There’s not an enormous amount of violence compared to what I was expecting, there’s a distinct lack of souped up cars and no gratuitous and superfluous sex scenes.

However, there is an abundance of white stuff, guns, money and swearing, plus a complete disregard for consequence or retribution. I found the dialogue a little hard to understand at the start of the film due to the over-enthusiastic soundtrack, and there were a few unnecessary explanations and cockney slang-isms that made it clear the film was being tailored to an American market, which gave it a bit of a cliché feel, but overall it was an enjoyable diversion.