Route Irish (2011)

Don't Believe the Hype

A lot of fun.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Just adding my balance to the reviews here. The acting does stand out as being particularly off in points, as you can see some of the actors eyes searching in the back of their heads trying to remember their lines as though they had received the script that morning. The story was hard to follow and unconvincing as a reason for a conspiracy. On the plus side, it did have potential, however potential is not any use to a finished product. I have to agree with another reviewer who suggested that Hollywood would have done a better job of it...and THAT really pains me to say as I do love British films mainly for that exact reason that we tend to make more subtle realistic action which makes it more believable and therefore more thrilling by its realism instead of impossible stunts (read Mission Impossible and anything by jon woo)

What an utter pile of drivel.Ken Loach can be quite on the edge at times, love him or loathe him, whatever.This movie IS NOT KEN LOACH - he must have been out in some bar somewhere swigging ale when this was spat out.The acting is terrible, but can in some respects be forgiven because of the atrocious script, whoever wrote this drivel should have their hands cut off.Sorry, but this has to be one of the biggest let downs this year, I expected something interesting, all I got was boring boring "Stereotyped " Scousers who were portrayed as usual as THICK, trying to speak English as if they had all been to Cambridge! - It doesn't work Ken - That kind of crap went out in the 1980's along with your excuses - Margaret Thatcher! Not for me!

Many movies are political but just a few directors are as consciously political film-maker like Ken Loach. This work hasn't got a clear left-wing agenda like others but it's his point on the Iraki war and handles subjects discussed upon many occasions, such as the exploitation of the unemployed and war crimes. Aside from the original (in Loach's films) issue, Route Irish is a characteristic production of this director and has many grim sequences. There are also very good acting performances that keep pace with the progress of the story. The conclusion is shocking but on the whole the film is a didactic and angry thriller, in the typical style of the social realist Loach.

I almost don't want to be too honest about Ken Loach's latest. He is a national treasure after all. But then I remember what my job here is. 'Route Irish' is different from any other Loach film I've seen. Half the story is set in Iraq (Jordan), and uses techniques more typical of a Blockbuster. Route Irish was, during the Iraq war, believed to be quite literally the most dangerous road in the world, where suicide bombings, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and other nasties were commonplace. Disbelieving that his best friend and army buddy, Frankie (comedian John Bishop) was KIA, Liverpudlian Fergus (Mark Womack) vows to get to the truth. Frankie, says Fergus, 'was born lucky'. If you can forgive this soupçon of implausibility from which the story emanates, you can enjoy (parts of) the film.Twenty-four hour news makes us immune to the carnage of war. We tuck into our cornflakes while yawning at Apocalypse Now-style footage. Here, Ken Loach personalises war. He's always used film as a political medium to mirror his Left-leaning views. But there's a distinctly pluralistic advocacy on display in this film. Iraqis are at once sympathised with and blamed. The role of a soldier is both defended and upbraided. And the use of private contractors in the 'war on terror' is equally shielded and condemned. The only bits that are worthy of Loach are the scenes of tension, for instance when Fergus explains to Rachel (Frankie's partner) that of course Frankie played around: 'Every day out there (Iraq) could be the last – how can you go from that to shopping at Tesco?'. For such a kindly codger, Loach has quite a tolerance for profanity. The 'f' word doesn't bother me, but it's overdoing it a bit when you put the likes of Tarantino to shame. As the peerless critic Roger Ebert said of another film, 'profanity is used as punctuation'. Strangely, a full-on waterboarding torture scene has no more terror than an exploding party popper. Clearly not destined to bother the Russian roulette scene from 'The Deer Hunter'. It's in tune with the general tone of the film: big ambitions, too little follow-through.Various technical points distracted me from an otherwise half-decent melodrama. Fergus casually lets slip that he's ex-SAS. That would imply he's a man of considerable resourcefulness. So why can't he himself extract video clips from Frankie's primitive mobile phone to establish how he died? And why does he need to conduct online conference calls to amateurs for information? What's stopping him from Andy McNabbing his own way into Iraq? www.scottishreview.net