I have always been a fan of Brendan Fraser, who excels at playing gauche clunking heroes. The rest of the cast, though unknown to me turned in great performances. My congratulations to all involved.I am Irish and I appreciated the humour and dialogue in this movie. The plot kept me guessing to the end. Acting and direction were perfect. There are plenty of LOL moments for those with healthy humour glands.This film's quality revived my drooping spirit.I will keep this director on my watch list-I also enjoyed Hotel Rwanda.

If there's one actor that barely anyone hears about anymore it's actor Brendan Fraser. What now seems eons ago, Fraser was the top man after the hit action movie The Mummy (1999) was released. Not only did it showcase Fraser as a worthy candidate for action movies but it also made him very popular. Then about a decade later, he dropped off the face of the earth. As stated in his filmography, he's still making movies but for the most part it's voice work or live action films but with very limited releases. It's sad because Fraser is a very talented actor. Making things even more melodramatic is this small budget thriller that has trouble keeping everything together.The story is about a struggling father (Martin McCann) who is looking to pay back a crime boss who lent him money. And like most situations that end up like this, they can't make the payment and are threatened by the boss to pay up or suffer dire consequences. In this case, the threat is the boss taking his son away. This particular plot isn't anything new but it works. And this movie would work out totally fine if that's the only plot that it stuck to. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Terry George the director and writer, along with Thomas Gallagher (another writer who only has one other credit) included a number of other subplots that were not necessary to have. And it's not like Terry George is a bad director, he also headed Hotel Rwanda (2004) which many people favor.But it's the writing that really takes away the possibilities to this movie. Along with the crime boss plot, there's a subplot about a character being a father and not knowing about it (and in the end that isn't clearly resolved), a character has relations to a mob and tries to flee from their troubles (and that isn't clearly resolved either), and there's also subplot dealing with having to keep a secret from a person they care about. It's just too many stories in one situation and this makes this hour and a half minute thriller feel longer than it's supposed to be. What may confuse viewers though is the genre that this movie is putting itself into.Here, it is labeled as a comedy and drama. But after viewing it, the audience may consider it more of a thriller and drama. There are a couple of scenes that may have people chuckle but it's questionable whether those moments were intentional or not. I didn't laugh very often because there didn't seem to be anything too funny to laugh at. I can certainly look back and recall the scenes that were supposed to be funny but they didn't carry much charm to them to make the audience laugh. They were very weak attempts. There was definitely drama though, because of all the subplots. And although the subplots were jumbled together, the story line did have some interesting character development. Of course, the effectiveness dropped when the subplots weren't resolved however. The movie may also feel long because the title accurately portrays the majority of the running time. The conflict is presented as a stand off hostage situation.With this kept in mind, it will be obvious to viewers that Mr. Fraser will not be doing much of his action work he did in the past. The main plot doesn't even focus on him which is kind of sad considering he is what would grab people to see this film. As for acting goes, it's alright. Fraser does his best but again because he's not the character of main focus, the audience may feel cheated leaving a disappointed feeling. What was different to experience though was the slew of Irish actors in the cast. Colm Meaney (Law Abiding Citizen (2009) as the detective did have some charm. Also actors Martin McCann (Clash of the Titans (2010)) and David O'Hara (Hotel Rwanda (2004)) were interesting to listen too as well. Even Yaya DeCosta (a Siren from Tron: Legacy (2010)) gave a unique performance as an African refugee.Every other element to the story was decent too. Because the setting takes place in Ireland, it's nice to see a different set of scenery than always in New York or some other American city. That's credit to Mr. Des Whelan. He also works the camera for many other films recently such as Thor: The Dark World (2013) and The Expendables 2 (2012). Foy Vance's musical composition to the film was OK. Nothing that stands out, considering much of the time it was absent or replaced by what seemed to be Irish folk music. This seemed out of place for the scenes they were inserted into. But there were also some dramatic scenes that did work with his music. That's why my opinion is on the fence for his score. Overall, it's watchable but it can feel cluttered.Although it includes Fraser in the cast list, his presence feels wasted, even though all the actors have less star power. Along with a script stuffed with numerous subplots, the film may feel longer than it's supposed to.

Review: This movie was bloody terrible. I got completely tricked by the poster. I thought that it at least be funny, but it wasn't even that. Brendan Fraser's movies have gone really downhill and as for the rest of the cast, they were just as bad. It just turned out to be a hostage situation that goes wrong, but its no Dog Day Afternoon. To be honest, I wasn't expecting that much from a Brendan Fraser movie because most of his films are rubbish, but this was really bad. I'm not surprised that it went straight to DVD. Avoid!Round-Up: If you look at Brendan Fraser's previous movies, its surprising that he is still getting roles, and this movie will definitely be forgotten pretty quickly. Brought to you by the director who made movies like In The Name Of The Father & The Boxer, I'm surprised that this movie was so bad. I can't really remember what happened in the film because my brain switched off halfway through so don't bother to put this in your DVD list.I recommend this movie to people who like there movies about a hostage situation that goes wrong. 1/10

Im no great fan of movies from my home country. Usually grim or trying to be funny when they're not. But this little movie has charm and wit a plenty although some laughs may be lost on you if you're not from Northern Ireland. There are many scenes of Belfast and the little street where the antique shop is situated was filmed in Downpatrick. There were a few laugh out loud scenes for me, where one of the gypsy children gets his head stuck in a window and Brendan Fraser uses soap to get him out and he doesn't know what it is. Or the scene where fish get shot in St Georges Market and they put flags on them to mark the bullet holes including a crab which has a hole in it. There are many nods also to the current peace here which was done in a light hearted way. All in all i truly enjoyed this movie and it was nice to see a film made about NI which didn't portray Belfast as grim and humourless. It certainly seems now that Northern Ireland has become big business for the movie industry as we enjoy regular film crews coming to our (mostly) untapped locations. Long may it continue.