A Belfast Story

There is no redeeming quality to this film whatsoever. Atrocious writing, directing and acting. A director who clearly has never watched a film in his entire life. All the positive reviews are obviously fake it's the only possible explanation. It's no surprise this director wasn't allowed to make another feature after this one. I'm embarrassed for Meany.

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.

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.

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

Pretty much the worst NI film that has ever been made, and I sat through A prayer for the dying. This is much worse. I kept waiting for balance, but apparently only one side was responsible for killing in Northern Ireland during the troubles (news to me) which is why they are soo troubled by their consciences, even unto public apologies. No mention of the innocent victims of the security forces, whether in uniform or out, let alone the mass murder of innocents carried out by so-called "loyalist" gangs. No, it's much simpler than that, the IRA were the bad guys plain and simple. And the RUC? Well they were the good guys of course...honest hard- working arbiters wedged between the IRA and innocent civilians.. The British seem to have been airbrushed completely out of Troubles history...well OK, that little adaptation of history is the starting point and it still manages to go downhill after that. And what exactly is "the Northern Ireland Police Service"? Last time I checked it was "The Police Service of Northern Ireland" - although this departure from any reality is quite consistent with the events portrayed, the acting, the dialogue (OMG awful), the characters, the plot and just about everything else. WTF was the fish and chips scene about? What was all that tripe the 'Chief Constable' was banging on about. And the funeral scene? just what the hell was going on there? Swerve this one as hard as you can. If you're interested in 'Troubles' movies, watch 'In the name of the father', or the excellent 'Bloody Sunday' And keep an eye out for the longest overdue film in history, 'Britain's state sponsored mass murder in N. Ireland', but don't hold your breath waiting for it if this is the kind of thing that gets a green light these days.