Between the Canals (2011) User Reviews

Enjoyable, shameless copy

[colin-johnson150 · 7/10 · 3 April 2013]

I watched this film before reading any reviews, and was immediately suspicious after the first set piece of Jonny and the dustbin.

The main character made an enviable mirror image and obviously studied the Jonny from Meanstreets Character in detail.

The film I think would have reaped benefits from a more subtle influence rather than a direct ape.

The main Character in particular compels empathy, and the bleak environment will seem all too familiar to UK Towns and Cities not just Irish.

The dialect is difficult to comprehend at times, but is authentic and worth the effort to understand.

All the same, I found the film compelling and enjoyed the characters.

Cringey and no plot, but a decent film.

[rochfordsimon · 5/10 · 3 May 2020]

This is Barry Keoghan's first film and Peter Coogans early days. Hes the staple of the film. Bad acting overall, but lots of the cast were not actors and inner city locals. So I assume director was going for realism.

Its basically a day in the life of several Dublin north inner city scumbags. Messy story but most of the dialogue is genuine of the characters.

Children Please

[boykinb · 1/10 · 18 November 2012]

This....'movie'...was recommended to me by a friend. I wanted to like it, I really did. A young director trying to do something authentic....this was said to be Mean Streets with a Tarantino twist. This is film making of the poorest level, its simply drivel.The writer/director Mark O Connor substitutes character development with the idea that calling your embarrassingly amateur cast names like Limbo and Foot and Mouth can somehow make this 90 minutes of torture seem raw and powerful....this is a truly terrible...film..for the want of a better word. Its on youtube in its awful entirety because it, thankfully, never made it to mainstream distribution....the one positive of this sorry mess.

It started off OK

[missismiggins · 3/10 · 7 April 2013]

It actually could have been a half decent movie if it had actually gone with what it started with.

Instead after about 1 hour it turned to the usual ridiculous RUBBISH we see about Ireland.

Who makes this rubbish? are they self bent on portraying the Irish as STUPID violent drunks?

It isn't "Trainspotting" that was done 30 years ago, it lacks originality, it lacks quality, it could have been so much more but the t@at that put it together seemed hell bent on trying to make the Irish look like some sort of trendy Gangster types, in the end he portrayed them as nothing more than drunken retards!

Shame, a possibly good movie ruined by a twonk that wanted to pay some sad sort of "Homage" to better movies from 30 years ago!

Terrible

[brendan-docherty-546-335272 · 1/10 · 4 December 2012]

I Love Irish films and TV shows but my good this is awful, the acting is so bad Fair City looks like the Sopranos and the Script has no meaning, I am sorry but that is 88mins of my life i will never get back. I would love to say something positive maybe Peter Coonan (Fran in Love/Hate) is not the worst and plays a really bad role quiet well. sorry guys just not worth watching. with the success of love/hate its a good subject idea but i just think the Script is very weak, the acting is so below par its cringe to watch it has not context and really no plot at all. Hopefully who ever the director was he can try again and come up with a successful movie but i am sorry to say this is a complete flop.

Watch this film

[motivator52 · 8/10 · 19 March 2011]

Well i've been a big contributor to the IMDb forum for a few years now and finally i get to comment on a film directed by my brother Mark.

I may be a little biased but Mark has done a great job here, it's very gritty and realistic - it makes the commercial 'gangster' films like the general and intermission seem real artificial because you can tell with those films that they are actors.

Mark used almost all non-actors who lived in those areas of the inner city we rarely see on the big screen. Mark's film entered the IFI cinema in Dublin two days ago and it will run for another 5 days.

It will then be decided if it moves to the multiplexes. Check it out, it's great.

Where are the subs?,

[LOL101LOL · 1/10 · 15 September 2013]

I really tried watching this, but I could not understand most of the dialect, sure the swear words sounded like English, but most times it sounded like I was watching a foreign film. sort of sounded like the Swedish chef from the Muppet Show! But not funny at all.

It really needed English sub titles, as I lost what this mess of film was all about with in 5 minutes! But if you like watching a bunch of toothless not so pleasing to eye want to be actors, and don't forget that drink before hand then yeah I could see the appeal if you were Irish.

Do your self a favor, do get that whiskey, but don't waste your time and money on this paddy film.

A solid 1 out of 10!

Was This Directed By Alan Patridge ?

[Theo Robertson · 3/10 · 3 January 2017]

One of the funniest pieces of television ever produced was the episode of I'M ALAN PARTRIDGE where the title character is networking with a couple of Irish TV producers and Patridge is convinced they're members of the IRA because that's what Ireland is famous for along with every stereotype of the Emerald Isle . Watching BETWEEN THE CANALS one gets the impression it was directed by Alan Partridge

Should I be honest or should I be politically correct ? Well I am the sort of guy who says things like "I didn't recognise you with your clothes on" to a female colleague at work only to find her boyfriend is sitting just outside of earshot in her car so I'll just revert to type You see this is very small budget film making and is no doubt a labour of love and I don't want to hurt anyones feelings so if you worked on this film and don't like honesty then stop reading at this point please

From the opening titles every cliché is dug up quicker than an Irish potato field . Michael Collins , black and tans , slums etc etc appear in a photo montage and that gives a hint we're going to be watching the oxymoron of "stereotypical realism" . Stereotypical in that all Dubliners are likable rascals who enjoy a drink interspersed with the occasional gangland murder and realism in that the acting style is mainly down to adlibbing by people who couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag . This technique never really works and is a distraction . Somewhat fortunate then that there's little in the way of substance to distract this audience member from what's happening on screen . The story is very weak and with the exception of the F and C words I couldn't make out a word that was being spoken

Apologies if I've hurt any feelings with my brutal honesty but if it's any consolation I look forward to a sequel which will no doubt be called MONKEY TENNIS

A gift to watch

[jimlawlor100 · 8/10 · 14 March 2013]

As a Dubliner living away from home now for over 20 years, it is a great joy to watch such a realistic film of what its really like living in inner city Dublin and what the people are like with all the Irish talk, great characters.

To the director and others involved in the movie I say well done and thanks for this gift. Foreigners wont get it and Irish living at home wont appreciate its realism as they are used to it. Only when you leave home, and miss it, can you appreciate just how great this film is. It had me laughing many times and would recommend it to anyone that wants to see real Dublin

An excellent film

[david-booth3 · 10/10 · 13 March 2013]

The characters were established early in the film and the acting, I thought, was superb, a few of the young children were clearly aware of the camera, but the acting was a million miles from wooden. Some of the devices and sub plots from TV shows like The Wire are kind of inevitable when the movie is dealing with a similar sub-culture. Although I am an English speaker who is fairly used to Irish accents, I found, not the accent, but the vocabulary and expressions of the protagonists quite hard to follow.

The story was well written and although it had a limited narrative,it was, almost like a documentary, able to describe the community quickly and the main players were put into context simply by showing authority and deference,a nice touch. There is an inevitability about this type of tale and most of tension comes from waiting to see how and who is responsible for the denouement. I will have to watch it a few more times to follow the dialogue but as I love Irish films, for me, it will be an investment worth making.

Fantastic micro budget Irish crime drama

[woodenchin · 10/10 · 16 January 2014]

Fantastic micro-budget Irish crime drama. Shockingly low IMDb rating, especially in contrast to its positive reviews. I guess the film-going public are STUPID (or don't understand the thick Irish accents, in all likelihood). 'Mean Streets' comparisons are apt in its depiction of working-class best friends tied up in petty crime, and the conflict of interest that begins to develop between them. It takes a turn for the weird with the introduction of a bisexual Nigerian drug dealer with a sword.

However, its financial limitations show in the film's length of an hour and twelve minutes, credits included, as is a musical montage of pictures of Irish people. However, it's brilliant what Mark O'Connor did with so little. Review by Jack from Letterboxed