Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break – Fantasia Review (4/5)

PAUL DOOD’S DEADLY LUNCH BREAK is a British action-thriller dark comedy about revenge. It has all the elements I love from the best horror comedies from the UK. We screened it at Fantasia 2021. Read our full Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break movie review here!

PAUL DOOD’S DEADLY LUNCH BREAK is a British dark comedy about revenge. It’s also an action thriller and definitely earns these two genres as well. For me, this movie has everything I love about genre hybrids from the UK. Especially the horror-comedies such as Shawn of the Dead or Prevenge. The star of the latter movie is actually in this one as well!

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Our review of the brilliant British horror-comedy Prevenge here >

It originally premiered at SXSW in March of 2021 and we screened it at Fantasia 2021. You should make sure you check it out whenever and wherever you can.

Continue reading our Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break movie review below.

Tom Meeten is Paul Dood

The all-important title role of Paul Dood (pronounced “Paul Dude”) is played by Tom Meeten, who is simply perfect in this. You may know Tom Meeten from his roles in the earlier mentioned Prevenge, Sightseers or The Ghoul which he starred in. Many of these movies have several actors in their casts and many of them are also in this movie.

Among the many wonderful supporting characters, you’ll find Alice Lowe from Prevenge (which she also wrote and directed), Steve Oram from Sightseers and A Dark Song. Also, there’s Pippa Haywood (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Katherine Parkinson (Radioactive), Johnny Vegas, and Kris Marshall from Love Actually.

One of my favorite characters in this movie was PSCO Jane Miles who was portrayed by the brilliant Mandeep Dhillon. The same has to be said for Paul Dood’s mom, Julie Dood, who was played by June Watson (Chernobyl). Overall, you shouldn’t know too much about Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break.

Just that it’s a commentary on social media and fame plus the simple and important message: Even the nicest person can be pushed too far!

Be sure to check out Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break when you get the chance!

Nick Gillespie directed this movie which is only his second feature film. We were not big fans of his feature film debut Tank 432 from 2017. However, it did show potential. Also, we know he has worked extensively as a cinematographer with Ben Wheatley, who is a brilliant genre film director. Including his Netflix remake of Rebecca.

DO CHECK OUT

Our review of Nick Gillespie’s first feature film, the horror movie Tank 432 here >

We also really look forward to checking out Ben Wheatley’s latest movie In the Earth. For this movie, Nick Gillespie didn’t write the screenplay on his own. Instead, he’s worked with Brook Driver and Matthew White (The Final Haunting) for this deliciously dark story!

This movie has everything I want from a horror-comedy and despite this one not (officially) being a horror-comedy, I was a very happy movie watcher. Don’t miss it!

We screened Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break as part of our Fantasia 2021 program in August 2021.

Details

Director: Nick Gillespie
Writers: Brook Driver, Nick Gillespie, Matthew White
Stars: Tom Meeten, June Watson, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, Kevin Bishop, Alice Lowe, Mandeep Dhillon, Steve Oram