This low-budget Liverpool thug movie has a tang of grimy authenticity missing from all those London gangster films made by public schoolboys and rates as the best bouncer movie since the classic Road House. Washout boxer Tom (James McMartin) takes a job alongside ex-army hardman Paul (Paul Barber) on the door of a Liverpudlian drinking hole.
Paul resists the overtures of organised crime, but Tom isn’t so sure about turning away drugs money. Meanwhile, simmering feuds get out of hand, with ultra-violence clearly on the menu. McMartin isn't quite up to the surprisingly complicated central role, but Barber, familiar from The Full Monty, deserves the Mitchum-level iconic status the film gives him.