Alto Risco

Journalists in films are cliches . They`re always shown as crusaders setting the world to right whatever the cost to themselves . This is a totally cliched portrayal as some of the worst vermin breathing are journalists , many of whom are driven by greed and ego and will print absolutely anything to sell newspapers , they`re not too bothered what they print just as long as it it ties in with a misguided editorial line and sells a few more copies , and that`s the problem I had with WHEN THE SKY FALLS , its heroine Sinead Hamilton is shown trying to take on Dublin`s drug dealers almost single handed .

I also had a problem with the black and white characterisation , everyone is either a nasty piece of work or a victim , the exception being MacKay played very well by Patrick Bergin who`s a sort of Dublin equvilent of Jack Regan or Frank Burnside who`s not below bending the rules to get results . He`s by far the most interesting character in a film that suffers from a rather shaky view of drugs . Smack addicts are shown to be hapless victims at the mercy of their dealers , but is this actually true ? I was under the impression that many addicts also sell drugs in real life in order to pay for their addiction , not as shown here selling paintings to tourists . And there`s no real attempt to address the wider issues of drugs and what to do about the problem in this film . As one reviewer has touched upon WHEN THE SKY FALLS tries to be a straightforward thriller and a socially aware film at the same time and by doing so it fails in trying two things at once.

WHEN THE SKY FALLS isn`t a bad film , in fact it was probably the best one I saw that night , but the other movies I saw were THE MUMMY RETURNS , SPECIES 2 and CODE RED so the competition wasn`t up to much . Hopefully next time someone makes a film dealing with drugs they might like to take the unpopular view that people volunteer to become addicts , a point TRAINSPOTTING made very well

How ANYONE rated this movie more than 3 stars is ridiculous! Worst acting. A bunch of staring at the sky, sulking, and wooden performances.

Lame story, lame relationships, JUST LAME!

Avoid it 😳

This is the sort of movie that would be dismissed as being implausible if it was pure fiction, but this tale of modern heroism is only slightly fictionalised. Joan Allen plays a thinly disguised version of Veronica Guerin (pron: GEER-in), an Irish journalist killed by the drug barons she fearlessly challenged.

In some ways the film's greatest asset is it's honesty: it's as uninhibited about tackling the issues involved as Guerin herself was: it doesn't pull any punches in criticising the irish government and police force's timid efforts to deal with the heroin epidemic in Dublin. It doesn't flinch from the fact that Guerin used some wildly unorthodox methods to tackle the drug barons. Also, like John Boorman's far more stylish _The General_, it shows that the Irish police aren't above colluding with terrorists in the drugs war.

In other ways, the film presents often gratingly hackneyed images and some wildly implausible scenes. The Drug baron's hoods are clearly based on the bad guys in Donald Duck cartoons, drinking champagne in Jacuzzis, while the newspaper office is apparenly modelled on _His Girl Friday_. Also, kids are seen shooting up Smack in Dublin streets IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and no character bats an eyelid. The problem of using sexy Hollywood actresses to repressent real people rears it's finely embrocated head, particularly when Joan Allen is sexually approaced by several hoodlums. The movie also makes the world of Irish journalism and law enforcement seem more misogynistic than they really are.

These are minor quibbles, though. This, for all its flaws and low budget is a truly inspiring film, a film that shows that heroism is still possible and a welcome antidote to the "ironic" designer nihilism of much contemporary US and British crime cinema.

Having watched this *after* seeing the more recent Veronica Guerin (2003), I can only say: don't bother with this one if you want the real story. While this is an interesting story, they must have been hampered by lawyers as it uses precisely no real names and leaves you wondering if it was all made up. Sadly (or thankfully, depending on how you look at it) it wasn't made up, but see Cate Blanchett playing Guerin for real and you'll get a much better idea of what happened.

(2000) When The Sky Falls THRILLER/ DRAMA

Initially a made-for-TV movie, now available on DVD starring Joan Allen as Irish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton, investigating the death of a person named Martin Shaughnessy, and his connection to the IRA as well as other unethical practices regarding drugs being sold to minor children. Although, it's based on an actual person, at least 75% of the movie has been fabricated, particularly the scenes how some of Dublin's police are being treated by the criminal public. In this movie, people can be assaulted and still get away with it, since it's the ridiculous my-word-against-yours sort of thing. And women are allowed to get assaulted by men with criminal records for trespassing, for the movie is so ludicrous, we don't even get to witness the court proceedings about how some people are able to get away from it- only that they're able to beat the system. If it wasn't for Joan Allen's acting this movie would've been too unbearable to watch.