*Warning: Mature sexual themes are discussed in this review.*

I know that you can't judge a book by its cover, or a movie just by the title. Everybody knows that. But I am unable to resist an intriguing sounding title. Like a moth to the flame, I'm drawn to cool titles. So when I saw Nine Dead Gay Guys listed, I thought "that sounds interesting" and snagged it. I knew there was a very good chance that the movie would end up being horrible, but I'm a sucker. As it turned out, this movie was much funnier than I dared hope.

Byron had been living in London for about a year, when his best friend from back home in Ireland, Kenny, decided to move down.  Byron had painted a pretty rosy picture of London, and the truth was much more dreary.  It turns out the streets aren't paved with gold and Byron makes his living in a rather unconventional way: he blows gay guys in bathrooms for money.  Not that he's gay, he's not.  This is just a way to keep him in booze without having to do any real work.  Kenny is appalled at what his childhood friend is doing, but not so appauled that he won't try it himself when he runs out of cash.  After all, it's just a job.

London's gay community is stunned when it's learned that 'the Queen,' a flamboyant fixture in the gay community, has been killed.  Rumored to be very rich, it's assumed that theft was the motive.  Byron finds that he actually blew the killer in a dark room the evening of the murder.  Not only did he gratfy the killer, he also stole the murder weapon.  Byron realizes that he has the only clue to who killed the Queen: the size of the killer's penis.   If they can find the killer and steal the money from him, the pair of friends would be on easy street.  But finding a guy with a small cock is easier said than done.

This is a wickedly funny black comedy populated with colorful characters.  While it is a comedy, the movie doesn't make fun of homosexuals or their lifestyle, though it does manage to be fairly offensive, but in a laugh out loud funny way.  There is a lot of broad, some would say sophomoric, humor, such as the sexually frustrated dwarf.   But there are also a lot of quick jokes that fly past; the Hasidic Jew exclaiming "Jesus H. Christ" upon finding a dead body for example.
 
The script was filled with a lot of witty dialog that sets the tone of the movie right from the start.  Take this narration from early in the film:

Finding your best mate broke and back on the booze is probably bad enough already.  But finding out he's been blowing queers to subsidize his booze was presumably worse.  However finding out that the Queen's been electrocuted by a gay guy with a cattle prod and a 3 ½ inch willy was really queer news indeed.  I guess, as such, Kenny could be forgiven for thinking that things could hardly get any worse.  I was to prove him wrong of course.

Audio:

The stereo English soundtrack sounded very good.  The background music and the dialog sounded clear and clean.  I had no trouble understanding what was being said, even with the Irish and British accents.  Since this movie was mainly dialog based, it won't give your system a workout, but it is effective none the less.  There are no subtitles.

Video:

The anamorphically enhanced widescreen picture looked great.  All of the bright and garish colors were bright and vivid, and the image was sharp.  There were some details lost in dark areas, but this is a minor critique.  Digital defects were at a minimum.  A very good DVD all around.

Extras:

This movie includes a director's commentary which is very interesting.  He talks about the genesis of the film, and how he wrote the script.  It turns out that the main character, Kenny, was named after the character in South Park.  He manages to talk through the entire film without many gaps and keeps the entire commentary interesting.

Final Thoughts:

As funny as The Full Monty, and paced like Snatch, this is one of those movies where everything comes together perfectly.  The direction, the acting, the story, even the background music all meshed together to make an irreverant, if low budget, film.  There were many times that I laughed out loud, which is my main criteria for judging a comedy.  Highly Recommended.