Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Benedito Dias Rodrigues I has to confess that l didn't like when the cinema glorofying bad persons of our history,it's certanly make them actually a kind of hero for many young generation ,but as form of study of personality is helpful,this infamous thief and his gang was magnificently portraited by the great Boorman as always in old days style and more made a true gem of the real picture mean to be,but great crooks don't has a long life and them left us for good....so fast they are replaced!!!Resume:First watch: 1999 / How many: 2 / Source: Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 8.25

TheUnknown837-1 Like with any movie genre, there are good gangster movies and there are bad gangster movies. If you asked me to name a good gangster movie, I'd have dozens to choose from. If you asked me to name a bad gangster movie, probably the first one to pop up in my mind is one that still has me in a sort of depression of disappointment about a week since I saw the film for the first and I promise you, the last time. That film is "The General", unrelated to the 1926 silent film of the same name. This is a very dry, very slow gangster epic that raises questions not about the story (it's more than easy to follow) but about why the filmmakers chose to make this rather flimsy endeavor.Like "Goodfellas" (1990) and "American Gangster" (2007)—two superior mob movies—"The General" is based on real people and true events. The film revolves around an Irish criminal named Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) who started his long chain of crimes stealing food as a teenager and then moving up to robbing museums and houses as an adult. Meanwhile, the police led by an inspector named Kenny (Jon Voight) try desperately and vigorously to prove just one of his crimes and convict (or kill) him.Perhaps because it's a film in the same category as the marvelous "Goodfellas" (1990) and the first two "Godfather" films, I was expecting too much from "The General." But that may be going too easy on it. This would have been a bad film had I not seen the aforementioned masterpieces before being swamped by boredom in this oater and its far-too-stretched running time of screaming bad scenes. Let's start knocking the film by just looking at the style in which it is presented. For some reason, director John Boorman and cinematographer Seamus Deasy selected to film this movie in black-and-white while its style and presentation are clearly the elements that belong to a full-fledged color film. Now I have nothing against b/w pictures, not even ones made in modern-day times. "Schindler's List" (1993) was more than ninety percent filmed in black-and-white and it's a masterpiece. "The General", made just five years after "Schindler's List" is not. The cinematography is also far too blown out with high lighting keys that seem very distracting and give the movie a very video-game-like quality that I found simply annoying. The filmmakers were obviously going for a realist's documentary-like style, like "Schindler's List" did, but they fail by making it seem too much like a documentary and at the same time, too much like a classic-style motion picture. Performances in the film range from passable to poor. Brendan Gleeson and Jon Voight gave decent enthusiasm for their roles, but it seemed to me at times that even they were getting kind of run down by the awful screenplay from which they were quoting. The sound design is also very primitive, probably in an attempt to give it a 40s crime-noir appeal, but that also fails because again, it's made too much like a contemporary picture and seems vastly out of place.But the worst thing that occurs is that there's not one—not one—character in the film that I felt any emotions or opinions for. In fact, for every moment of every scene, the only thought going through my head was "okay…so what?" Moments that in a better film might come across as shocking or appalling are just dull and time-consuming here. I did not sympathize or hate the Brendan Gleeson character because the way the Cahill character is written is simply flat and dull. Gleeson just plays the common criminal and does not strike out with the impact the real Martin Cahill obviously did. If a character is killed off (as they always are in gangster films), we feel nothing. No remorse, no relief, no surprise, nothing. We just say "so what?" And that's all I did during the entire running time of this very flimsy, very poorly-made crime film.

Lee Eisenberg In the first few minutes of "The General", it may throw you off and make you think that you already know the ending. But it turns out that John Boorman has a fine plot in store. The film shows how Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) not only had to deal with the English occupation, but with the police in his native Ireland. And clearly, when you see his background, it's clear that he wasn't going to be a "model citizen". Cahill, like any other person, was a product of the society that created him. And it led to a very good biopic.I certainly recommend this movie. You have to be patient with it, just to let the characters develop, but it's certainly an enjoyable film. Also starring Jon Voight.

drxym This is a great film, but I should warn people who are watching this on DVD that some versions ship with a black and white on one side and a colour version on the other.Do not watch the colour version! For some reason this version has different dialogue (and possibly editing) particularly with regards to swearing - freaking replaces f**king etc. I don't know why this is so but maybe the movie was watered down to get some lesser rating. Whatever the reason, watch the black and white version and see the movie as it was meant to be seen.