Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

SnoopyStyle Paul Callow (Mackenzie Crook) is a London subway train driver. After running one person after another, his co-workers tell him about a little known rule. If he kills one more person in the same month, he will get a buyout of 10 years salary and an early retirement. After the required time off, he has only one day to hit that last person. He starts looking for a willing participant. He pulls Tommy Cassidy (Colm Meaney) away from jumping off a bridge and pays him £1500 to do it in front of his train. Tommy's motto is "a deal's a deal" and he wants to swim with sharks. With the limited time, he decides to visit his estranged wife Rosemary (Imelda Staunton) and daughter Frances (Gemma Arterton) with Paul in tow.The general concept is problematic. It's not a naturally funny idea and this is not done with enough comedy to overcome it. It tries to be a black comedy while keeping Paul a good guy. It doesn't work. This could have worked with a sleazy underhanded Paul who gets his comeuppance in the end. With Paul as a good guy, I don't like the way this ends but the movie's problem is well entrenched by then. Meaney and Staunton are a good dramatic pairing but they're not that funny. Arterton comes in like a freight train but it's only a secondary character in the second half. The level of difficulty with this comedy is high and it doesn't make it.

JoeytheBrit Two strange things about this film that might be connected: first, it was marketed as a comedy but is really a drama with a few mildly funny moments, and second it has a surprisingly low rating on this site (especially considering the generally high rating given by those who have chosen to support their rating with a comment). Perhaps the low rating is a result of the mis-marketing by the film's publicity department and, considering low-budget efforts like this often live or die on the word-of-mouth generated by those prompted to watch the film by its adverts, they might do well to remember this fact in future.The story concerns the efforts of Paul (Mackenzie Crook), a tube driver who, having accidentally run over two people in a short space of time, attempts to entice a third person, would-be suicide Tommy Cassidy (Colm Meaney), into jumping under his train so that he can take advantage of the 'retirement' package of 10 years pay offered by his employers. The film does initially start off as if it is going to be one of those stultifying black comedies that believe the shock-value of its storyline precludes it from having to supply any comedy element but, once Paul has explained his plan to Tommy, it takes a different course, turning more into a sort of road movie and, although Crook enjoys more screen time, expending more effort into getting under the skin of Tommy's character.Meaney is terrific as Tommy. Crook, maybe, isn't so great, meaning that the chemistry between their characters doesn't quite develop as well as it might otherwise have done. Crook's a little too strange looking to play an everyman type, and there is no way that a girl like Frankie (Tommy's daughter, played by future Bond girl Gemma Arterton) would jump into the sack with a geeky looking guy like Paul after a couple of beers.The film doesn't really offer anything new, but it does offer a gently observant treatise about not losing sight of what are the important things in life.

churchofsunshine Way back even before this film even premiered at the cinema, the main London Underground tube drivers Union ASLEF were up in arms about this film being insensitive and that people falling under trains and suicide is not something to be laughed about. I don't know what they thought this film was about, or whether they had seen a completely different film to me, but I would struggle to class this as a comedy at all. It's a serious drama about a serious subject, and although, yes, there might be one or two chuckles here and there, this isn't an all-out comedy and never pretends to be. It's a serious look at Colm Meaney's character Tommy, his relationship with his wife and daughter and how it came to be that he is willing to throw himself in front of Mackenzie Crooks train. There is actually very little of the movie set underground at all - it soon takes on a road movie type trip through Liverpool (with a (thankfully brief) cameo by Atomic Kitten's Kerry Katona) and then onto Cumbria and the Lake District, no doubt to try and encourage movie-goers to holiday in the area.Colm Meaney is better than he ever was in Star Trek, Imelda Staunton is there because after all this is a Brit flick and it says in her contract somewhere that she must star in every new British film going, while relative newcomer Gemma Arterton (last seen in St Trinians)puts on a Scouse accent for this role and does her rising career no harm at all - the new 007 film is up next, and the girl has a promising future in front of her. Mackenzie Crook I'm not so sure about. I was never a fan of "The Office" in the first place, but he seems to do well enough here - he and Meaney make a good team, it's just a shame that nearly all the original publicity back in April 2008 was negative, focusing mainly on the objections of the ASLEF union to a film that they had obviously not seen. Agreed, deaths under the wheels of trains aren't funny - I've researched my family tree and one distant relative did die this way and the inquest report makes for grim reading - I've no doubt that this is a very traumatic experience for any driver unlucky enough to hit and kill someone and no laughing matter - but then this film is no laughing matter either. It deals with a sensitive subject matter very well. I don't really see what all the fuss was about. I'd have thought the average IMDb score would be a lot better than it is currently. Ignore all the newspaper stories and judge for yourself. If any film deserves a second chance it is this one - surely a contender for the best British film of 2008.

postmanvendetta First of all it is not a comedy as the adverts would have you think. There are some elements of comedy but first and foremost this is most definitely a drama and not one about tube drivers. It is a drama about the right to aid suicide and there are some really touching moments in this film, especially just before the ending. I wouldn't say the acting was wonderful but despite it's cloudy script the actors give a solid performance and despite being a bit of a dick, i really did feel for Colm Meaneys character. I went into the this movie expecting to laugh, I didn't much, it depressed me, but whether that was the movies intentions is beyond me. My advice rent it on DVD with an open mind you will find some clear gold amongst the ambiguity.YNWA.