Dad Savage

This first feature - a Fen country heist drama knee-deep in illicit banknotes, callous youths, betrayal, confusion and general bellicosity - evidently takes Shallow Grave as its inspiration. But it's a hash job, a blank, tiresome muddle of vapid characters and threadbare plotting. The one distinction is the show-role provided for senior actor Patrick Stewart as tulip farmer Dad Savage, known just as 'D' to his boys: son Sav (Wood) and his buddies H (McKidd), Vic (Warren) and Bob (McFadden), D's recently hired hands. This being (supposedly) an East Anglian Western, Dad wears a stetson and cowboy boots, enjoys Country and Western line dancing, and has scant regard for the law and a stash of loot buried in the woods. Likewise, the boys get off on guns, killing and blood - as a brief introductory montage informs us - and evince just enough wherewithal to hatch a half-baked scheme which instantly unravels for the duration of the film.