Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It's now impossible to imagine anyone other than Robbie Coltrane as the rather eccentric psychologist Fitz. With his comedy background, Coltrane provided sporadic humorous moments throughout an otherwise bleak but compelling show. The supporting cast were great too, particularly Somerville and Eccleston. Jimmy McGovern's absence can be felt around the third series, (especially in Best Boys, though it's still a good piece of TV in its own right) but along with all previous series of the show, maintains the right pacing and excellent performances. I may have only discovered this show within the last number of years, but I have no regrets. It was bold, unique, even controversial at times, but all the better for it. Cracker rightly holds its place as a classic in television history. They don't make them like they used to.

Jimmy McGovern is a genius. This - and "The Lakes" - proves it. Combine his layered and authentic writing with a perfectly chosen cast and it's impossible to stumble. His dialogue has a rhythm that acts as the pulse of the story, driving it relentlessly forward until you're on the edge of your seat in anticipation, waiting for the resolution.Perfectly matching this level of intensity is the lead actor of the series, Robbie Coltrane. Fitz is the man who together the duo help bring so vividly to life, and he's a mass of contradictions. The morbid curiosity of whether he'll manage to sort out his personal problems is as involving as the intricately detailed cases he studies during working hours.I'm pleased that some of the notable cast have continued their streak of excellence beyond this program, my only wish is that Mr. Coltrane be given more opportunity to flaunt his astonishing dramatic credentials.I promise you, you won't find a tauter and more finely tuned procedural series on TV.

After reading everyone's comments, I felt the need to add my own. This is one of my all time favorite shows. I explained to my mother why she didn't "get" British television. She watched an episode of Cracker with me and just didn't get it. My explanation: Unlike most American shows, you have to pay attention to British shows. They require the use of your brain. I love the character of Fitz and doubt anyone but Robbie Coltrane could have done the role justice. Most American TV is crap. I read a lot, usually with the TV playing in the background and have no trouble keeping up with whatever drivel is on. When one of the inspectors was killed on the show, I felt as if I'd lost a friend. How I long for the days when A&E broadcast decent shows like this one. This was one of the first series I purchased on DVD. I only wish there were more.

We've had the whodunnit and even the howdunnit but Cracker is something else - its the definitive whydunnit, a superb cocktail of wit,grit and human frailty, perfectly pitched and performed - in short: It's marvellous. If you've never seen it (and this is something you should rectify immediately) the 'cracker' of the title is no less than 19 stone of chain smoking, hard drinking, gambling addicted psychologist whose skills become invaluable to the Manchester police. This set up is established in the opening story 'the mad woman in the attic' in which Fitz (Coltrane) offer's his help to the police when one of his students becomes the latest victim of brutal murderer. The train based killing set-up is based on a real murder that took place on route to London in the early 90's and it's this borrowing from the headlines that gives the series it's sense of reality, often making for uncomfortable viewing. McGovern's character's are never allowed to stand still - they have real emotional and psychological density and the fallout from events in one story (and they're are many particularly in the first two series) are carried through into the next. Fitz is perversely selfish and flawed but is also in possession of penetrative intellect and cutting wit which makes both his domestic scenes in which he attempts to reconcile himself with the wishes of his long suffering wife Judith and the inevitable showdowns with his criminal adversaries equally captivating. It's the later you look forward to the most but there's also a terrific supporting cast to enjoy including Christopher Eccleston, Geraldine Sommrevile and the superb Ricky Tomlinson. It would be unfair to new viewers to spoil the intricate layers of each story by going into them too deeply, simply to say that Cracker was and is occasionally gruelling, always challenging television, the uniquely British sensibility of which lends it a weight (no pun on Robbie Coltrane intended) that would be impossible to replicate elsewhere. McGovern, if you had to lay one criticism at his door, tends to underwrite or caricature middle class characters but when writing about what he knows he's unbeatable. Those Cracker stories not penned by him tend not to have quite as much impact though Ted Whitehead's the Big Crunch has some memorable exchanges between Fitz and arrogant sect leader Kenneth Trant but Paul Abbot's stories, though good, aren't a patch on McGovern's best perhaps betraying his relative lack of experience in the genre at the time. This is all mere nick-picking though; Cracker is superb stuff and if you don't think so then you genuinely need to see a psychologist.