All Things to All Men

Plot synopsis:
After a stakeout, Parker, a dirty cop, arrests the son of mob boss Joseph Corso. Parker uses the arrest as leverage against Corso and forces him to recruit Riley, a thief that Parker wants to entrap. After Corso threatens him, Riley reluctantly agrees to perform a burglary for Corso, unaware that he is being manipulated by Parker. Parker's target, however, turns out to be more secure than expected, and Corso is unable to procure access codes. Riley balks at Corso's suggestion that they torture a worker for the codes, so Parker retrieves the codes from Scotland Yard's security system. However, Dixon, Parker's protege, becomes increasingly suspicious that there's more to Parker's machinations than he lets on. Dixon takes his concerns to Sands, Parker's long-time partner, who threatens to block Dixon's promotion if he continues to ask questions.
During the burglary, Riley and Corso's lieutenant, Cutter, are surprised to find much more money than planned. Riley questions how they could have lucked into such a major heist, but Cutter dismisses his concerns. Cutter later makes an attempt on Riley's life and tries to escape with the loot, which results in a high-speed chase through London. Cutter dies when his car crashes, and Riley takes the money. Meanwhile, Dixon convinces Sands to go straight, and Sands confronts Parker. Unwilling to give up his schemes, Parker kills Sands and attempts to frame Corso for the murder. Parker's plans go awry when Dixon survives an assassination attempt, and Parker becomes increasingly desperate to raise money to pay off his debts to powerful mobsters. Parker steals from several of his associates and plans his escape from London once he can retrieve the money stolen by Riley.
Riley sets up a meeting with Corso, and Parker uses his contacts to find the location. Corso, Riley, Parker, and Dixon converge on the meeting spot, and Parker kills Corso. Dixon arrives just as Parker is about to murder Riley and take the money. Disgusted, Dixon kills Parker and lets Riley escape. In the aftermath, Dixon meets with his superiors, who want him to keep silent about the details of the case. Dixon cynically compares Parker's actions to that of a mobster, and his superior agree, though they had been aware of much of Parker's actions. In return for his silence, they offer him a promotion, and Dixon agrees, reasoning that the resulting scandal would be disastrous for the police force.

Tags: mystery

Review:
Good performances, weak script, unoriginal plot..
It is a very complicated movie and I soon lost my way.
My main criticism is that I was always aware that I was watching a movie.
Either he wasn't watching it at all or his interpretation was somewhat misguided.I found this to be a good movie typical of the type of English crime drama i have come to expect over the years.I thought the plot was well thought out and the twists and turns quite fascinating.Yes one does have to keep focused on whats going on but that is the whole idea.It kept me glued to the screen wondering who was going to do what next.The ending for me was an ending i believe was appropriate.
3/4 of the way through i had a feeling it would end that way.I was left feeling this was not a waste of my time and, unlike Nick Stone, i would recommend it..
One slick British Crime Drama not to be missed.
I also disagree with Nick Stones review.Slow to start - definitely not.
I was glued to the screen from the moment the film began.This was a slick British crime drama that I've come to expect from the Brits.
No one writes mystery and crime drama like they do.And you could not have asked for better actors to play their respective roles; from Rufus Sewell, Gabriel Byrne, to Toby Stephens they all provided excellent performances.The one thing I love about British crime drama is that many writers fail purposely or not to explain everything, they leave the audience to figure out various parts of the plot line, which I personally like and approve.
And this movie had a lot of plot twists and unexpected results that will have your jaw dropping.I recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates British crime drama..
Plodding and predictable, but worth a watch for the marvelous character actors..
Movie is plodding and predictable.
I only found it because I am indulging a Rufus Sewell swoon, saw the title listed in his IMDb credits and located it on Netflix.
The Bad: The "plot" is a pastiche of so many (better) movies from the past 20-30 years.
Actually from the beginning of movie-making (smile).The Good: So many terrific character actors with arresting faces (another reason I love Rufus).
Linking the faces to other movies and TV series.Over the past 2 years, I have binge-watched so many Brit and Aussie TV series and movies especially.
So while I respect the reviewers who say this movie doesn't present the London they know, the exterior shots sure look inviting to me here in Pennsylvania.
A story involving crooked cops and a London gangster, a mysterious thief with a heart of gold caught in their game, and (a try at) a twist.
A mix between the old film noir and more modern UK gangster/heist films; just from the film's start it seemed quite good and promising.Yet, it does not work.
The script is very weak and unoriginal, without a single great moment; a mere 'copy and paste' of film noir's more usual situations/clichés and character stereotypes (like the crooked cop that is just 'following the system' or the mysterious, often quiet and sometimes cynical main character).
The plot gets overly muddled by the middle of the film to the point that the viewer can easily get confused; by the ending, things get resolved in such a ridiculously predictable way that the film becomes overly simplistic in hindsight.It does not help that the film feels silly.
There is not a credible tension like in most heist/gangster films, which is further enhanced by the extreme predictability of it all.
There is also no memorable moments at all, nothing that could make this film worthy remembering (for the good or for the bad).The cast is interesting.
Gabriel Byrne and Rufus Sewell stand out and make the most out of their characters; Toby Stephens does feel like a noir protagonist, though the emotionless-ness of his character is overdone; and Terence Maynard and Leo Gregory also do a nice work despite their overly flawed characters.Overall, while not necessarily a bad movie, 'All Things to All Men'/'The Deadly Game' ends up as a forgettable, overly predictable and silly mess that does not work despite its fine cast..
Very difficult to follow plot.
This film is a poor mans British version of LA Confidential.
Too bad because these are talented actors.
The chase scenes in automobiles and on foot are the highlight of the film.
Completely nonsensical with clandestine meetings and corrupt cops expected to go undetected in the city that has more closed-circuit cameras than any place on the planet.
A serious movie should take into account that follow-up investigations made by law enforcement will look at cell phone records and bank account histories.
The director and writer of this film apparently forgot these obvious facts.
Cannot recommend this film..
Nothing to Any Men - A Confused and Empty Gangster Film....
Now and then you find a film with a great cast and wonder why you've never heard of it before.
Here we have Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Toby Stephens and Rufus Sewell in a London gangster thriller.Oh no, not another one!But wait, this is a well produced, well shot film with a pretty good (if somewhat generic) score.
And this is only 81 minutes long, so even if it's bad it'll be mercifully short, right?Wrong.I'd been watching 21 minutes when I checked the time, because I thought I must be half way through by now.
Which means you feel like you've missed something all the way through, namely, the story.
See, the main problem is that we don't know any of the characters in the film, so we don't care about them.
And I like grey characters who aren't really good or bad, but you need a general focus or main character in a film, and this film just doesn't have one.So you keep watching these characters you don't care about in a story you can't really figure out, especially as they keep referring to things you don't see but that appear to be germane to the plot, and pretty soon you are just willing it to all end.
That's not the way thrillers are supposed to make you feel.
Phew!I need to watch a great thriller.
It is very difficult to write a review about a film one does not like.This is that type of film.I told myself that I will review every film I see, so I have to torture myself and yourself.What a boring film!
Plot is poor!
Shots of London are nice, but so they were last night on celebration of New Years 2014.Fireworks last night in London were more exciting then this film.You can freely skip it.If you have nothing better to do, just watch pictures of London.Nothing else!To add!.
poor film.
Well I've been a fan of IMDb for some time but i have never contributed and even if id preferred to make a nice statement for a first timer i couldn't watch this dud and let it get away with it first of all DO not pay too watch this film everything about it is terrible plot ,actors camera-work even the twists are terrible and as a londoner (london being the place the film takes place in ) believe me you don't feel one breath of the city ..
its sad too see good actors like gabriel byrne who was brilliant in usual suspects which is too some extent everything this film isn't i kid you not he seems to decay throughout the plot as if he understand what hes getting into ..
everything feels bad and nobody is at his place and you just don't get whats happening and especially why ?
the storyline seems too have been written by a ten year old at the best terrible too see people make films this bad ..
I only managed to watch half this film because by that point I had got sick of the inaccuracies.
Also, the police in the UK are not allowed to operate like this.
I don't know why the director/writer decided to waste the talents of some excellent actors like this when an authentic British take on the storyline would probably have been much more interesting.
Really excellent but clearly embarrassed caste with a really awful script.
When a movie I see on TV starts with the logo for popcornflix.com, I know that I likely can't count on too much appearing on IMDb, so I watch these movies more carefully to provide IMDb with as much information as I can.
There were cops in London, some of whom were apparently corrupt, and a rich man who wanted to get his drug dealing son out of trouble.
There was a car chase which was pretty good.
London was interesting to look at, if that was where the movie was set.
The Thames?I saw what looked like that scene from "Mission: Impossible", but if you enjoyed that scene, there's really nothing here.
I remember one really good acting performance from Terence Maynard, who ended up being tougher than he looked at first.Do I have any more to say?
"All Things to All Men" is a 2013 British crime film.Gabriel Byrne plays London crime boss Joseph Corso.
His son, Mark (Pierre Mascolo), is a drug runner, and Corso also has an associate.On the case are Parker (Rufus Sewell), Dixon (Leo Gregory), and Sands (George Cutter) from New Scotland Yard/Metro Police.By using Mark and getting him on drug charges, the cops are able to get Corso into trapping Riley (Toby Stephens) who moves stolen diamonds.Corso insists on seeing his son and also wants him released; Parker wants Riley in prison.
Joseph goes to Riley with one more job, a robbery where they have to move quickly.
Joseph tells his son that he is planning to retire, but Mark won't be succeeding him due to his record.
It all goes awry, along with this bare-bones film that moves fast and says not much.
It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad, and I guess that's the point, as they cops acted like criminals.The acting was good, especially from Byrne, Sewell, and Stephens, but I was not involved in the plot or with any of the actors.
Normally I can follow a complicated plot - in fact, I like them - but when they're not well written, they are hard to follow, as this one was.
More like, "Not much to pretty much anyone".
When I came across the DVD for this movie at my local library, I hadn't even heard of it before.
Without looking it up at the IMDb, I decided to give it a chance since it promised to be a crime movie filled with twists and turns.
Even before getting to the end of the movie, I was regretting that I hadn't looked up the movie at the IMDb before deciding to watch it.
I agree with most of the previous posters here that the movie simply isn't very good.
The main problem with the movie is that it is VERY confusing - even though I read the plot description off the back of the DVD case before watching the movie, it didn't take me long to get utterly mystified as to who was who and what was exactly going on.
I guess the acting is competent, and the British backdrop does give the movie a different look and feel from Hollywood product.
And the movie's production values are okay for what had to have been a small budget.
But those things don't save the movie from being an utterly confusing bore..
Why did such a group of brilliant British actors agree to do this film in the first place?
They all turn in excellent performances in a film missing so much detail and a clunky script.
Perhaps the director is aiming for film noir but the strong silent types were all a little overdone.
The best part of the film was London.
There is a good film lurking around the skeleton of this film but it is very difficult to understand quite what is happening.
I had to watch it in 3 parts as I was so bored but didn't mind watching Rufus Sewell and Toby Stephens.
In the end the stand out actor was Leo Gregory..
I'd like to take credit for that summary line, but it wasn't entirely my idea.
Actually it was all done by someone else, who "translates" movie titles into the German language.
In this instance as with other movies too, an English title gets replaced with another English title.
maybe that is.But back to the movie, that has some really good actors in it (check the casting here on IMDb), and all of them do deliver.
Not things that you haven't seen before (you could call the movie predictable), but still things that make it fun to watch.
Endless betrayals mark this dark anti-procedural crime film..
Set in modern day London, UK.
Joseph Corso is a crime boss, the 'Merchant' of London; Cutter is his henchman.
Mark Corso (Joseph's son) seems to be running drugs, and doing them as well.
Parker, Dixon, and Sands are on the New Scotland Yard/Metropolitan Police side of the issues.By squeezing Mark on cocaine possession, Parker and friends leverage his father Joseph into trapping Riley, who has been skirting Joseph's rules of order.
Joseph wants his son safe, well-treated, and preferably free; Parker wants Riley in jail and off the streets.
At least that is the first story.Joseph sets up Riley to do 'one more job' that is a complicated heist that has to be done lightning fast.
Parker gets Mark back to Joseph.
Joseph tells Mark that he is retiring as the Merchant, but that succession is unlikely since Mark is a known addict.
Will the cops keep faith with Joseph on the deal?
Will Joseph help Riley just enough to get him caught?
Where does the difference start between normal police procedure and straight up corruption?
Focus and framing and the like were just fine.Sound: 8/10 The tension building from the background music was good, and the actors seemed to be miked OK.Acting: 6/10 Normally I like Byrne, Sewell, and Sands.
I like Toby Stephens as a comedian in television (Vexed) and film (Severance), but not so much as a dramatic actor.
Terence Maynard was rather good, and I liked Leo Gregory's performance.Screenplay: 5/10 How does Riley get shot in the abdomen then can keep going with high-stress muscular maneuvers for a good continuous 20 minutes afterward?
The ending (and much of the plot) reminded me of LA Confidential.
This worked in the year in which LA Confidential was set, but not so much in 2013.
Perhaps worst of all, the 84 minute play time felt like 130..
British crime story pulls it off.
"All things to all men", a British film about the underworld and the involvement of corrupt police in it.
In the end, almost everyone is dead, both the good and the bad, except one novice policeman who captures the sense of the movie.
The closing scene brings a rather disjointed and difficult to follow story together with several notable quotes: "There's no right or wrong, only winners and losers." And the closing dialogue: Police Commissioner: "Can you be trusted?" Attorney General: "He means, 'Are you loyal to the system?'" Dickson: "what I don't understand, if a cop doesn't commit perjury, you'll never get a conviction.
Even now, it feels like I'm lying even when I'm telling the truth." Attorney General: "Something like that." Police Commissioner: (with a smile, acknowledging Dickson's desired promotion) "Detective".
The British accent made the dialogue extremely difficult to follow at times.
The story slowly builds a plot that comes to a satisfying climax with the final denouement..
IT FEELS LIKE I'M LYING, EVEN WHEN I AM TELLING THE TRUTH..
The film opens with a diamond heist then switches quickly to a cocaine bust.
The cocaine bust was just a way for to coerce The Merchant (Gabriel Byrne) to hire the diamond thief (Toby Stephens) by rogue members of Scotland Yard who want to use him for a robbery....I think.The film consists of a confused mess that is hard to follow.
I don't mind watching a film I have trouble keeping up with, but the film has to have some entertaining scenes along the way.
This was filled with a long series of boring scenes of people talking, while robberies, killings, and chase scenes are abbreviated.There are far better British "thrillers" out there.Original Title "All Things to All Men."Parental Guide: F-bomb.
Middling film with a good cast.
THE DEADLY GAME is a middling addition to the current wave of British crime thrillers.
The main thing it has going for it is an excellent cast of well-chosen actors.
Toby Stephens plays a hitman with cold-faced relish.
Rufus Sewell is a corrupt cop but nonetheless full of charisma throughout.
Gabriel Byrne plays an imposing crime boss and there are more minor roles for James Frain, the underrated Julian Sands, Ralph Brown and Neil Maskell..
This film has an 84 minute playing time, but it feels more like like I lost at least two solid hours of my life here for no reason at all.
By all appearances, even the actors lose interest as this derivative corrupt cop story progresses to it's predictable finish.
The movie really doesn't start out that badly, kind of like a decent BBC TV production, but that's the highpoint, and it's only steadily downhill from there all the way to the end.
If you are waiting, as I was, for this film to redeem itself in some way, well, that moment never comes.
Simply put, this film is really quite bad.
Gabriel Byrne and Julian Sands must be way past their "sell by" dates and desperately in need of paychecks.