Brendan Gleeson / Don Cheadle and Mark Strong are solid enough reasons to watch, so watched it without reading about it - and boy was I surprised! This is not an action movie but an intelligent Irish black comedy.
The premises is set in the beautiful Connemara, Galway, Western Ireland. The cultural depictions as a laid back Irish town where everyone sort of knows everyone did not look forced. Movie had more tongue in cheek lines than I have recently seen and laughed out loud many times. The screenplay was clever and laced with Gleeson's' acidic humor.
Brendan Gleeson lived the role of an indifferent wise cracking, abusive practical joker, borderline-racist and an intelligent cynical guard who loves his dying mom (how he lands scripts like this is a mystery - loved him in "In Bruges"). The script was filled with brevity laden humor - especially the laughs between mom / son contrasting with a heavy glooming backdrop of her medical condition - hats off to screenplay (BAFTA award winner).
The scenes where Don Cheadle tries to talk to locals but doesn't understand Connacht Irish and Liam Cunningham (best remembered as Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones) playing the antagonist with Mark Strong are rib-cracking. References to popular culture such as 81/2, Rhode Scholarship, IRA guns and references to Columbians being better drug mafia just add spice to the script. There is a scene in the movie where Don Cheadle can't believe the politically incorrect things coming out of Gleeson's mouth and coolly he defends himself by saying "I'm Irish, racism is part of my culture". That did it for me!!!
The distinction between the sense of humor and what ticks the English / Americans and Irish were never so contrastingly depicted in any other movie I can remember. Looking at the posters, you maybe mislead to believe this is a candy buddy-cop kind of movie, it is anything but stereotypical. The dry cynical Irish humor really appealed to me. Gleeson gets away with his politically incorrect behavior. This is not a movie which is going to be in any top 100 but it is definitely worth a watch.
The premises is set in the beautiful Connemara, Galway, Western Ireland. The cultural depictions as a laid back Irish town where everyone sort of knows everyone did not look forced. Movie had more tongue in cheek lines than I have recently seen and laughed out loud many times. The screenplay was clever and laced with Gleeson's' acidic humor.
Brendan Gleeson lived the role of an indifferent wise cracking, abusive practical joker, borderline-racist and an intelligent cynical guard who loves his dying mom (how he lands scripts like this is a mystery - loved him in "In Bruges"). The script was filled with brevity laden humor - especially the laughs between mom / son contrasting with a heavy glooming backdrop of her medical condition - hats off to screenplay (BAFTA award winner).
The scenes where Don Cheadle tries to talk to locals but doesn't understand Connacht Irish and Liam Cunningham (best remembered as Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones) playing the antagonist with Mark Strong are rib-cracking. References to popular culture such as 81/2, Rhode Scholarship, IRA guns and references to Columbians being better drug mafia just add spice to the script. There is a scene in the movie where Don Cheadle can't believe the politically incorrect things coming out of Gleeson's mouth and coolly he defends himself by saying "I'm Irish, racism is part of my culture". That did it for me!!!
The distinction between the sense of humor and what ticks the English / Americans and Irish were never so contrastingly depicted in any other movie I can remember. Looking at the posters, you maybe mislead to believe this is a candy buddy-cop kind of movie, it is anything but stereotypical. The dry cynical Irish humor really appealed to me. Gleeson gets away with his politically incorrect behavior. This is not a movie which is going to be in any top 100 but it is definitely worth a watch.