Review of No Surrender

The opening title sets the scene: "Liverpool, New Years' Eve. Just another night out (these days)". Into the same shabby nightclub on the outskirts of town come two separate parties of old-age pensioners out to ring in the New Year, one devoutly Protestant, with a fugitive terrorist hiding in their ranks, and the other a group of Irish Catholics dressed for a costume ball, led by a blind ex-boxer with a grudge to settle. Occupying the no-man's land in between is a collection of mentally retarded hospital patients blissfully unaware that they've simply traded one asylum for another. To make matters worse, the comedy act is a total flop, the magician's rabbit commits a nuisance under his hat (while he's wearing it), and the dance band turns out to be a nihilistic post-punk group who chant "We're gonna die die die die die…" The resulting bedlam is rowdy, hilarious, and chilling, with a dark streak of humor deeply rooted in the tragic religious and political antagonism defining life in modern England.