Kings (2007)

Boring, long, and too preachy.

Better Late Then Never

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An excellent movie and very unusual in that it is almost entirely 'as gaeilge'. Colm Meaney is the most recognizable actor involved, well for non Irish people he will be anyway, but the supporting cast is equally strong.Having lived in England for a while in the 1990's myself I could readily identify with the constant nagging doubts as to whether they could make a go of it back home or not - if only they had the courage to give it a try.This movie is obviously intensely 'Irish' but it's message could apply to any foreigners anywhere.

I love any good Irish film and really want to see this. When I first saw the writeup on a few different sites I decided to look into it before I got the movie. And after reading everyones comments Im even more confused. Im guessing the movie is not spoken in English? I've always thought the Irish spoke English with an Irish accent. However, everyone's comments say differently. To make this even more confusing, someone commented that they wanted the movie spoken in Irish and not English. Yet they wrote there comment in English.... IM CONFUSED.Could someone clarify if this is in fact English with an Irish accent or is there some language I don't know about. Also if it is not spoken in English, could someone verify if the "English version" of the movie has an alternate title here in the US.Thank you

Saw this at the Stony Brook Film Festival last night and was amazed to find (a) a nearly full house and (b) the audience got it. As an Irishman who lived in London in the 1960's I am well aware of the characters and their sad, difficult lives. (The years were a bit off as the film claimed they emigrated in 1977 - more like 10 years earlier). I had also seen the play it was based on "The Kings of the Kilburn High Road" a few years back. The play, if I recall correctly, is set entirely in the back room of the bar. The acting is first rate and while most of the dialogue is in Irish, with subtitles, it really works. This was a strange experience, to see a film about Irishmen and needing subtitles to understand everything being said. Not surprisingly, Colm Meaney lends heft to the film and the part of Joe. He always does. Well worth seeing although I wonder who the audience is for such a film? There are thousands of Irishmen still in England who lived lives like these poor unfortunates.

So I was expecting more than I got. Workman like but not the best of Irish cinema.I would agree that the best performance was by 'Git' by a long chalk. In the roles Jap and Joe I wonder how it would have played with actors swapped.I had not been aware it was an adapted play but it was painfully obvious as the film crept on.I was most unimpressed with the camera jittery work in the back bar room scene. I can't believe the director etc. don't suffer in extremis each time they see it. That is not is say the rest of the camera work was bad it was fine.Surely only the Irish could have such nice clean alcoholics. Jap gingerly sprawling in an alleyway whilst remarkably sober was most gentil. Such a clean well shaven drunk, it is a wonder the polis didn't ask if they would like their chauffeur alerted, to take them home. Did they really take umpteen hours to drink a 2 litre bottle of cider and they stayed drunk? We must be told the name of this potent brew! As for the conga line of "get your shirts off lads and let's bond" and let's sing a good old rebel song (for of course all oirish are rebels even after 30 yrs in England-shure they're only lads at heart). As they dance through the pub and out into the street with not a comment from anyone in the pub, well it is all so believable. Then the dapper Jap puts his shirt on again now he has bonded.Of course the Oirish screen writers gave it an award.The film had it's moments of poignancy and truth but they were sacrificed to the altar/stage of Irish caricatures. Not too far really from the semtex toting/Irish (extracted?) dancing thug of 'Shameless' played by Sean Gilder. But with Shameless we know where the writer is coming from and we are both entertained and educated by the revelations of human life. King's does not have the often delicate touch of life seen in shameless.The director struggled with the script and its adaptation for screen. He lost the intimacy that drink brings and the very dark humour we Irish have in abundance. Standing around in an empty room was not good cinema.Was it awful, No. Would I watch it again, never.