A Belfast Story

I must admit I was skeptical about this one at first but I thought I'd at least give a local film a chance. Let me say this; I was pretty surprised.

Going in expecting some sort of troubles rehash the first few scenes immediately set the film in a more gritty reality. With a nice balance between familiar scenery and bloody murders the film flows better than I'd have thought and haunting music gave the whole piece additional atmosphere.

Colm Meaney certainly pulled his weight as an aging detective alongside a cast which seemed to be entirely Irish (which was nice, none of those awful fake accents American films are always using). The only non-local I noticed was Malcolm Sinclair and he was almost as good as Colm so it's easy to overlook. Over all the acting pleasantly surprised me, proving our performing heritage once more.

The concept is definitely daring and certain areas might struggle a little now and then from the sheer weight but having seen it for myself I'm surprised by the bad press it's gotten, especially for a local film. I know I myself will recommend it, a good film that is also locally made and acted deserves all the support it gets

The situation was, and still remains, far more complex than is portrayed in a film that predictably portrays one side as being a victor of what constituted a bloody, internecine civil war.

Unfortunately the dewy eyed, Boston Irish sentiment for supposed Irish ancestry and the glamour of the IRA has prevailed over the historical bigotry that lies behind a conflict that can never be won as long as there remains division in Christianity (catholicism and protestantism alike). And, indeed, Rome's refusal to intercede and the alignement of terrorist factions across the world are very much interlinked (Basque separatism, pro-Gaddafi Lybian factions, illicit arms sales, etc) has left us all with a legacy insofar as dealing with urban terrorism.

This film totally fails to take account of the many factors that remain today, and is smug and inaccurate. Yes, I am Irish (Dublin) and brought up as a Catholic.

Please please please don't watch this. Maybe the worst movie ever. No plot. Acting terrible. To make it even worse I paid 99p to watch it.

I'm on a free trial with Amazon Prime and have been binge watching movies, most of which are new to me. This was such a one. It's a revenge and "who is doing it" movie. These movies, by their nature, almost force you to stay to the end. Towards the end some of the perpetrators reveal themselves and explain their personal reasons for their deeds. (Some of those deeds are carried out in situations that require people to do things at precisely the right location and precisely the time. The planning is immaculate and everybody who they are after is in the right place at the right time. For instance, going to the chip shop for supper or changing ties on mannikins in a shop window display,) There is also, I think, an underlying bit of police/political skulduggery. which left be totally baffled. Colm Meaney is the old, wise to the ways of the Belfast world cop who has monologues on history, philosophy, cynicism, wisdom. At one time he talks at length in an empty room. I thought it was empty but the a wife turns up later in the movie. He has earlier declared that he has lost everything that mattered to him. Not her, obviously. Overall, the impression is that the film starts off with an interesting set up but no one had an ending in mind and they cobbled it together as the budget ran out. Very poor on everyone's part. Rubbish!

Well, that's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

I had high hopes for this, despite the furore around the press pack I was keen to see this movie and see how they would handle a (sort of) non troubles related movie. Well, the answer is they couldn't have got it more wrong. The acting was poor for the most part, Colm tries but you can't carry a movie with just one guy; the dialogue made me cringe more than once, cheesy and unrealistic (I live in Belfast but even allowing for a wider audience -come on!) and the characterisation and motivations were barely plausible at best. I still don't know what message they were leaving the audience with and I think that's what bothers me most

If I could, I would have rated this 0 out of 10 but apparently that's not allowed.