Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Irish gangster Martin Cahill may have been a murdering creep in real-life, but the on-screen version portrayed by Brendan Gleeson is every bit of all right in this captivating character study by director-screenwriter John Boorman.Growing up in the Dublin slum Hollyfield, Cahill becomes a bold and crafty thief who develops a strong antipathy for law and order in all its forms. Recruiting a like-minded collection of ex-Hollyfield low lifes around him, he breaks the law repeatedly, and with mounting daring, shoving the low-class verdict of the high and mighty back in their faces."I want something big," Cahill tells his men before one of his record-breaking jobs. "To humiliate them."Gleeson delivers a masterful performance, with his gently cynical grin and half wink, melting our resistance to his criminal ways as we see him play the angles like Little Rascal Spanky all grown up wrong. Seeing him trade barbs with police inspector Ned Kenny (Jon Voight, who surprises with a terrific accent and low-key manner), it's hard not to take sides no matter how much in the wrong you know Cahill to be.Boorman doesn't even try to have it both ways. Even when Cahill does something nasty, like nailing an associate to a snooker table for suspicion of embezzlement, you wind up only admiring the guy's sense of fairness. Sleeping with his wife's sister? If the wife's for it, why do you mind? Ripping off a collection of Dutch Masters? Well, the owner did exploit Africans, so it serves him right.You even get mad, along with Cahill, when after one very well-executed job, the IRA tries to bully him into giving up half the haul. "There's nothing' as low as robbin' a robber!" Cahill shouts.Such selective morality limits "The General" as a lesson in civic responsibility, but it also accounts for why the film is as good as it is, serving as a vehicle for a subversive yet somehow merry view of life it takes which unites "The General" with other Boorman films even if it is visually more muted that what we have come to expect from him, especially in its original black-and-white version.I get the feeling Boorman was taking his cues from the hit Irish film "The Commitments", which also features actresses Maria Doyle Kennedy and Angeline Ball and a doughy lead ("You're not fat. Just cuddly.") In both there's a kitchen-sink feeling of rain-slick Dublin crumbing under soulful wailing and heavy bass tones, while the characters at the center try to break out of their grim surroundings. One tries through music, the other through crime. The best you can say about "The General" is it almost makes you believe one's as good as the other.That may be the worst thing about it, too. Cahill's crimes hurt others, as Doyle points out, and ultimately himself as he reaches beyond his means, yet Boorman seems to suggest it's alright because its his life to lose. A better film might have examined the collateral damage more closely, but at risk of being less entertaining.

Gleeson is superb, simply outstanding as Martin Cahill. The black and white of the movie was a very smart move by Boorman.Only two faults with this movie (1) Jon Voight does a great job in his role but for such a parochial movie his accent just does not cut it and (2) the movie portrays Martin Cahill to be somewhat of a modern day Robin Hood - he wasn't - he was a thug, a bully and Dublin's version of Sadaam Hussein.

Everything, from the technical standards to the performances are superb, folks, this is fantastic film-making. Boorman's direction is pretty amazing, making full use of the anamorphic widescreen frame. The problem I have with this picture is that the story left me cold, there seemed to be a distance between the audience the picture. Maybe the story features an anti-hero? Someone you cannot identify with. The dialogue is a little hard to understand, the accents are very thick, very irish. The film is shot in panavision anamorphic wide-screen. If you haven't seen it in wide-screen, then you are missing out on 43% of quality picture. Overall, fantastic in every department, but the story left me cold.

The General is one of the best films dealing with true life that I have seen. John Boorman has done us all proud both as director and in the Writing credits. As Martin Cahill Brendan Gleeson who bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Cahill is superb bringing with him the humor as well as the hardcore attitude of the Dublin underworld. Well deserved the B.F.C. awards for best director and best actor. This is one for your library as you will want to watch it again and again.