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Reviews
War on Everyone (2016)
The worst film I've seen
I don't know where to begin. And neither did the director of this film. Perhaps the least specific criticism of this film is that it is described as "comedy". It failed to raise even a smile for me. I heard the rest of the audience of 6 chuckle a total of 6 times throughout the film. Was it intended to be a comedy? I'm not sure - I don't think child pornography has any place in a comedy whatsoever and calling random things "racist" every five minutes just isn't a joke. The goes double when the film then goes on to be exceedingly racist itself. Then there is the flow of the film itself. It starts with a scene that simply fails to engage the audience with any kind of empathy with the lead characters. It utterly fails to explain their motivations. Then the rest of the scenes jump around like a loosely themed collection of sketches, jump cutting from one to another with no logical story development. The soundtrack was misbalanced and brash, the segue between tracks was non-existent - jumping from thrash metal to country and back again with no regard for pace or sympathy. To pour petrol on the flames, the film even had a BFI stamp on it. Just W T F? That's usually a seal of quality. This film has zero redeeming qualities. Absolutely none. Although some sympathy with the leads does develop, it's only in the closing 10 minutes, and even then it's only very shallow.
My recommendation would be to avoid this film at all costs.
The Ghost Squad (2005)
Gritty police drama
In the first episode we follow a police complaints division investigation into brutality accusations at a police station. The drama is shown from the point of view of Amy, a young female officer who's 'collar' is murdered in an interview room. As she tries to clear her name during the 'lock-down' no-one can be trusted, and the division between right and wrong blurs remarkably. This is a well made TV drama that shows off the talents of Elaine Cassidy well. My only gripe is that the makers had the chance to break the mould for this kind of drama and chose not to do so. Too many drama series produced today make use of the narrative style of showing things from the viewpoint of a single central character; it has become a writers cliché. The obvious conclusion of the first episode was that Amy was going to join the undercover squad after showing her mettle; she gave such a strong performance right from the outset that it became a foregone conclusion. How much more intriguing (and difficult) it would have been had they used the tension created during an internal investigation by showing it from the point of view of the people it affected, moving on to a new investigation and new central character each week.
Mystics (2003)
Enjoyable
Although the film has a few shallow moments and unexplored plot points, there are enough subtle twists to leave you wondering just what is going on right up to the end. Is it a police set up? Is it a rival gang? The pub landlord? The Grieving widow? Where's the loot? Masterful performances by the main characters add up to make it a delight, and anyone who says that Irish film = s*** obviously listens to too much Slipknot! With elements of Arsenic & Old Lace, The Great Train Robbery and The Commitments this should be a joy for anyone who doesn't like their films too fast paced or over the top. The DVD extras include cast interviews and are best avoided due to the fact they arrange the individual comments as chapters. It's a huge irritation when some chapters are as short as 7 seconds and the DVD player takes longer locating the chapter than the comment.