Resurrection Man

Stylishly shot, but predictable, woefully under-developed script with patchy performances other than the compelling lead male actor. Seems to believe it's about violence, but incoherent story and directorial approach to the ultra violence the film purports to explore, results in triple X rated pop video. Not just bad, but stupid on quite a deep level.

I guess this was as far as the filmmakers could go without actually calling Kelly Murphy. So instead of the audience being shown a film that could be called a true story, the events portrayed, however close to real life, take on an air of the surreal. The fact that there was a gang who did this sort of thing and a whole lot worse in the name of sectarian hatred is not made clear. Maybe they thought worldwide audiences would struggle with this concept, and introduced some kind of psychopathic blood lust to make the whole thing more believable. As it is, watching this film, and having read Martin Dillon's excellent book, I was left feeling frustrated, that an opportunity to portray the actual events was badly missed, being dumped into a crypto-fascist mishmash of conflicting motives. Living in N. Ireland, we know that there were and are people who could do this sort of thing and justify it on religious grounds..the film just isn't brave enough to say this, and so we are left with this psycho loner character that is frankly laughable. the gang weren't held in some kind of thrall by this psycho, acting against their will, they actually killed while Murphy was in prison, to make him look innocent. Townsend does what he was asked to do, it's just a pity he wasn't asked to do the right thing.

Resurrection Man, by Eoin McNamee, is a masterpiece in visceral storytelling and in evoking the back streets of Belfast.

This ''adaptation'' loses almost all of these qualities and leaves us feeling disgusted we wasted our time watching this tripe.

Director Marc Evens thinks that he's Scorsesse and that he can make the Northern Ireland troubles cool by using the same techniques(slow-motion,freeze,70's music) and it just shows what it really is.

A pale imitation of a masterpiece (Goodfellas) and a terrible adaptation

Making a film about any conflict is ambitious but making one during a conflict is even more so. This film tactfully tackles the story of the Shankill Butchers a gang that mindlessly slaughtered innocent civilians and got away with it because it was during the Troubles. Strong performances from O'Rawe and Fricker in creating authentic Belfast dialogue. Townsend is sensational as as Victor and Holmes music is as good as its gets - long love SugarSweet...! If this production had the same budget as Goodfellows I shudder to think how good it could have been. Open your mind and imagine what it was like to live in a western street in 1970 with the army running down it and bombs going off.

If you didn't press stop on your video recorder five minutes into this film due to the shocking nature of some of the opening scenes, you will discover that this is a beautiful film which has more in common with 'Interview With The Vampire', 'The Company Of Wolves', 'Brighton Rock' and 'Frankenstein' than it does with a film about sectarian violence.

Despite the book on which this was based, sectarian violence just provides an underlying base to stage this tale of the vampire like 'Victor Kelly', a young Irishman with a thirst for blood, fame and self destruction.

Stuart Townsend epitomizes evil in the role of Victor, supported by many talented actors.

The evil staring eyes of Victor Kelly, will stay with you long after watching the film. Perhaps this is why Stuart Townsend has been cast in the latest Anne Rice adaption.