The General Review

Reviews

Aug 14th 2006 By Total Film

Yes, it’s great to finally have a shiny DVD copy of John Boorman’s mischievous biopic of Irish master-criminal Martin Cahill. The big question to be asked, however, is “Where the hell are the extras?”, as all you get on this belated release is the sodding movie and nothing more. No Making Of with Boorman explaining why he decided to go black-and-white rather than colour. No commentary where you might get to hear the director wince every time Jon Voight (playing a Belfast copper) mars an otherwise impeccable film with his leprechaun Oirish accent. No input at all from Brendan Gleeson – chubby and charismatic as the cheeky foul-mouthed armed robber en route to Robin Hood status – on the performance that made his career. Oh well, perhaps he was too busy livening up Hollywood epics with his trademark hairy-faced cameos... If you’ve already got this on video, there’s precious little reason to upgrade, other than the obvious sound/picture improvements.