This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

This is one my favourite films ever! My friends and I hold this film in a cult status. The personality and charm of this film is evident and well crafted by Stephen Frears and Roddy Doyle. The characters are real, vulnerable, hilariously foolish and very oafish. Many viewers well recognise Colm Meaney for his most well-known role as the jovial, charming and sometimes slightly foolish Miles O'Brien from star trek. His character's relationship with 'Bimbo' is highly watchable. The story is charming and funny and the jokes are very similar to Doyle's other work and in that they feature a number of brilliantly executed, Irish tinged expletives. The sheer number of f**ks or 'focks' in this movies surely must rival Casino for sweariest film ever!! Bottom line is, the humour is super down to earth in hilariously pathetic situations and the fact that THIS FILM HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED ON DVD!! is a disgrace. Everybody will laugh at this film, and for trek fans the sight of O'Brien telling a 9 year old kid to FOCK AFF! is a treat.

Roddy Doyle's Barrytown trilogy was an affectionate, humorous but unsentimental look at life in the poor suburbs of Dublin; all three books have now been turned into films. 'The Commitments', directed by Alan Parker, was virtually a musical; in the original, Doyle hilariously peppered his text with fragments of the lyrics of the songs his protagonists (a soul band) were singing; in the film, the songs were played straight, and pretty much in their entirety, and some of the subtleties of the plot were also lost. Stephen Frears did better in making a low key film of book two, and is also at the directorial helm for this film of the final book. 'The Van' represented a slight change of direction for Doyle, a weighter piece of fiction than his earlier efforts; but it's still fun, and a sensitive portrait of male friendship. However, I don't like the film very much, even though it is quite faithful to the book in both content and tone; for in spite of this, it has lost the spark, and the vision, that the writing possessed, and appears coarse and clumsy in comparison. An Eric Clapton score is used insensitively, underscoring dialogue with unnecessary frequency; the acting (especially from Colm Meaney) renders the characters close to parody; the camera work is needlessly jumpy; while the plot is reduced to a series of set-piece encounters. This is supposedly a naturalistic movie, but never manages to convey the rhythms of ordinary life. While judged as against other films that tell tales of working class survival, it has not the political anger of the works of Ken Loach, the emotional impact of 'Brassed Off' or the jauntiness of 'The Full Monty'. Perhaps the most cruel cinematic comparison, however, brought to obvious attention by the prominent presence of a decrepit snack van, is with Mike Leigh's 'Life is Sweet', a film whose originality and desperate humour make a stark contrast with the dull clichéd Oirishisms on display here. Conclusion: read the book instead.

Booker prize winner Roddy Doyle , who started life as a school teacher in a depressed neighbourhood in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, offers us a vivid yet humorous slice of life in Dublin at a pivotal time in contemporary Irish history. He tells this story from the perspective of down trodden families living in a depressed yet resilient neighbourhood. What is truly brilliant about this film is not just the hilarious storyline or the magical performances but how it captures the moment when Ireland as a nation got back on its feet and began to embrace Europe and world with renewed confidence. The story is set during the monumental moments of the European Football Championships of 1988, EURO'88 , when the Irish soccer team surprised Europe, and not least the Irish, with their success. It has been said that this event and the continued success of the Irish soccer team in Italia 90 sparked a renewed confidence within Ireland which greatly contributed to the success of the Irish economy in recent years, now known as the Celtic Tiger. The Barrytown trilogy written by Doyle has given us 3 memorable film adaptations in 'The Commitments'; 'The Snapper' and now this the final episode 'The Van'. Roddy Doyle went on to win the Booker prize for 'Paddy Clarke , ha, ha, ha' and is one of the foremost novelists active in Ireland today. His comedy and dialogue use the often thick Dublin working class dialect, which add to the lyrical nature of the scenes. Most of the characters are in turmoil due to their circumstances and the comedy lies in their posturing with each other in a dead-pan, black comedy.

I love movies set in Ireland and Colm Meaney is great. This is a fun movie, with humor and an interesting angle on life in Ireland. Colm was in another movie made from this author's work, The Snapper, and that was a howler. This movie is a must for fan's of Irish movies.