thenextrushmagazine

I was fortunate enough to not have read the book so I was coming in with fresh eyes and very open to what was on offer after being in my 6th week of lockdown and scraping the bottom of my Netflix / Prime Video barrels.

The film is a snapshot in time that marks the promise of a bright future during one of the most prosperous periods in Ireland's economic and political history. Yet this 2003 era of the "Celtic Tiger" seems to elude the country's seemingly broken sons born of generations of poverty. It's a paradox-pocked landscape in which its protagonists manifest the national psyche of the time in which a nation had an identity crisis and ideas of success were measured on materialism.

Not too dark, Not too light and a great ensemble cast that really got to spread their wings from other roles we know many of them for, Hollyoaks fans - look out for the random homeless guy. I'm not typically one for coming of age dramas so this hit the mark for me with its colorful cinematics as the backdrop for some dark material. There's lots of room for you to draw your own conclusions without having to be spoonfed everything, so if you didn't enjoy it, that's kind of on you.

I would have wished Eoin Macken took more liberties in his interpretation of the book exploring more backstory, showing more scenery of Dublin perhaps and evening out the character development and screen time with Rez who was drowned out a little from the strong performances of Finn Cole and DC Chapman.

There were some unnecessary token parts in the film that try to tie it to the first movie, but with so many new characters introduced onto the canvas, they just needed to focus on them. American Wrestler needed almost 2 hours to do that with theirs. There are some great moments here if its an easy series of fight potn you are after. You must watch the first film to appreciate this one more.

Supporting actor Bryan Craig is well established in drama, hitting the notes required when he becomes collateral damage in his friend's twelvth hour gamble. He works well with George Thomas / Korsuros in the setup of the forced-to-fight underdog story. Plenty of tightly choreographed sequences that are natural and fluid and great to watch, definitely the way to go as this story was less character driven unlike its predecessor which was a nice change.

A dazzling visual spectacular of computer generated imagery, pyrotechnics and high angle aerials, the right proportion of action, drama and suspense are formulated. Does it command the same kind of legacy, in the way Spielberg's, Back to the Future does, probably not so much. Like similar films, including Ryan Reynolds' 6 Underground or Chris Hemsworth's Extraction, there's no flaw in cinematic quality, but probably wouldn't have been that memorable without the principal cast headliners.

As a fan of apocalyspe / dooms day films like, Into the Storm, Greenland, San Andreas and 2012, this definitely gets a replay on the watchlist.

Comedic moments are provided by sidekick, Charlie (Sam Richardson) but for the most part, the supporting cast are a little underdeveloped. Unexplored and hollow backstory like for instance, Dorian (Edwin Hodge) who we meet having served on two missions seems to have a death wish while collecting war souvenirs served no real purpose to the story. Under utilised performers like 24 veteran, Mary Lynn Rajskub who plays self sacrificing, barely had two lines before being killed off in the first hour.