joegreene32

Good old Ken Loach. This dedicated English socialist has made the most interesting film to come out of Ireland in recent years. He has managed to pack in a history lesson, a war movie, a love story and sibling rivalry into two hours. Good performances all round - Cillian Murphy's best to date. If you know nothing about the unraveling of the British Empire and the foundation of the Irish Free State, look no further. Streets ahead of the overblown Michael Collins, Loach's sparse, naturalistic style serves the bigger story well. Focusing on two brothers fighting the good fight against the Brits in Cork in the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion, the film is at its best as the battle hardens young minds. When the Brits eventually pull out, leaving chaos and bad feeling behind them, the tide turns and brother goes against brother. Credit to writer Paul Laverty for turning this pivotal period of Irish history into a gripping tale. High point the ending, low point no Brendan Gleeson.

This is a good looking sexy Irish film and no one is talking in that cod Dublin accent so beloved of Irish filmmakers. Featuring solid performances from Aidan Gillen and newcomer Renee Weldon as two lovers adrift in present day Dublin who meet in a pub, this is a curiously engaging film. The dialogue is relatively sparse, the piece very European. Images are used to tell the story. There are some good cameos – Eamonn Morrissey singing I got my hole on the Malahide Road and a barfly talking about playing handball against the twin towers "before they knocked them over". The story is very straightforward. Weldon strikes up a relationship with the reserved Gillen, they get it on and begin a series of sexual assignations in and around the city. Never mind the explicit 9 Songs. Here, the love scenes are well handled, stylised and the whole thing kind of works. Dublin has never looked so romantic, thanks to striking photography and good songs. You can smoke in these pubs. Weldon is especially good and you can see why she won awards for her acting. High point Weldon, low point extraneous detail. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.

Finally saw this online and wondering what all the fuss is about. Almost whimsical, I couldn't quite believe the darkness at the centre of the story. There are a couple of good lines and the performances are solid – Rory Conroy being the best. Martin McDonagh is a very talented playwright, but on this evidence his directing is a little flat. Film looks and sounds flat too. What struck me about it was the superficiality of it all, the cynicism. However it does have some funny moments and moves along at a brisk pace. I'm not surprised it was looked on so favourably by the academy, picking up an Oscar for Best Short Film – it has hip written all over it. And it is one of the better short Irish films I've seen, complete with twists and double twists and a lot of flippant dialogue. McDonagh is planning a gangster film with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. I'll pay money to see that. He obviously wants to be the Celtic Scorsese. High point a cow explodes. Low point rather tasteless plot line about a baby's death. Brendan Gleeson is in this film.

What the hell is this film about. What is going on in Neil Jordan's head. Based on a novel by Patrick McCabe, the film is a queasy mix of gender bending comedy and melodrama. Burdened with a set of the most irritating mannerisms Murphy sails through the film playing an idiot savant and it's like Jordan took a back seat in directing him Lacking any of the bite seen in Butcher Boy, the whole thing is a mess from beginning to end. Indeed the film at times seems slightly pervy. There is scene near the beginning where Liam Neeson, playing a priest, literally flies through the air to impregnate his housekeeper. In another scene, Murphy is sitting on a swing in a baby doll outfit. Then there is a dollop of 'the troubles' thrown into the mix and another off scene where Murphy is interrogated by the police. There are chapters, birds talking and wombles. And Jordan continues with his questionable treatment of female characters, though Jodie Foster might rectify this. Crying shame. High point Brendan Gleeson as a womble, low point Gavin Friday as member of a show band.

Having watched a lot of Irish films recently, this is one of the better ones, and yet there is something off kilter in making a laugh out of junkies' dysfunctional lives. Mark Halloran's script is problematic at times – Laurel and Hardy on smack being the tag-line. But his performance is impressive; he inhabits his character well, while Tom Murphy plays the pathetic sidekick for laughs. The story is episodic, basically two heroin addicts trying to score. They wander around the city, meeting other characters and even get round to mugging a disabled person. There is a suitably jaunty soundtrack, but after a while it becomes a little repetitive. The director's background in advertising shows in the slick visuals and the whole package is well put together. It throws up interesting questions about portraying the marginalized. Are their stories being robbed to win plaudits and awards. Would a film about coke sniffing advertising folk be as interesting.. Still in a sea of mediocrity, it's worth a look. High point the resolution, low point Murphy's occasional gurning for the camera. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.

Having read some rave reviews and comments on this film, I actually bought the DVD. What a disappointment. Has everyone been watching the same film. Nothing happens. A young traveler girl wanders from scene to scene, the non-narrative stretched to near breaking point. If anything, the style and technique are lifted straight from the Dardenne brothers film Rosetta, albeit without the gripping story and plot. What we have here is a con job, mutton dressed as lamb. This slight drama masquerades as social comment, but there is an uneasy feeling as you watch it that a middle-class professional fashion photographer could be accused of exploiting the travelers. I can only deduce that it appeals to other middle class liberals who want to get down with the tinkers, but who wouldn't lift a finger or inquire further on their behalf. Above all, it's boring. High point the mother's performance, low point the long shots where nothing happens. The piano music at the end says it all. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.

This isn't a bad attempt at an Irish crime movie. While James Frain hams it up as a baddie, Eric Ebouaney is very watchable as an asylum seeker looking to settle in the city. He is man with a secret just trying to get by and escape his past in the Congo. His wife and son arrive to be with him, but all is not what it seems. Taking a job as a security guard at a bank, he is soon in the thick of it, the victim of a from the headlines tiger kidnapping. When things go awry as they invariably do in this genre piece, there is hell to pay. Getting into bed with a gang of African racketeers – a first in an Irish film – the film subtly examines the plight of a refugee in an alien country, albeit against a heightened backdrop. The performances from Ebouaney and Hakeem Kae Kazim are good, though the Irish characters, particularly the police, are a little stiff. Camera-work is good and the soundtrack contemporary. The twist at the end is okay. Certainly an improvement on the director's first outing Cowboys and Angels. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.

This is a poor film. It certainly belongs in the how not to make a feature film category. Story, direction, acting and style are all flat as a pancake. Story consists of five – yes five – football matches spread out over the film's duration, each one more boringly filmed than the last, as a dysfunctional amateur football team go from strength to strength. That's it, that's the plot. It's hard to know who this film is aimed at. It's too banal for football fans and there's nothing in it for teens nor grown-ups. There's nothing in it for women either, there isn't even a single female character. It's dreariness wears you down as the team play game after game after game after game after game. The story, such as it is, dialogue and mannerisms seem lifted from a bygone Ireland, with all the actors spouting cod theatrical Dublin accents. It doesn't have to be seen to be believed. Avoid at all costs. Can someone give me back my 90 minutes. High point the credits at the end, low point too numerous to mention. Brendan Gleeson is in this film.

In a recent Soprano's episode, Christopher says he got a DVD of the 50 cent movie 'that they were giving away at the car-wash.' As Terence Winter is a writer on the Soprano's, this is probably an in-joke. That said, it sums up the general reaction to Jim Sheridan's movie, but having watched it again recently, I think it's seriously underrated. Like him or loathe him, 50 cent is pretty good at playing himself. Sheridan has the good sense to surround him with solid actors and the story has its own charm. Considering he is an Irishman in his late 50's, he has projected his troubled background growing up on the mean streets of Dublin's north side onto Curtis Jackson's in the story and made it his own. I found it more engaging and way more entertaining than his previous film In America which was pretty saccharine and lame. He is better when he sticks to non-biographical stuff or works it into someone else's story. Special mention should be made of Declan Quinn's camera-work, reminiscent of Leaving Las Vegas. The music sings for itself.

This new film is very peculiar. PURPORTING to be about the Celtic Tiger and modern Ireland, it is curiously insipid. Despite setting out to be satirical, it falls flat. Hard to pin down exactly why, but probably due to laziness on the the filmmakers behalf. Why isn't he making satirical films about London? Brendan Gleeson is okay, but the two characters he plays stretch the imagination. Catrall isn't really credible as an Irish woman and some of her lines are hard to listen to. The camera-work is surprisingly dull, as some of his previous films have looked great, and doesn't make anyone look good. That said you should check it out, if only cos he is the same filmmaker who made Point Blank and Deliverance, and its a paradox to see how far off these classics he has drifted.