Man About Dog

A decent comedy following the misadventures of three young Belfast men who happen into the world of hare coursing.

Stylistically, this has the feel of a lot of British and Irish films of the past decade. It's aimed at the same market that made Trainspotting, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch such big hits. On a number of occasions I thought this was overdone; it seemed to be trying too hard to be Belfast's answer to those films. This would be forgivable from a new director but it's less understandable from Paddy Breathnach.

The acting is excellent. Allen Leech does a good northern accent, although it's not quite West Belfast. The storyline is entirely unbelievable, but I wasn't expecting realism!

6 out of 10 because it's funny in spots, but not THAT funny. I also think that to really appreciate it you have to have some interest in gambling in general, and gambling on dogs in particular. If, like me, you have neither, you'll probably find it a bit difficult to get into.

No doubt Paddy Breathnach watched some Guy Ritchie. The style and storytelling is obviously the same. I don't mind this, since it's an excellent and above all very entertaining style of film-making. Obviously it's not as good as a Guy Ritchie movie of the same style but it's surely entertaining enough.

It's not as good since the comedy in the movie feels more forced and planned out, rather than that it's cleverly and subtle written throughout the story. The events happen as comical moments rather than just moments that happen to the main characters. But of course you should perhaps not compare this too much to a Guy Ritchie and more regard it as a movie on its own. After all, it's Irish and therefor has a totally different atmosphere and lingo as well. In that regard this movie is just simply a well made and definitely entertaining one.

But was dog racing the best backdrop and choice for the main story? I don't think so. Some sports are not really sports in my opinion and therefor couldn't care any less about the movie its plot. I also couldn't care too much for the movie it's main characters. The actors portraying them are obviously not amongst the most talented, though they do a fair enough job playing average, regular 'normal' persons.

So it's definitely a movie with some pluses and minuses. The style and fun in this movie is definitely good and makes this an enjoyable watch. I only wished the movie had picked another main-plot, to also make the movie more compelling and interesting and perhaps even a bit more exciting to watch. After all, with these kinds of movies involving 'sports' featuring an underdog, you already exactly know in advance how it's going to end.

A pleasant watch but unfortunately no more than that.

6/10

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Mo Chara's father got him into betting on dogs and for better or worse (mostly worse) it has become his passion. His friends Paulsy and Scud Murphy go along with his judgement most of the time. When Mo lets bookie JP McCallion win a race in return for a dog from his stable, the boys get screwed and left with a fuzzy creature called Boots. They dump Boots and agree to scupper another of McCallion's races in return for another dog from a wealthy owner seeking revenge. They get the dog but McCallion wants what he should have won from them – fifty thousand Euros. With their options limited, the boys take their dog, their broken down van and head south into the Republic.

I watched this because it was made (partly) in Northern Ireland and I felt that I should support the small film industry there with my time if nothing else; other than that though I didn't know anything about it. The opening five minutes changed all that because the style, energy and tone of the film immediately told me that this was going to be one of many films that tries to utilise the style that Guy Ritchie made his name with in Lock Stock. Often I find this very off-putting and I haven't always got much from the films that jump on this new British gangster genre without a great deal to offer of its own. To a greater or lesser extent this film more or less falls into the same trap because the style and excess in the story is very much in the mould of Lock Stock.

It works best when the film uses it sparingly because the film does just about have enough of its own about it to make it worth watching. The typically Norn Iron dark humour is infused into the laddish gangster action pretty well and, as a Belfast boy myself, I could relate to aspects of the characters in there. However too often it does rely on Lock Stock tricks and style without really producing enough to hold up the style. It has a few "good" moments but mostly it is just amusing. The cast are pretty good but, like the script, they cannot totally make the film their own. Leech doesn't totally convince with his accent or his leading man ability but he does OK nonetheless. Nolan is more natural and recognisable as the type of person I would expect in his situation but he is not able to raise the material that much – nor Murphy (sadly recently deceased). McGinley is the only one I'd describe as a real "face" within the film.

Looking at it coldly this is a rip-off of Lock Stock but set in Ireland but it does just about have enough local content to provide enough to justify watching it, but too often it gives in to aping the style of Lock Stock. Funnily enough the day I saw this film I also heard Mark Kermode comment on Shrooms (the next film from Breathnach) that it lacked its own style and was trying to sell to other markets. The same can be said of Man About Dog. As a result it is a so-so comedy but it cannot find its own voice due to the amount of time and energy spent on aping Guy Ritchie.

It's clear from the off that this is not so much an homage to Guy Ritchie, as it is an opportunistic mugging amid a dearth of originality. It takes a bloke-ish topic - greyhound racing (I guess it was either that, boxing or poker) - and three laddish young Irish guys (Messrs Cocky, Unlucky and Peaceful...gosh), then drags the plot through a series of contrived encounters with the usual Guy Ritchie ensemble; bookies, tough gypsies, hard men, loose women etc. All with the cliched goal of ending up with a big bag of cash at the end of the movie. There's some pretence that this is about the love of dogs, but their violent deaths are used as a 'joke' so often that this flick is clearly confused about what message it wants to send.

Along the way, we are treated to droll scenes such as the lads getting involved in a fertility drug trial, with predictable consequences, and hooking up with three 'foreign birds' (because they're easy, right lads?). As per the rules for bloke films, women are only allowed as sex objects and don't get to speak more than a line or two. Long, inconsequential blather between the lads act as filler along the way until, finally, the director throws in a Trainspotting rip off as the Lock, Stock theft runs low on returns. Low brow, paint-by-numbers comedy for the Lad Bible crowd. But in Ireland.

The Irish director Paddy Breathnach has a keen visual sense and seems to me a born story-teller, (though he doesn't write his own material he shapes it in real cinematic terms). While "Man About Dog" isn't in the same class as his earlier "I went down", (that was written by the great young Irish playwright Conor McPherson), it is a highly engaging comedy road movie nevertheless. Allen Leech, Tom Murphy and Ciaran Nolan play three Belfast wide-boys on the make who inherit, lose and then re-inherit an extraordinary money-making greyhound called Ceberus. The plot is flimsy and one or two of the performances are shaky but the film has flash and a sense of energy. It is not strikingly original, (Breathnach borrows a bit too much from his better known American counterparts), but there is so much going on here and the lines have the poetry and raw humour of the vernacular, you are prepared to overlook the film's shortcomings. Give in and this is a comedy as robust as they come.