- Starring
- Tom Meeten, Katherine Parkinson, June Watson
- Writers
- Brook Driver, Nick Gillespie, Matthew White
- Director
- Nick Gillespie
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 95 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s SXSW Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Now things are getting ridiculous and that it isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break is an oddball British dark comedy that is sure to divide audiences but somehow still works in the end thanks to plenty of earnestness and heart behind all the craziness though some won’t see through what’s on the surface and that’s okay too. While it doesn’t all work, it’s still a decent time that doesn’t wear out its welcome. It merely uses commentary on fame and the pressure of fame as a pretense before essentially going from 0 to 100 and shifting towards a gruesome revenge story. The film of course follows a man named Paul Dood (Meeten), an aspiring entertainer who lost his chance for his big break by missing his audition for one of the biggest talent shows as a result of 5 selfish strangers. From there, his mind was set on revenge and he had one lunch break to do it.
Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break sets up Dood as a character we should pity, a middle-aged man living with his mother Julie (Watson). When it seemed like his better days were behind him, he still held on to the hope that he would one day be a star, if only to impress his mother. Whatever viewers may feel about him, that passion and enthusiasm was infectious to watch and made him very rootable. Perhaps where he takes that passion next may lose some audiences as the story truly gets increasingly ridiculous as Dood goes about getting his revenge in most gruesome of ways while the gratification he received kept him going. In spite of all the insanity. what made it still work was Meeten’s relatable performance grounds it by making audiences care about Dood.
At the end of the day, Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break is a fun and mindless escape that isn’t perfect by any means but will nonetheless entertain and that’s good enough.
still courtesy of Belstone Pictures
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.