Crush Proof

Perhaps there is little point in writing a negative review of a movie that not many people will see. Also, I walked out at the intermission, so I am only half-qualified to write (although I have been told that it gets worse in the second half). Still, given that the few IMDb reviews are much more positive than the average IMDb rating, it might be useful to have a review that represents the opposite side.

So what is wrong with this movie? Two things. First, as other reviewers mentioned, the writers threw into it everything that came into their minds, aiming mostly for shock value, at the price of flushing plot and character development down the toilet. Second, the setting is very bleak and gritty. One could object that Kurosawa's samurai movies, or Roman Polanski's Macbeth, are also bleak and gritty, but they have great plots, great characters, and manage to be uplifting, which is more than can be said for this movie. Maybe it is a realistic portrait of the most depressed areas of Dublin, as the Irish reviewers say. However, it is not a side of Ireland that many foreigners will like to see. If there were some insight to be gained into human nature, it would still be worth seeing an unpleasant movie, but I do not feel that this is the case here.

Update 2008.03.27: I decided that it is not fair to give the minimum rating to a movie which does not disappoint. I could not be disappointed by this movie because I did not know what to expect, so my rating is slightly increased.

What a weird movie - a bunch of brutal and disillusioned youngsters from Dublin are on the run from the police and take some horses to "ride the high country"... During their trips their discussing about life and always run into new situations of violence, death and murder.

There are some really remarkable scenes in this Irish movie, like a menacing sex scene and a guy being hanged by the bunch after a painful trial. The plot is unpredictable and twisted, and the actors are young and unknown, but very enthusiastic about their roles. The sound track features some of the best alternative, techno, trip hop and electronica grooves of the last few years.

Watch this refreshing Irish-British-Dutch-German production, which sometimes appears like a bloody mixture of The Wild Bunch, Trainspotting and Fury. Outstanding European millennium cinema!

Darren Healy stars in this mythic parable set in 1998 Dublin. A flawed but ambitious Irish movie set in my home town.

Neil (Darren Healy) gets out of jail and tries to see his son, the mother tries to bar the door of her flat to him, slams and things rapidly get out of control from there.

The director throws everything including the kitchen sink at the cinematic wall in the hope that something sticks, and surprisingly most do, there are moments of glaring awkwardness in the script and some dreadful miscasting (specifically Viviana Verveen as Nuala.)

"Crushproof" works well as cinematic metaphor of the harshness of todays Dublin underclass and their dead end lives and our own ancient heroes who fought like lions despite the inevitable violent death. Looks like someone finally saw the parable between the "thug" mentality of Dublin's Lumpenproletariat and our own mythic heroic past. The spirit of "Hyla" lives on.

Good soundtrack and some great performances, however the director tried too many different techniques, "Crushproof" manages to be both stylised and verite at different points depending on what was thought was needed for the scene. Unfortunately the styles do not seamlessly blend. Also at some points the mixture of the "humour of the damned" and the more serious scenes are juxtaposed to the point of being jarring and not helping the flow of the film.

Still all in all I would give this a seven being all at once in touch with both our ancient and modern Irish identities. Many, many great and truthful moments, that do not all hang together comfortably as a film.

Peace and Hope

FatherCrow

In my opinion this is a brilliant film.What attracted me to this film was its setting which is mostly in Dublin, inner Dublin city and the north side of Dublin.I also love horses which was a major attraction for me, it reminds me of how teenagers in Dublin used to live and their love for horses.Now there are very little horses and ponies around the Dublin estates.Darren Healys role in this film was one of his first and I think his best.I taught as such a young actor his role was powerful and exactly what i would expect from an inner city Dublin lad involved with drugs and gangs.As i live in Tallaght in Dublin a few of the cast were from around my area.The story line of the film was really exciting and i can relate to it in some ways.I will look forward to seeing more films featuring Darren Healy.

The Good: Beautifully cast with a team of young actors who express their characters with comfort and ease. They act the part as if they know these characters because they are aspects of themselves, something that I didn't expect of such an young cast. I found them to be believable recognisable and likable. The language used is an accurate portrayal of the vernacular of the time and space, I haven't heard anyone called a 'geebag' in years and to hear it used so unselfconsciously made me snort with laughter.

The Bad: While the sketches within the film were excellent stand alone pieces, together they didn't add to the overall story. You left with what you were given in the first five minutes. If there was a message in the story I left without it.

In short: Plenty of texture but lacking in shape, though admittedly, I got a lot more out of this film than what I expected.