In 2004 producer/director team Phil Hobden and Ross Boyask brought us Left for Dead and getting an action film off the ground in the UK certainly hasn’t gotten any easier, but Ten Dead Men is further testament to their ability to wring every last nose-shattering head butt from a budget that would barely cover Sly’s gym membership.

The plot follows Ryan (Brendan Carr), an instinctive killer whose attempts to leave the underworld wind up with his girlfriend Amy (Pooja Shah) murdered and him shot and dumped in the sea. From the moment he wakes up on the beach, Ryan begins a journey of savage revenge that would make Tarantino wince as one by one he despatches those who robbed him of everything.

Even without Hollywood money, Boyask approaches each set-piece with vision and executes it in carnage loaded glory. Filmed across the South of England, from Wembley down to Brighton, there is plenty to see in the film’s tight, uncompromising 90 minutes. Boyask lets rip with some ambitious stunt work and bone-breaking moves, showing off skills from real fighters like martial artist Silvio Simac and Cage Rage hero Tom Gerald who proves to be Ryan’s toughest match.

Ultra-violent, ultra-mean, Ten Dead Men unashamedly revels in its genre’s hard-boiled roots, wallowing in the destruction of revenge and the wreckage it leaves behind. With Ryan’s detached killer on the road to oblivion we have the UK’s own Mad Max, darkened by The Crow thanks to shades of body-horror and comic book characters. The film easily clubs aside any British alternative and will no doubt leave the stuffy, politically correct media whimpering in the corner of their rose-tinted, Notting Hill world. This is revenge actually, a dish served cold and bloody, littered with plenty of limbs and shrapnel.

Action Rating: 4/5
Film Rating: 4/5

If you liked this try: "Mad Max", "Death Sentence", "Man on Fire".