David Lyons Movies

Two men on the wrong side of the law are brought together under perilous circumstances in this thriller from Australia, the first feature film for director Jasmine Yuen-Carrucan. Eli Jones (David Lyons) is a gambler whose luck has already taken a turn for the worse when he's attacked one night and wakes up the next morning bound and gagged in the back of a car. Behind the wheel is John Kelly (Travis McMahon), a man he's never met. Eli has no idea where he's going or why he's been abducted until John takes pity on him and removes the gag. As the two men talk, we learn that Eli is deep in debt to powerful men who have hired John to kidnap him. John isn't a criminal by nature, but a series of family crises have forced him to raise some quick cash, and he's agreed to bring Eli to a rendezvous in the outback in exchange for a big payday. While Eli has worked out what he's convinced is a foolproof plan, fate brings others into the picture and his scheme begins to unravel, with dangerous consequences. Actor Bryan Brown served as executive producer on Cactus as well as playing a key supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

First time writer-director James Marquand's feature debut, the steel-tough crime thriller Dead Man's Cards, marks one of the venerable British actor Tom Bell's final onscreen roles prior to his death in 2006. The tale unfolds in the seedy Merseyside borough of Liverpool, where Tom Watts (James McMartin), a former pugilist forced to retire from an eye injury sustained in the ring, accepts a position as a bouncer at a dilapidated nightclub run by Billy the Cowboy (Bell). Tom's wife, upset by his new occupation and embarrassed by the discovery of her husband's sexual impotence, abandons him. Meanwhile, at work, Watts is immediately befriended and mentored by his co-bouncer, Paul (Paul Barber), who has become implicated with a shady element thanks to his ex-girlfriend's involvement with the cocaine pusher Romeo Brown (Andrew Simister), a slimy thug in hock to the gangster and cocaine boss Chongi (Mark Russell). The latter attempts to strongarm Paul and then Tom into joining his security firm; when both refuse, Chongi grows psychotically hostile and plans to rub out both men with the help of a trained assassin. He doesn't count, however, on Tom's decision to stop him in his tracks. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi