Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Easy to follow
- Violence
- Graphic
- sardonic
- irreverent
- frantic
- cult film night
- dark comedy marathon
What critics said
Critics were divided over Balabanov’s shift into black comedy, with some appreciating the gangster satire while others found the plot weak and the jokes unsuccessful.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Serega and Simon’s botched assignments produce massacres, betrayals, and deadpan criminal farce.
The plot centers on organized crime and a police lieutenant described as a werewolf in uniform, reflecting 1990s Russian gangster culture.
The protagonists repeatedly fail Sergei Mikhailovich’s missions, triggering increasingly dangerous confrontations.
The laboratory massacre and successive suitcase ambushes parody the heightened brutality of gangster films.
Films like Dead Man's Bluff, and why
In Bruges
darkly comic organized-crime farce with violent slapstick and criminal incompetence
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
satirical gangster comedy built around escalating criminal misadventures and cynical humor
The Gentlemen
blackly comic crime ensemble featuring gangsters, betrayals, and stylized violence
Movie Details
- Director
- Aleksei Balabanov
- Release Date
- 2005-05-26
- Runtime
- 111 min
- Rating
- 6.7 / 10 (173)
Cast
- Aleksey Panin
- Dmitriy Dyuzhev
- Nikita Mikhalkov
- Sergey Makovetskiy
- Anatoli Zhuravlyov
- Grigorij Sijatvinda
- Viktor Sukhorukov
- Garik Sukachyov
- Aleksey Serebryakov
- Dmitriy Pevtsov
Common questions
- What is Dead Man's Bluff about?
- Two inept Russian gangsters turn a series of botched drug deals into a brutally comic descent through post-Soviet criminal underworlds.
- What is Dead Man's Bluff like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Dead Man's Bluff as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as easy to follow.
- Is Dead Man's Bluff violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Dead Man's Bluff as graphic.
- What did critics think of Dead Man's Bluff?
- Critics were divided over Balabanov’s shift into black comedy, with some appreciating the gangster satire while others found the plot weak and the jokes unsuccessful.
- Which films are like Dead Man's Bluff?
- Films with a similar feel include In Bruges, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and The Gentlemen.
- How long is Dead Man's Bluff?
- Dead Man's Bluff runs 111 minutes.
