This indie dud came and went last month with so-so reviews and box office, but I can’t say I’d recommend it to anyone looking to escape the big budget, brain dead summer fare. This movie (about Brendan Gleeson’s “unorthodox” Irish cop getting paired up with Don Cheadle’s straight laced FBI agent to stop a drug ring in Ireland) makes all the same mistakes the big studios do: it’s a formulaic buddy cop movie, there’s a lot of forced wisecracks, and it ends in a shoot out that defies plausibility. It’s definitely not the worst 90 minutes you’ll have in the month of September (that appears to be Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star) but sure isn’t the best way you could spend it either.
What Works: Gleeson is a skilled actor and he finds some nice, quiet notes to play in his character that may not be there on the page. The whole movie feels too sitcomish and derivative but he does what he can when he can, which is more than I can say for…
What Doesn’t Work: Cheadle mostly phones it in. Just the other day I re-watched his excellent, scary work as a sociopathic thug in Out of Sight and it felt like a revelation to watch a performance where Cheadle was fully awake. I don’t know what’s gotten into this excellent actor that he now sleep walks through performance after performance, but I hope he snaps out of his blues soon. I can’t say the same for the always one-note Mark Strong who once again plays a snarling, not-as-dangerous-as-he-thinks British gangster. This guy never ceases to amaze in the way he can turn even scary criminals hammy and neutered. Also, this movie’s script sucks.
What I Would Have Done Differently: So many things, so many things…
Great Review