Director: Robbie Davidson
Screenplay: Robbie Davidson
Starring: Snars, Olly Bassi, Shaun Davidson, Mark Burdett, Valerie Birss, Irvine Welsh, Nick Oliveri
Country: UK
Running Time: 89 min
Year: 2023
BBFC Certificate: 15
The designer cult film, i.e. a film made solely not because of a good idea or so on, but a film that deliberately sets out to be a cult, i.e. by being wacky and not caring about its quality, is a trap one is certain not to fall into. From Troma to the post-Tarantino ‘grindhouse’ craze, it’s a mire that is often not worth delving into.
Dick Dynamite 1944 is a film that is definitely in the post-Tarantino grindhouse camp. Billed as Iron Sky meets Inglorious Bastards, it begins with a tasteless scene of children about to be terrorised by Nazis who are rendered as zombies.
Then, we are introduced to Dick Dynamite, a Sgt Rock-type grunt introduced shooting up Nazis to metal. And well, what we have is an intolerable, obnoxious would be ‘cult’ film that feels like it is parodying films that the director has never actually seen. Interiors look cheap and overlit. It is increasingly amateurish and taxing, and not even cameos by members of the likes of Rancid, Sleaford Mods and Queens of the Stone Age can make it palatable. At least it displays its Scottish roots via cameo appearances from the great Clive Russell as an abbot, and everyone’s favourite Scottish gender realist novelist, Irvine Welsh.
Dazzler Media presents Dick Dynamite: 1944 on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 5th May