fredericlindsay I for one would like to enter a plea on its behalf that people should see this film and make up their own minds. As someone who knows something about shaping a story, I am sure that a wider audience will find it a very competent adventure story with moments of real suspense, while for Scots it gives them the flavour of a moment in history and catches very authentically the emotions roused in a wide range of people by the Stone's recovery. The participants, though young, had potentially too much to lose for the raid to be dismissed as a student prank. Like it or not, there was real patriotic fervour at work here and a desire to remedy an old wrong. This is a well written, well acted film, although the reaction of the Scottish critics would have you think otherwise. It is hard to know what personal or professional uncertainty made for such a grudging reception, but it would be a pity if it meant that fewer people saw the film.

dje109 My wife and I took our 10 year old. The time didn't drag and it was nicely done. Not a life changing, earth shattering film that you'd necessarily bother to see again, but it passed a pleasant evening and we were glad we'd gone to see it. It captured the sometimes bumbling and chaotic nature of of this kind of endeavour, and there were a few edge of the seat moments. The acting was fine and it captured the feel of a different era when we weren't so paranoid about terrorism and public buildings were much more easily accessible. I guess a lot of non-Scots won't fully understand the reference to the Declaration of Arbroath (I saw it on display in Edinburgh many years ago and it blew me away - and I'm an Englishman!).

kevin_crighton Scotland 1950. Student Ian Hamilton, frustrated by what appears to be a lack of spirit in the people of Scotland, hatches a plan to steal the Stone Of Destiny from Westminster Abbey, and bring it home....The movie is based on a book written by Hamilton himself. Now, I've not read it, so I'm not sure what the author will think of the finished movie, but I enjoyed it. Written for the screen and directed by Charles Martin Smith, this is Scotland as portrayed by Americans. It's a romantic, sweeping place, full of downtrodden Scots. It's a view of Scotland that you only ever see in the movies. However, it fits the mood of the piece, as this movie does have an old-fashioned feel about it. It recalls the Ealing movies of the '50s, with the whole thing if not played out for laughs, then certainly with a lot of humour in the drama.The robbers, as portrayed by Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Ciaron Kelly and Stephen McCole, come over as enthusiastic, if bumbling students who manage to steal the Stone through luck as much as anything else. The movie definitely sides with them.The cast which also includes Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullan and Billy Boyd are very good indeed, even if some of the accents don't convince.I'm not sure how historically accurate the movie is, but as a movie, while it does have an old-fashioned feel, it is enjoyable and good natured, and like Braveheart before it, make you proud to be Scottish!

roger-a-edwards Went to the World Premiere of this film in Edinburgh. The event was quite exciting with a little speech by the director before the film began and Kate Mara, Billie Boyd, Robert Carlyle and Charlie Cox also at the event (and at the Gala Dinner afterwards).The film was a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes and it was quite an enjoyable romp. But I felt unsure about what the film was aiming to be. It wasn't funny enough to call itself a comedy and some of the humour was verging on farce (especially the scenes where the characters are running around the streets of London narrowly missing each other).It wasn't dramatic enough because the characters were on the whole cartoons and I didn't really feel involved or concerned about them - it seemed very "american formula road trip" but set in 1950s UK - nice handsome lead character, funny fat guy with a heart, pretty girl who starts off strong but ends up simply being the love interest for the lead character, and then the geeky skinny non-entity who makes good before the end. There was some tension in the scenes set in Westminster Abbey when they were trying to steel the stone - but you never really believed that they were ever going to be caught (but of course the 50s were years before mobile phones, laser burglar alarms, and burglars abseiling down from ceilings on micro wires.From a political point of view it was pretty full on in its portrayal of the Nationalist movement - but even this didn't feel fully developed and was perhaps more of an attempt to impress Sean Connery who is a staunch advocate of Scottish Independence and was at the Premiere as well as he is Patron of the Edinburgh Film Festival.Despite these comments I did enjoy the film. I probably won't buy the DVD but I may well rent it wen it comes out.