The Shamrock Conspiracy

I was extremely disappointed with this movie. It was truly woeful! The awful Irish stereotypes (and accents) made it even worse! If it was not for the excellent Edward Woodward, this movie would deserve 0 out of 10!

Anyone remember an American sitcom called NOBODY`S PERFECT ? This starred Ron Moody as Inspector Hart of Scotland Yard ( I`m sure it was retitled HART OF THE YARD in the UK ) who`s an innocent abroad when it comes to American customs and police procedures . THE SHAMROCK CONSPIRACY feels very similar in many ways to the former except it`s a little more serious as it deals with terrorists , Irish ones which means we get all the old cliches like former members of the IRA on the run because they`re not keen on blowing up kids ( What ! It took 25 years to realise the IRA aren`t a pacifist outfit ? ) and the main bad guy being described as " An IRA extremist " as opposed to " An IRA moderate "

As has been said THE SHAMROCK CONSPIRACY feels like nothing more than a TV pilot . In fact I`d go further and say that it`s a TV pilot trying to cash in on the success of THE EQUALIZER with Edward Woodward more or less resurrecting his role of McCall with a few jokey bits like the scene on the NY subway thrown in . I doubt it would have lasted more than one series if it had gone into production

Retired British police officer Edward Harrison travels to NYC to see his daughter before he retires to Australia. Once there he meets her boyfriend Frank and gets involved in a suspected serial killing. However Harrison sees some things that lead him to suspect that Captain Sternhardt and vice officer Tierney are wrong in their assumptions about the killings. Meanwhile a pair of Irishmen are involved in the shooting of two cops.

This is very much a TV movie from start to finish. The story moves very slowly and relies on huge leaps of faith - Harrison at first makes the connection of the murders to the IRA by noticing one of the victims is wearing a shoe that was made in Dublin. The logic of the whole thing never gets better than that - the final twist is quite easy to guess. The whole thing feels like it's a pilot for another odd couple cop series, especially the `welcome to New York' ending.

The characters never get better than crude stereotypes - Woodward is very British and forces his natural accent and mannerisms to breaking point. Hurley is also too English and doesn't have very much to do. Jeffery Nordling is OK as Hurley's cop boyfriend and he gets the action part of the film to do. Rent-a-bad-guy Kim Coates shows up as an IRA terrorist, but he does an Irish accent that wanders from bad Northern Irish to bad Southern accent. In fact all the Irish accents are pretty bad - the worst being one `reformed' terrorist who says `peace' but pronounces it `pace'. The rest of the cast contains some well known faces including Mike Star's Lieutenant Tierney (every gangster film ever made!) and Daniel von Bargen's (Kruger in Sienfield) Captain Sternhardt.

Overall however it never gets above a standard TVM - and a pretty poor one at that.

"The Shamrock Conspiracy" banks on the enormous appeal of its star, Edward Woodward, who was seen doing much better work in his old television series "The Equalizer". As directed by James Frawley, this movie feels that it might have been done as a pilot for a new series.

While the film is by no means horrible, it doesn't break new ground. We get a situation in which several people are being victimized by a serial killer. The retired Scotland Yard inspector, Edward Harrison, visiting his estranged daughter in New York, is drawn into the case that his future son-in-law is following as a press spokesman for the NYPD. Harrison's keen observation helps solve the case, as was expected.

As Harrison, Edward Woodward still shows he has the charisma that made him a favorite that he was. In minor roles we see Elizabeth Hurley, Jeffrey Nordling, Kim Coates and Daniel Van Bargen.

This is a film for fans of Mr. Woodward.

I thought this film was amazing! The main character (played by Edward woodward) is set up from the very beginning as an amazing counterpoint in both style and attitude to the rather more meagre figures of his daughter (Elizabeth Hurley) and her gung ho New York cop boyfriend. The film to me was essentially a post-modern take on the family unit visa ve the main character's relationship with his daughter and with the, somewhat threatening, character of her boyfriend. This tension between the three characters is played out beautifully against the backdrop of contemporary urban society (a rather bleak New York), and this tension is in the end resolved, as the characters find out through the exploration of their differences that they are not altogether that dissimilar in their outlook. The twist at the end was a touch of genius and kept me guessing right up to the final moment. Fantastic! See it if you can!