When a débutante tries to follow in the footsteps of the genre trendsetter-Quentin Tarantino, which was continued with varying success by Guy Ritchie, he should be prepared for critics not to be nice, gentle and understanding. Charley Stadley, whose career so far focused on photography and commercials, must have realized that. Still, this did not intimidate him and he made Dead Fish, a film that movie critics have almost universally condemned. Audiences are split into two camps. Some perceive the movie as a cheap copy of the classics, while others have already added it to their list of cult favorites.

Dead Fish is a black slapstick comedy. In the opening scenes, the viewer meets British hitman Lynch (Gary Oldman-The Professional, Romeo Is Bleeding, Air Force One) who has just performed an execution in an extremely bizarre Parisian house, filled with post-modernist furniture. He receives a phone call with another job, this time in London. Abe Klein (Andrew Lee Potts-Band of Brothers), a 20-year-old American who opens locks and safes for a living, happens to be at the railway station in London. His girlfriend has just told him that she is pregnant, but he is not overly enthusiastic about her expectations of an adult life. As a result, Mimi (Elena Anaya-Van Helsing) wants to return to her mother in Spain. First, however, she borrows Abe's cell phone which then gets snatched by a station thief. The thief, in turn, is incapacitated by Lynch with a single, precise blow. Then, two things happen that the plot, henceforth, will revolve around: the cell phones of the killer and the young American get switched and Lynch, as if struck by a lightning, falls in love with Mimi. This comes as a bit of a surprise and seems a little unlikely, as the viewer has been introduced to him as a patron of squalid brothels and a fan of S/M.

The summary of the opening sequences should be enough to indicate what happens next. A host of new characters comes into play and, predictably, further complicates the plot. Firstly, there is Daniel Devine (Robert Carlyle-Trainspotting, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough), a mean debt collector who (like most of the characters in the movie) has an inclination towards expressing himself in an extremely complicated manner-employing the vast majority of obscenities known in the English language. The other characters include Virgil (Billy Zane-Titanic, Tombstone), a local gangster and wannabe gentleman, who specializes in tracking people down; Mr. Fish (Terence Stamp-The Limey, Superman), another victim on Lynch's list; Dragan (Karl Roden-Blade II), a psychopathic killer of Slavic descent who despises everything English, and Salvador (Jimi Mistri-Things to Do Before You're 30), one of Abe's exceptionally moronic pals who is constantly high.

During the movie's running time of over 90 minutes, the bunch outlined above run about on screen and frequently, especially in the case of Oldman and Carlyle, base their performances on parodying their earlier roles. Still, it is obvious that things must be given a happy ending... In other words, if you tolerate gratuitous violence, an inconsistent and implausible plot, "surrealistic dialogue" (a term coined by Tarantino that others would rather term "bizarre, senseless blabber") and enjoy the atmosphere of London, you may actually have a good time watching Dead Fish.