Perrier's Bounty

An Irish gangster crime comedy. Well, Irish, gangster and crime are all accurate but whether it's a comedy, drama or thriller that's up to you to decide. Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) has a bounty for the head of Michael (Cillian Murphy). Poor lad, he owes money to some local thugs.

With the help of his beautiful, slightly crazy and suicidal neighbour Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), they accidentally kill a thug, and then with the encouragement of his might-be-dying father (Jim Broadbent), they go on a crime spree.

It's a comedy of errors where the errors lead to many murders, some accidental but some because there's nothing better to do. It's violent for the sake of being violent with a few uneasy laughs. Add Gabriel Byrne as the voice of the narrator/The Reaper expounding on the philosophical virtues of life, death and the ocean, just to make the film more well-rounded. I'm assuming that's the purpose, and also that the contradiction between philosophy and gangster crime is supposed to be hilarious.

"Perrier's Bounty" could be a brilliant fusion of all genres into a gangster crime film. But it's missing some vital cohesiveness and substance to make this more than a weirdly funny, violent crime spree through an Irish night. Which isn't all that bad, but it's no "In Bruges".

Perrier's Bounty is an average, enjoyable comedy thriller. It features a terrific cast, including Cillian Murphy, Jodie Whittaker and Brendan Gleeson, all of whom are decent in their respective roles. Unfortunately, the weak link of the cast is Jim Broadbent, who delivers an excruciatingly bad Irish accent, which almost sounds like a parody. Composer David Holmes produces another entertaining and exciting score for this movie.

While it is fun, this film is pretty unremarkable. Although the characters are enjoyable to watch, mainly due to the actors inhabiting them, there is nothing particularly captivating about them, nor the movie as a whole. What keeps this movie relatively engaging is the excellent supporting cast of wonderful Irish actors that weave in and out of the story, such as Domhnall Gleeson, Liam Cunningham and Conleth Hill.

For this particular genre of movies, then "Perrier's Bounty" failed to make a lasting impression, nor did it leave any significant impact. The story never really made it out of the parking lot, so to speak. The story, despite trying hard, never turned out to be more than mediocre.

The movie does have an impressive list of actors and actresses on the cast list, but despite this fact, that wasn't enough to pull off the story in a manner that would turn out to be outstanding.

The story is about Michael McCrea who owes money to Perrier. Michael is given a short amount of time to make payment due, otherwise Perrier's goons will set out to collect the debt one way or another. A frantic night turns worse when Michael ends up on the run with his suicidal neighbor and his dying father.

Storywise, then there were moments throughout the movie that were great and there were some good ideas to the script as well. However, the overall impression of the movie was fairly mediocre, and there is sort of an irrelevant vibe to the movie, which was a shame.

"Perrier's Bounty" is great for a single watching, but the movie is nowhere near anything that would support multiple viewings of the movie. The storyline just doesn't have what it takes.

Once again a much hyped up Irish movie with an excellent cast is wasted by a disjointed shabby storyline which goes nowhere. It's one of those that you want to be good but only keeps your interest by some good acting by the leading men, especially Gleeson who was badly under used but was brilliant. Jim Broadbent with an Irish accent... I don't think so & why the hell is everyone in the movie using the word MAN at the end of every sentence. I have lived in Dublin a long time & that word in that context can only be associated with junkies. Yet it's an everyday word used by the majority of people in this movie (I was expecting the dogs to bark out the words MAN!). Plot holes too were everywhere, especially regarding the police... where were they? One of their cars is stolen & the thieves are able to drive around at their leisure... what about the two helicopters they have? Shootouts everywhere & no police. The overall storyline went round in circles & when it was over it was a relief & a huge disappointment! Come on MAN... Make better movies MAN!

PERRIER'S BOUNTY is YET another clichéd gangster movie in which everyone is ripping each other off and there are no nice characters in sight. RED EYE's Cillian Murphy plays a low-rent scumbag who owes money to a local gangster, played with familiar relish by Brendan Gleeson. Cue loads of chases, manic situations, pursuing hit men and even a little romance with shoehorned-in love interest Jodie Whittaker.

This could be just another London-set gangster drama in the same vein as many a Guy Ritchie movie, but the fact that it's Irish sets it apart a little from the crowd - but only a little. For the most part, it's highly predictable, and although the story is fairly fast-moving and interesting, unfortunately the script is a letdown. It really falls apart when it comes to the father/son bonding scenes with an out-of-place Jim Broadbent; these are indescribably boring and seem to go on forever.

However, fans of fantasy TV show GAME OF THRONES will be well served by the supporting cast; no less than four familiar faces from the programme appear here. There are minor parts for Francis Magee (Yoren) and Conleth Hill (Varys), and bigger, decent roles for Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton) and Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos Seaworth). At least their presence was enough to keep me entertained for the majority of the running time...