Sorry, this movie sucks

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This is the film Guy Ritchie has been trying to remake his whole career, and he's never come close.Big fish in small pond London gangster manages to upset precisely the wrong band of fanatics, and underestimates the enemy to his great cost. In amongst all the violence, there's true drama and pathos (Helen Mirren, for goodness' sake - is she capable of giving a bad performance?), while the humour never seems forced or tacked on. This isn't a glossy, GQ Magazine, drama schoolboys playing poker with over-the-top wide-boy accents, token one-dimensional crumpet British gangster flick. Oh no. Superb performances from the entire cast, including Pierce Brosnan's finest movie role to date (he doesn't say anything), and Oh! what an ending! Verdict: Mockney Gangster Porn? I've sh*t it! NOTE: disappointing note on the DVD release - the director's commentary is one of the most dull and un-insightful commentaries since I sat through half of Tim Burton's commentary on Edward Scissorhands. Most disappointing!yetanotherfilmreviewblog.tumblr.com

This movie is an amazing blend of story and action, and pulls off the amazing feat of having a gangster movie with some real heart and some classic charm that was missing from many similar movies of this period and most movies since. The characters are unforgettable and at the very least relatable, you see them and know their plight as they go through this dark period of time.So what's the bacon? Bob Hoskins plays Harold Shand, a London Gangster who's brought about peace in the Capital's gangster scene. However, on the day he plans to sign a giant East End development project with American investors, his organisation is rocked by the murder of his childhood friend and a bomb blowing up his Rolls Royce. Shand now has the ordeal of tracking down the people attempting to destroy his organisation whilst at the same time keeping it a secret from the Americans.So, the good stuff? All of it if I'm honest. It's got heart, with all the characters being at the very least human, not invincible husks with no personality and no real human traits. Shand isn't invincible, he's simply a man who's built himself up from the gutters of the London slums to become the kingpin of the city, and you can really feel for his emotions and really want him to find a way out all the way through the movie.The story is an absolute cracker, strong, coherent, chocked full of twists and really good fun to sit through. At the same time the film, unlike many of the same period, is surprisingly subtle. There aren't an onslaught of nauseating gun battles, nor is it just continual fist fights with no connection to the plot other than to cram in a load of action. It is a fantastic blend of story and style, which I love to bits!To top it all off as well, the soundtrack, although very simple, is fantastic and absolutely catchy. Bet your bottom dollar that you'll be humming the theme tune to this movie for a week after viewing!What else can I say? The story's great, the characters are great, the music's great, it's grounded, down-to-earth and overall a fantastic movie. One of my all time faves and definitely my favourite gangster flick!

What with continuous development in filming technology, equipment and techniques, a film made almost 34 years ago is almost bound to suffer from comparison with modern productions, so it has to rely on it narrative strengths and its acting. Certainly, modern filmgoers might complain that the direction in The Long Good Friday is a little static, and what camera movement there is doesn't necessarily impress in itself. So that the film still stands as an intriguing, quite gripping and in parts quite funny piece is surely evidence of its quality.In the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies British films were all too often small-scale imitations of Hollywood's work - not always, certainly, but all too often. For one thing British producers and directors simply didn't command the budgets available to their U.S. counterparts.They were thus, rather like indy filmmakers today, obliged to rely more on their imagination and scriptwriting than simply to resort to some kind of manic car chase or violent shoot-out to achieve some kind of distinction, but with The Long Good Friday, they were beginning to hit their stride and gain ever more confidence. Certainly, the film does, in parts, look rather more threadbare than contemporary U.S. productions, but it doesn't matter anymore: the Brits had finally evolved their own style.Central to the film in every way is (the now late) Bob Hoskins whose character, gang leader with ambitions Harold Shand, finds his well-ordered world and criminal empire unravel in just 48 hours. And in keeping with Shand's dry and ironic humour its all based on a horrible, though very tragic, misunderstanding. It's tragic because nine or ten people are murdered, sometimes quite horribly, yet the misunderstanding which sparks off the chain of events is in a macabre way almost comic. Shand himself, a man accustomed to calling all the shots and having his very whim acted on at a moment's notice, finds himself utterly helpless when he tries to find out who is trying to destroy him.Hoskins, a true Londoner, carved a niche for himself playing this kind of London gangster, but then went on to play other, very different parts, to show what a truly versatile actor he was. And the role of Shand fits him like a glove, and his subtle performance makes this extremely violent and ruthless gang boss even oddly likable, and we catch glimpses of a quite vulnerable man underneath the hard as nails exterior.He is aided by good performances throughout, from Helen Mirren as his upmarket squeeze who is bright enough to advise him well, to his various lieutenants, including the one who's fateful decision sets of the events which lead to Shand's downfall.So, you won't be getting some slick piece of filmmaking with all the latest bells and whistles, but you will get a thoroughly entertaining account of one man's swift decline and fall from all-powerful gang boss to soon to be murdered gang boss, and in all if it he had not put a foot wrong. That's just one of the many delightful ironies.

The Long Good Friday is a fantastic film. I've seen it three times now. At first, I thought it was a bit heavy, a bit overly dramatic, but it has really grown on me. The film is riveting and highly watchable. The acting is top-class, especially Hoskins and Mirren, the direction is ace and the music is electric. It's a real quality piece of filmmaking.And like all great films it's full of interesting, thought provoking, relevant ideas, most notably about the state of Britain, and while at first it would seem that the film simply champions the nation upon closer inspection it appears that it is actually trying to raise a question about whether Britain really is the empire it used to be or whether it has fallen by the wayside.