neil-29353 I checked the reviews before wasting a couple of hours on this and it seemed that there were a lot of 10's and a lots score closer to 0's, Its always hard to know who is correct in this situation. Believe me the scores closer to 0's are spot on.I'm guessing you know enough background about the film from the title and trailers.. 6 lads on a hill walking stag weekend... right?Billed as a comedy but this is as far from comedy as you could get. Its completely devoid of any humour... They try so hard to be original and they really aren't. Predictable and truth be told pretty boring.Yes they put the characters as the new style D4 Irish rather than the stereotyped drinkers and fighters which are so often portrayed in films but they were equally bad and offensive.The only exception to the group is the one character called "The Machine" who is called "The Machine" with the emphasis on "the" in every other line in the script...oh dear god please stop... it couldn't have been more annoying. Even his sister phones him and says "Hi, The Machine"... seriously so annoying. I don't know what angle they were trying with the gay couple...were they trying to shock us on film 30 years too late? Were they trying to shock us that Ireland has a gay community??... this couple in a relationship of 6 years in every scene stuck to each other like love sick teenagers... *gasp a man hugging another man... the outrage... I can only assume they did that so that you could differentiate from the other 3 male characters (not including "The Machine" because you really wouldn't know who was supposed to be gay.Apologies to the gay community if you are all really loved up after 6 years together...maybe I'm just an old cynicAnyway... it was all very obvious what was going to happen... losing their clothes, chased by the dog and the farmer....absolute pants. To conclude with an overly sentimental sickly best man speech and bizarre poorly mimed cover version of a U2 song after a nonsensical out of place rallying speech for the people of Ireland... Oh one last thing... accents!!???!!! Peter McDonald who is a pretty fine actor what was going on with the accent?.. Born in Dublin yet it jumped from the North, to the midlands to an American accent...and the rest sounded EnglishDo yourself a favour and don't watch this

nicky-58 ...of a big budget movie without the big budget.Sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, always tantalizing, impossible to look away.Great acting, immaculate pacing.The story begins with some solid character development, then the flies begin to land in the ointment. You can anticipate but you can never predict what's going to happen next.This is an Irish film, and I've seen some of the actors before, but I couldn't name a one. Nevertheless, they turned in big time performances leading me to believe that several of them must be stars in Ireland.The writing/dialogue is first class. The laughs come fast enough to be very hip without being annoying.

hediditallrelaxed Marketed as an Irish version of The Hangover, cinema goers expecting to see a gross-out outlandish comedy will be left disappointed. In its place they will find a charming, genuinely touching and not to mention hilarious comedy drama. This is a movie that belongs more in the realism of Barrytown then the fantasy world of Las Vegas.At her wits end with fiancée Fionan's (Hugh O'Conor) obsessing over every detail of their upcoming nuptials (particularly in one fantastic scene with wedding planner Justine Mitchell – who nearly walks off with the film in her brief scene), Ruth (Amy Huberman), enlists the help of his best man Davin (Moriarty himself, Andrew Scott) to take the metro… Politan Fionan away for a stag weekend. He is joined by mild mannered U2 denier Simon (Brian Gleeson), gay couple Kevin and Kevin (Andrew Bennett and Michael Legge) and, against his best efforts, by Ruth's boorish brother, known as The Machine (Moone Boy's Peter McDonald).The set up is nothing original, with everything from The Hangover to last year's Few Best Men mining the pre-wedding blow-out as an excuse for raunchy, far flung mayhem. What sets this film apart is that none of the cast fall into their expected token role. The Machine could quite easily have turned into the movie's equivalent of Stiffler but McDonald (who also co-wrote the script) is in spectacular form, grounding his character with real depth and a realism to any group of friends who all have that 'one' within the group. He never crosses the line to offensive or tasteless and, as a result, the audience is rewarded with a character that resembles an actual person as opposed to a catchphrase spouting bore.The cast are excellent across the board, Brian Gleeson (son of Irish film legend Brendan) shows enough guile and put upon humor to suggest it won't be too long before his name isn't suffixed with his famous father's name and becomes a respected talent in his own right. Andrew Bennett and Michael Legge convey a wonderful chemistry as a couple plagued with all too real and topical problems and thankfully their sexuality is never played for tasteless laughs. Their story arc is beautifully handled and threatens to overshadow the main plot, which sees tensions between Davin and Fionan simmering to a boil due to the best man's feelings towards his friend's fiancée. Scott, fresh from his reappearance in Sherlock, gives a wonderfully nuanced performance, his eyes tinged with sadness while maintaining his loyalty to his best friend. The duality is never conveyed better than during his heartbreaking rendition of the Patrick Kavanagh classic Raglan Road, which hopefully will find its way into the soundtrack. Stuck with what could have been the least interesting role in the movie theater, stand out Hugh O'Conor inhibits Fionan with enough restraint so as to never make the character a whiny cliché, but also stands his ground enough that we never want to just see him cast aside for the more romantic Davin to step in. It is a very tricky balancing act and O'Conor, who has been on the cusp of a break out role for the past few years, absolutely nails it.The film though will ultimately live and die by one measuring stick, is it funny? And on that front the film is a massive success. Foregoing any artificially outrageous set pieces – no tigers or giraffe decapitations here. The film instead relies on the delivery of its talented cast, along with its slick humor and stinging one liners. This is not to say that director John Butler is above moments of crudeness, as he puts his game cast through the ringer during one unforgettable reenactment of the Emperor Penguin huddle. It is a nice commentary on male bonding rituals without ever sacrificing story for laughs. It is the best Irish film for quite some time and seems destined to be spoken about in the same terms as The Snapper or The Commitments. Highly recommended. www.followingthenerd.com

harkness04 Absolutely fell in love with this film. It has a stellar casting, beautiful countryside that makes me miss Ireland an awful lot and the scripting is brilliant. Some genuinely hilarious moments during the film and above all it culminated to be incredibly touching, a true look at the beauty of friendships through the good and bad times in life, make sure you bring some tissues because Andrew Scott goes above and beyond. This is Irish film at its best and I found cast members I hadn't seen before to be exceptionally brilliant. Above all, just let the film carry you on its journey and you'll find yourself laughing and crying. You'll appreciate your friends a lot more afterwards.