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DVD Hard Shoulder
 Run time: 82 min Rating: 3.4 Genres: Thriller Director: Nicholas David Lean Writers: Nicholas David Lean Stars: Jamie Foreman, Wil Johnson, Jon Campling |
| Storyline Carl Foster takes off on a well-deserved weekend break with his family knowing only too well that focus on work has impacted his relationship with his wife, young son, and teenage step-daughter. But after a short but restful break in the journey Carl awakens to find himself tied and bound in an old roadside diner, his family trussed and gagged next to him, and a disparate group of dirty, dishevelled, vagrant-like undesirables keeping them captive. Only time will reveal who they are and what they want, but things are not everything they might seem. Written by Nicky Dee |
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| Plot Keywords: diner, carnival, road trip, terror | |
| Details: Country: UK Release Date: 27 October 2012 (UK) |
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| Box Office Budget: £275,000 (estimated) |
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DVD Hard Shoulder
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4 comments
I found the three top reviews of this dog of a movie, that also goes by the name Dead End (which for some reason IMDb does not show when it lists this movie by the title of Hard Shoulder), to be extremely out of focus as to the true nature of this poor quality movie. For one thing, it shows a family (blended racially in this modern world of ours) that is poorly acclimated to each other but doesn't really explore into any depth the reasons for this. Secondly it basically takes a dream sequence and uses that as over half the film and then drops a bomb (stink bomb type) on you at the end that supposedly explains everything but basically leaves you hanging. It was poorly acted, poorly directed and made no sense whatsoever so my truthful suggestion is "skip this stinking turkey!" unless your hungry for some Thanksgiving dinner. StocktonRob
well where do i start, Jamie Foreman from east enders is in it so it could be good, well i'm afraid it is not as good as i thought.i was expecting a lot more from this film. it was not bad, but really i was hoping for something far better. it was like nothing i have seen before,it started of with promise and then sort of went downhill from there the plot seemed OK at first, but it in my opinion went sort of off track it wasn't what i expected, the acting was good and there is a surprise to the ending which made me think what have i just wasted my time on this film? would i recommend you watch it no i wouldn't but make your own mind up. i was disappointed 4 out of 10.
We are often reminded that we have have the best film technicians here in the UK and indeed we have a solid movie history but so often we have trouble marrying that expertise with well produced movies. And this is a prime example. This was looking dire from the outset with the woefully amateur acting but I thought I'd stay with it until the end but it turned out to be clichéd, unimaginative drivel. It's just a complete embarrassment from start to finish and apart from Jamie Foreman I did not recognise anyone else in this mess so maybe the rest of the ensemble were hired on the cheap to play the Hillbillies? Do we have Hillbillies in the UK? Anyway, don't waste your time.
Dead End is over blown and weak on script. It centres around a fractious family car trip where mum and dad (Will Johnson and Angela Dixon) spend the whole time moaning at each other throughout. There teenage daughter (Frances Speedie) and son (Callum Anderson) are irritatingly miserable and grumpy.
The journey takes longer than they had planned and at one point are overtaken by a convoy of travellers. This prompts dad into a confrontation which the family later regrets when they because ambushed by the travellers, tied up and torture. Sounds like a poor mans Rob Zombie movie doesn't it… Right! The family/gang lead by Jamie Foreman leads his motley and deranged family (Jon Campling, James Fisher, Lucy Drive and Jill Greenacre)… Told you Rob Zombie… Mr. Campling even adapts the voice… They all different aspect threatening or violence behaviour while their captors try their best to resist or escape. You kind of hope that it's going somewhere, that there's a deep meaning to it all but… what little there is does start to make sense as the intimidation progresses.
Don't get me wrong it is not a total debacle, there are certain bits within Dead End/hard Shoulder to be commended. Mainly the performance of Jamie Foreman as a vicious villain. But there are also chunks of the movie that are simply poor… Cut it down – that's the best thing to do with this kind of low budget movie 75 minutes would be a max… then it would be much better.