Movie Review by Neil Ryan
Starring: Glen Mulhern, Brendan Mackey, Simon Godley, Steven Berkoff, Raymond Griffiths
Director: Lab Ky Mo
Nine dead gay guys? Well if there’s any justice it will certainly kill the careers of a few of the participants. A black comedy that actively seeks to break taboos and cause offence, NINE DEAD GAY GUYS is a picaresque romp that follows the fortunes of two Irish gigolos in London who dole out blow jobs for cash in the back room of a gay pub in order to keep themselves in vodka. When the two of them get wind of a potential client who is supposed to have a small fortune stuffed into his mattress they decide it could be their chance to make a big score. En route to their ill-gotten haul they cross swords (ooer) with a plethora of deliberately provocative stereotypes (mincing old queen, oleaginous Asian cabbie, well hung black man, poorly hung embittered dwarf).
The whole enterprise is flashily filmed (although the constant jump-cut editing becomes wearying) with rapid pacing and much use of freeze-frames and voiceovers. It is a curio that is given further novelty value by the eclectic casting (Steven Berkoff, Michael Praed, 1980’s singers Fish and Carole Decker), and may even have attained camp cult status if it had more proficient acting and a better script. As it is, there are amateurish performances by some of the supporting players, the writing is intermittently lazy, and the whole project is far too enamoured of Lock Stockisms.
