FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING

Girl’s deliberation...

This movie was hot. Something about accents, guns, and leather jackets (the cool, chic kind, not the biker, studded kind) gets me all revved up to watch rebellion, death and destruction of one’s life. Mm, mm, makes for a good movie.

All kidding aside, this movie felt like something I had watched before and enjoyed thoroughly, but, having forgotten the title and years having misplaced my memory, I had never sought to watch it again. I don’t think that was necessarily the case, as this movie was made in 2008, but I felt it all the same.

The last paragraph, or two, was pointless and had nothing to do with what this movie was like, so let me start again. Jim Sturgess lit up the screen as Martin McGartland, an Irish native working up the ranks of the IRA while becoming an undercover agent for a British source handler, Fergus, played by the charismatic and ever intriguing Ben Kingsley. Although it was odd to see him with hair, he was smashing in this film, with his tight black turtlenecks and kicking down door-ness.

Although the ending was a bit bleak (and a bit awesome - surviving 6 bullet wounds endeared me to this character even more for some crazy reason) it was an excellent story right from the beginning. It had the perfect combination of heartache and happiness, heartache obviously weighing down the scale, as any good dramatic story should go. It’s not a movie without a bit of conflict, as they say.

Girl's Rating: Watch it and enjoy the drama and sexy accents.

Guy's tidbit...

I have an inkling that Girl might have enjoyed this movie a little bit extra considering that most of the money for this production came from her home country Canada. Nevertheless, she's completely right, the movie was pretty awesome. It could have been easy to stray while making this movie and turn it into something gangster and "Snatch" like, but they kept it serious.

Ben Kingsley's hair... I'm pretty sure that he hasn't got any. Every time I see him in a role that provides a hairdo, I have a hard time taking the man seriously. In this movie it took me about an hour before I could get into his character. The last hour is also where he shines and starts to act, before this he seems to sit around a lot.

I'm European so the troubles in Ireland feel right next door. The thing is that I don't know details, so movies like this are very educational. And what better way to learn about history than from movies (maybe from a history book?... maybe)?

There's a lot of violence in this film. Not the kinda violence where you go "wow that was awesome!", more the type that makes you cringe and turn away from the screen. It just shows what the IRA was capable of behind closed doors. This makes you wanna bite your nails when Martin McGarland goes "tout" (undercover) and leaks information to the British.

Guy's Rating: Great film. We wanna see more of these joint productions in the future.