'Dead Shot' is a stylish action-thriller set in bloody history

Michael, a retired IRA member (Colin Morgan) sets out on a mission of vengeance against Tempest, a British paratrooper (Aml Ameen) who murdered his pregnant wife. Brought back into the fold by a mysterious handler (Tom Vaughn-Lawlor), Michael is sent to London to lead a bombing campaign with the help of IRA members (Felicity Jones, Steve Wall, Caolan Byrne) already there, while Tempest is recruited by an MI5 agent (Mark Strong) to help thwart the campaign...

When it comes to a subject like the Troubles, it's hard not to automatically wince at the idea of a genre movie surrounding it - especially an action-thriller that takes influence from the likes of 'Heat' and 'The Long Good Friday'. Yet, 'Dead Shot' largely succeeds in stripping away the layers of socio-political elements and instead turns it into a straight-up revenge story about two people whose justifiable anger is easily exploited for other people's ends.

The script is based in part on work by Ronan Bennett. He previously wrote Michael Mann's John Dillinger-biopic 'Public Enemies', has a real crackle of authenticity to it and it's not hard to see why. Bennett was falsely imprisoned in Long Kesh in 1974 for the murder of an RUC member and wrote a memoir on Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four. That said, the movie makes no specific reference to the Republican outfit that Colin Morgan's character is working for, and Tom Vaughn-Lawlor's icy handler refers to it in one scene simply as 'the organisation'. Likewise, when Mark Strong's character recruits Aml Ameen, no military institution is named or referenced by either of them. This kind of vagueness serves the story, in that neither man is necessarily driven by an ideology or a desire to serve, but by the simple desire to avenge.

Both Morgan and Ameen play their roles with grim intensity, stalking and hunting one another through the rubbish-strewn streets of '70s London like they're Vincent Hanna and Neil MacAuley in another existence. At just under 90 minutes, the action is relentless and has a crunchy, visceral texture to it. There's a real atmosphere of sweaty paranoia and dread throughout the movie that rolls right up to its downer ending. The sound design is thunderous, the soundtrack is punctuated by a synth score and then-contemporary tracks like Rory Gallagher's 'Can't Believe It's True'.

While it obviously doesn't have a Hollywood-style budget, the Guard Brothers are able to make 'Dead Shot' look slick and stylish with what they've got to work with. The editing is sharp and pacy, and while it may be a little too thin in terms of character development or wider implications for its own good, 'Dead Shot' is nevertheless a sharpened action-thriller that cuts with its legitimacy.