Johnny Was (2006)

Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland to lie low in London, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of Brixton Prison, hell bent on derailing the Irish peace process with a few ... See full summary »

Director:

Mark Hammond

Writer:

Brendan Foley

Stars:

Vinnie Jones, Patrick Bergin, Eriq La Salle

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vinnie Jones	...	Johnny Doyle
Patrick Bergin	...	Flynn
Eriq La Salle	...	Julius
Samantha Mumba	...	Rita
Lennox Lewis	...	Ras
Roger Daltrey	...	Jimmy
Laurence Kinlan	...	Michael
Wilson Jermaine Heredia	...	Sparra
Mark Asante	...	Nathan
Sam Sarpong	...	Skipp
Charles Porter	...	Diggs
John Fashanu	...	DJ Fash
Colin Stewart	...	Druggie
Emma Little	...	Cafe Waitress (as Emma Lyttle)
Gerard Carlin	...	Dead Junkie

Storyline

Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland to lie low in London, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of Brixton Prison, hell bent on derailing the Irish peace process with a few well-placed bombs. Unable to escape Brixton, they are trapped together in Johnny's anything-but-safe safe house, sandwiched between a Rastafarian reggae pirate radio station upstairs and a West Indian 'Yardie' crack-dealing gangster, Julius, downstairs. As the charismatic Flynn finds common ground with the Yardies, Johnny fights to realize a peace process of his own, but makes the mistake of falling for Julius's girlfriend Rita, causing all-out war. A thriller in the vein of Lock Stock and The Long Good Friday, in which questions of race, morality, identity and loyalty play out against a great sound-track of reggae, rock, new wave and soul.

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Plot Keywords:

reggae | irish | rastafarian | gangster | cockney | 

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Taglines:

Stop running. Face the future.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, pervasive language, drug use and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Ben Katz Productions MySpace site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 July 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Johnny Was - The last Days of a Good Guy

Filming Locations:

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$4,300,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ben Katz Productions, Borderline Productions Ltd., Borderline Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lennox Lewis spent his honeymoon in Belfast filming the movie less than a week after the wedding in Jamaica.

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Goofs

In the shootout scene with the police in chapter 10, the white police Vauxhall Vectra has the registration number ATM 874L, this is a 1972 registration and the car is clearly post 2000.

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Connections

References Fantasia (1940)

User Reviews

I'd say 9 out of ten

I saw this movie in Belfast on my first trip to Ireland and I thought it was great. Wish US movies were this cool. You'd never hear reggae music like this in a Hollywood movie and I really liked the story.

I think Vinnie Jones is great in everything he does -- but he was especially good in this one. Loved him fighting with Patrick Bergin as the psycho guy who wants him to go back to being as psycho as he is.

I also really liked Lennox Lewis as the pirate DJ. He's really powerful on screen. He could be like Samuel Jackson or 50 Cent if he had more parts like this.

This wasn't like I thought it was gonna be. But I really liked it and would def check it out again on DVD.