Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

gregking4 A couple of years ago, Ken Loach withdrew his film Looking For Eric from MIFF in protest at the Israeli funding of the Festival, but this year he seems quite content to leave his latest film alone. Route Irish is more of a political thriller about murder, conspiracy, cover-ups, and revenge, although it is still suffused with Loach's usual angry world view and social consciousness. Written by Loach's regular collaborator Paul Laverty, Route Irish takes aim at the private security contractors who are profiting from the war in Iraq, the "cowboys" whose behaviour is not regulated by military discipline or codes of conduct. Loach doesn't pull; his punches in examining the role played by private mercenaries in the ongoing and unpopular war. Like Paul Haggis' In The Valley Of Elah this is a topical film that is critical of the war in Iraq and the murky political agendas that drive it. The title refers to that stretch of road in Iraq that runs from Baghdad airport to the allied "green zone", and which is regarded as the most dangerous road in the world. When former SAS soldier Fergus (Mark Womack, a veteran of British television) learns of the death of his best friend Frankie (stand-up comic John Bishop) caused by an IED along that road, he refuses to accept the official version. Refusing to believe that it was a simple case of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Fergus sets out to uncover the truth. He believes that his friend's death was a deliberate attempt to cover up a massacre of civilians by contractors. Cinematographer Chris Menges has filmed in Liverpool and Jordan, doubling for Iraq, which lends an authenticity to the material. The film is full of Loach's usual signature touches – hand held camera, naturalistic approach, seemingly ad-libbed dialogue and a scathing howl of outrage against injustice. As the central character Womack delivers an intense and angry performance, and he spends a lot of time shouting his sometimes incomprehensible dialogue. Route Irish is his most topical film for some time, and has the same sense of urgency as his earlier political thriller Hidden Agenda. While it may not be amongst Loach's best films, Route Irish is still powerful stuff!

web-accs In contrast to the most successful war or Iraq war film this century so far..I remember going to see 'The Hurt Locker' with high hopes because I had been sold on the hype, it had a female director tipped to win awards and I really liked what she(K.Bigalow) did years before with 'Point Break' a fun(and sometimes funny for the wrong reasons) crime caper.After the credits rolled I was in two minds(similar to when I first saw 'Point Break') because I appreciated the technical aspects of the film but something seemed to be missing... My big problem became clear when I overheard people talking on the way out. In particular, I heard two teenagers summary comments to each other, that it was 'pretty good','a bit of fun' and 'there were some really good special effects and action sequences' which to me, is a summary of what most people said to me to date about the film. No one seemed to care that they had for the purpose of entertainment just sat, popcorn in hand, and watched a film about a war that was still ongoing outside the cinema(albeit five thousand miles away) at the same time...So, I left the cinema feeling like Walt Disney had final cut on the production and it was financed by Haliburton and McDonalds etc. I was in a state of mild mental shock... Sickened, disgusted and annoyed with the world, to be more precise... Anyway, I am generally interested in 'facts' and the 'details' of what is going on around me and why things happen the way they do. Cinema for me is not about entertainment. Going to the 'movies' to be entertained, escapism etc. is fine. I do it but it's a different experience. If I go to see a film about a current war I would expect it to say something meaningful. So for me, the Hurt Locker is the benchmark epitome of total bullshit filmmaking in the 21st century and so offensive(even just in it's inception alone) on so many levels that I really wouldn't know where to start or finish for fear of ranting into oblivion...Anyway, I have seen many documentaries, read many articles watched endless news footage, reports and interviews on the current War(S) in the middle east and I'm still not 100% sure what is actually going on.One thing that I do know for sure though, is that all other feature length films related to the Iraq War in the past decade(apart from a few documentaries) portray the allied forces as the victims and all are dedicated to their military forces... WTF is that all about...?Everything in the 'Route Irish' story by K.Loach, although fictional with use of some artistic license, has happened in real life!... It will also continue to happen again as a matter of fact...If you want escapism and have to be entertained all the time then you know where to go for your fix.Some people are still rolling out the same old polemic argument about Loach/'Route Irish' that he/the film is lefty, over-long, boring, preachy, flawed in acting,writing,direction and it sometimes looks like it was made for 50 quid. etc. etc. ...But we must appreciate him, social justice, national treasure etc. etc. BLAH BLAH BLAH....Trust me, the film is not perfect by any means but see it for yourself because those people are idiots...-If you are one of them you can stick it in your Hurt Locker...:PDubman.The '...unique angle*' being the people who are the real victims and the people who are really responsible..._______________________ 'Cold Hard Reality is always so boring and difficult to watch.....' -Another complete idiot.

missismiggins What an utter pile of drivel.Ken Loach can be quite on the edge at times, love him or loathe him, whatever.This movie IS NOT KEN LOACH - he must have been out in some bar somewhere swigging ale when this was spat out.The acting is terrible, but can in some respects be forgiven because of the atrocious script, whoever wrote this drivel should have their hands cut off.Sorry, but this has to be one of the biggest let downs this year, I expected something interesting, all I got was boring boring "Stereotyped " Scousers who were portrayed as usual as THICK, trying to speak English as if they had all been to Cambridge! - It doesn't work Ken - That kind of crap went out in the 1980's along with your excuses - Margaret Thatcher! Not for me!

simona gianotti A very strong piece of cinema by Ken Loach, away from his usual social dramas, being this more a kind of war-thriller, but not lacking strong denunciation and great courage. The director uses his camera to denounce the crude reality of contractors behind the real stage of Iraqui war. We get to know the life of these contractors, once simply called mercenaries, working for private security firms, whose acting inside wars seem uncontrollable and out of every rule. Loach wants to display and manages to display things in an objective and cold way, regaining the right perspective, showing that although in a war context it is difficult to take the right perspective, there is always, if we want to be honest, a well-cut border between good and evil, good people and bad people, between right and wrong, and this is the most convincing point through the movie. It's difficult to have a conscience with a gun or a bomb in your hands, but when innocent people are killed, and when your conscience prevails, one has to come to terms with it in some way, and the price to be paid may be very high. It's a very harsh movie, it has the crudity of a documentary piece, in search for as much as verity, that's why the more entertaining elements, such as the thriller one, and also the love between Fergus and Frank's wife is treated in a cold way, as if love cannot side with such atrocities. Certainly a thought-provoking, very actual movie which again raises many questions and doubts about the legitimacy of a "just war".