Truly Dreadful Film

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Absolutely the worst movie.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

'Intermission' is one of those films that should have been huge and yet somehow never really achieved its true potential. Many people call it 'the Irish Trainspotting' and I can sort of see where they're coming from. However, it's not quite as bleak as Trainspotting, relying more on everyday folk and the relationship troubles they get into. Plus the odd armed robbery thrown in there for good measure.When I sat my girlfriend down and made her watch it, she said that it was good, but could have been better if it was a little more focused. I guess that's fair criticism. It is a little all over the place here and there. It relies on numerous characters and story lines, all coming together in the end. And, like any story with multiple characters, not all get the screen time they deserve to fully flesh them out. You have your stars like Cillian Murphy and Kelly MacDonald leading the way (and Colin Farrell is kind of there as a marketing ploy as he's featured heavily in the film's marketing, yet only really appears in the form of an extended cameo – not to say he isn't fun and evil all at the same time!).Intermission isn't a family film. Don't be fooled by the cover that makes it look like a rom-com. It's comedy as its blackest. All the humour is derived from 'adult' situations and there are plenty of scenes that you wouldn't want to watch with your mother. I think it's definitely an underrated little gem. Yes, it has a few flaws, but all its jokes seemed to hit their targets where I was concerned and I'll continue to sit everyone I know down and force them to watch it for many years to come.

Director John Crowley and writer Mark O'Rowe create a fascinating and hilarious black comedy farce. 'Intermission', what an interesting name for a film. The title itself caught my attention. It's set in a small Irish town and focuses on its working class characters. Overlapping stories aren't anything new in film but here it is done exceptionally well. As the story builds, the connection between each character is gradually (and subtly) revealed and it feels very natural. Despite a few characters that border on being criminally insane, most of the characters are the common man and woman from various walks of life, people you see everyday who want love and respect.'Intermission' is full of energy. The action sequences are shot wonderfully, especially the final chase sequence. The writing is just solid and it has a wicked sense of humour that works excellently. Dialogues are witty and very funny. The score is quite unique.Of the cast, Colin Farrell, Kelly MacDonald, Cillian Murphy, Colm Meaney and Brían F. O'Byrne are already well known internationally. They perform naturally and do nothing short of a superb job as do their costars Shirley Henderson and Ger Ryan.'Intermission's already become a favourite. I would easily recommend it to anyone (especially those who love black comedy) who's interested in witnessing a different kind of slice of life with an extra dose of adrenaline.

I really enjoyed "Intermission" which is set in Dublin. It has a great cast who play lovable losers who take themselves too seriously. Their antics make for a funny and entertaining film. There are a number of different plot lines but the characters are all connected somehow. In some ways it's like a comic version of Babel. Dubliners seem to have a limited vocabulary and every adjective seems to begin with F, so it's not a family film. But it's fast paced and should make you laugh. The film starts when John (Cillian Murphy) decides he needs a break or intermission from Deirdre, (Kelly Macdonald) his girlfriend. She then makes John jealous by going off with Sam (Michael McElhatton), a married bank manager. Sam's wife of 14 years (Deirdre O'Kane) having been dumped embarks on a program of revenge, including sex with John's best friend, Oscar (David Wilmot). Jerry (Colm Meaney) is a police detective who likes beating people up and listening to Celtic music. He convinces a TV producer to make a documentary about his life. John and Oscar both work in a supermarket where their boss Mr. Henderson (Owen Roe) is a pompous twit. Deirdre's sister Sally (Shirley Henderson) was recently humiliated by a former boyfriend and sports a impressive mustache. Lehiff (Colin Farrell) is a thug who wants to rob Sam's bank. He is a friend of John and together they plan a bank robbery. Finally, there's Mick (Brian F. O'Byrne), a bus driver who is fired from his job and joins the gang. It's all good fun.

I had no intention of renting this movie I'm the kind that likes my comedy crude and slapstick and usually involving scantily clad or nude women,and the PG (not 13 i hate 13) animated kind of movies. Yet every once in a while one of my friends or I has this itch to rent a different film and although most of the times we have met with disaster once in a while we have picked out gems like Lock Stock or Waking Ned Devine and so we keep trying these experiments, our experiments with comedies have largely been unsuccessful and I have come to realise the British-Irish-comedy movie formula a bit.This movie is an attempt at mixing two classics (Lock Stock and Love Actually) with the similar theme of seemingly unfamiliar peoples lives intersecting. A single reading of the synopsis ensured that I knew the following things.This movie would have the similar formula of introducing the characters to us, almost boring us with seemingly meaningless event and conversations, and then suddenly justifying everything in one glorious finale. All the while they will also find themselves in precarious and humorous circumstances. (The Lock Stock influence ).Also the characters would be in the constant search for love (or happiness) and will sooner or later get what they want (or realise it) but not before a tumultuous journey. (the love actually part).Common themes are the large number of characters who are related somewhat and others who are absolutely unrelated all coming together in the end.Now this sounds like being tailor made for all audiences including lovers of British comedy, women, the adventurous, the drama lovers, and obviously those who swear by the festival films.Except that somehow it ends up pleasing none of them.Some scenes are worthless and humourless to boot.Leading to large stretches of boredom.The humour is so dry that forget us lovers of loud humour even those who like their humour subtle will struggle to find it.Lovers of drama will find the lack of sadness and long conversations unappealing.The romantics will find the romance lacking and will be surprised by the absence of good looking people.The big end is actually not that big, nor that funny, nor that profound.The only people who will come out happy will be the festival lovers who will bask in the boredom and find meaning the meaningless scenes.There were positives to the movie though.Even though I don't have the superior intellect (or the drive to be different) like the festival fanatics I like movies that let you infer what the scene has to say and not have everything in black and white. This movie has a few good scenes and events that are left unexplained and it left up-to us to infer what we can.(this positive is negated by the sheer number of such scenes, and the presence of explaining scenes when none were required).This movie will not draw many laughs but has loads of smiles. The only genuinely funny scene that I found was the coffee scenes.The thing is the smiles and the almost good ending (cannot even be compared to the classics) ensure that you actually complete this movie on a higher note but even then this did not rise above the lower expectations that i had.In all a thoroughly ordinary film whose rating will be popped up by the drama and festival film lovers who will die before they say anything bad about a movie thats as boring and dry as this can be.Still I'm sure that there is a market for such films, I cannot venture to guess who they are but the rating show that this market has been reached.Wouldn't recommend it for anybody who likes commercial cinema, even lovers of big budget drama (say a million dollar baby or Gay Mountain) would best stay away from this film.-s loads of boring and meaningless scenes, not really much in it for anybody.+/-s loads of unexplained scenes, very dry and often morbid humour.+s loads of smiles, good ending (not worth the ride), a few really good scenes.total 4/10 (even after lowered expectations would not comment on absolute terms as I'm not the target audience for such movies).