The film story follows Malcolm McDowell as a London mob boss who sends a henchman Neelyn (Vinnie Jones) to West Virginia to set up a money laundering operation with an oilman (Ron Perlman).

Neelyn has to discard his ties with friends and family, risking the oil contract and the friendship between his boss and Preston, to find retribution and the truth.

Wiper originally intended to shoot the film in his home state of Ohio, but could not receive the proper tax incentives to convince the producers.

[10] Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, saying that it "plays like several plots, genres and mood boards all mashed together, which makes the end result interesting but not entirely successful.

"[11] Writing for Time Out, Phil de Semlyen also gave the film 2 out of 5 and wrote: "You can tell roughly where The Big Ugly is going right from those opening exchanges: people are going to get punched, booze will be slugged back, and there will be some lads' mag philosophising about blood oaths and the bonds of brotherhood.