Angel Details

What a waste of time

Sorry, I sat there and tried to watch this film, but when I woke up half an hour later I knew I was wasting my time.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Neil Jordan's exciting debut

Neil Jordan has gone on to a pretty successful trot through a number of different genres and styles of movie-making, but he always seems happiest working in off-beat thrillers with Stephen Rea. This is where it all started, a grim, grimy, semi-surreal inquisition into Protestant criminality in South Armagh during an early eighties apparently obsessed with money and 'look' (check out those shiny pink suits). In fact, it's the same old same old in the province, with casual murder still the order of the day, and no justice except that which you are able to take for yourself. So Rea swaps his sax for an armalite and plays a different tune. Chris Menges' down'n'dirty cinematography, illuminated by pools of bright, electric light contributes to the overall atmosphere; the plot might have more holes than a sieve, and the acting lacks bite, but this is a good little film, sending echoes of itself through almost every other film since about the Troubles.