IslandGuru Who payed the critics

ThiefHott Too much of everything

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

uberlibrarian I guess I should have read the back of the DVD box more carefully, but I was whiling away a Sunday afternoon, thinking I was watching kind of a cute social commentary, when WHAM blood and mayhem interrupted. Generally, the acting was pretty well done, and the casting was exceptional. The action and plot were well timed and involving. Thewlis is very likeable in a hard to figure way--you do keep wondering why his wife didn't leave him sooner, and why the lovely Margaret latched onto him so quickly, but you cannot, nevertheless, take your eyes off him when he's on screen. Laura Fraser is divertingly shapely and charming as Margaret. Laine Megaw does a good job as the long suffering Patricia. Rachel Griffiths was wasted in this effort.In general, an ok movie with some quite good acting that makes for a diverting couple of hours, but not exactly a masterpiece.

cincinul This is a good film for those who may be interested to see a realistic depiction of the situation in Northern Ireland. This movie is perhaps better understood and appreciated by Ulster folk, though, as it contains a lot of in-jokes that may go over the heads of viewers who are unfamiliar with our area. We who live here can really relate to the situations depicted in the film, as well as to the satire that is so typical of Bateman's work and which translated rather well to film. I believe this movie is misclassified as a thriller. It is a satire, a black comedy, and the thriller format is just a vehicle. The situations were dead on and hilarious (in a very dark way sometimes), and the accents were quite good, in general, with the exception of Robert Lindsay (Brinn) who sounded fake to my ear. The taxi driver was perhaps one of the most realistic characters in the film, and even though she was only seen a couple of times, she stole those scenes. Well acted, realistic, fast paced and quite a good look at our province.

kypioneer Normally my instinct-- on the few occasions I am exposed to utter tripe-- is to walk away without complaining. Let others see the film and make up their own minds. Who knows, some might even like it. Chacun a son gout.But this waste product is so puffed in its own conceit it begs me to comment. It is the worst movie/DVD experience of my life. I was trapped by company or I would have walked out-- of my own house! It purports to be a comedy. It is not funny. It purports to be a commentary on the turmoil of Northern Ireland. It is nothing more than the typical cheapjack cynicism the British pass off as political insight. It purports to star David Thewlis. Unfortunately it does. The premise of this movie is so painfully weak that it falls apart like wet toilet paper even to describe it. Let us just say that someone with a high school equivalency degree will guess the significance of the phrase "divorcing jack" long before the Thewlis character does-- and that the tedium of waiting for Thewlis's character to catch up is not enlivened by a succession of ridiculous characters such as the nun imposter (oh, haha, heehee), the unbelievable Boston Globe reporter or the overdrawn IRA gunman (Jason Isaacs, who should choose his roles better.) What really keynotes this as a bad movie for me is that the discovery of what the Big Secret is, the rationale behind all these deaths, takes place OFF SCREEN-- and then someone has to sit down in another scene and painfully tell Thewlis all about it. An anticlimax to an anticlimax, and so typical of the incompetence of this director!

Hyer One of the best films I've seen recently. Im really interested in the NI-conflict, but that didn't make any difference betwen the reactions between me and my friends who couldn't care less, we all loved it. The plot is great and it's really funny