Harrigan (2013)

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I was impressed with Tompkinson in the lead role and think he carried the film almost single- handedly, although I would also give a special mention to the Acting Chief of police character. It was a shame he didn't have more scenes because he and Tompkinson worked well together.I found the script overly clichéd. Also, it felt like it was missing half an hour's worth of introduction -the allusions of histories between the characters was far too esoteric, to the point that I hardly cared and just had to accept that 'something happened'. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but the production had more of the feel of a play rather than a film. If I were to dwell on the nine-foot man's second appearance (those of you who have seen it will know what I'm referring to) then I'd probably knock off another star.

Except it isn't. And it never was. Life up north in the 1970s -- and especially, England's Northeast -- was nothing like the monochrome wasteland presented here. Nor was policing like this, either, despite the protestations of those connected with this low-rent low-budget outing.Absent its premise, therefore, of hard men in hard times in hard places, "Harrigan" is no more than a straight-to-video made-for-TV affair, its simplicities of plot and characterisation conveyed via clichés so stupefyingly banal that one positively yearns for the raw energy of yesteryear's Caine and Hodges in the same part of the world at the same time as this."Harrigan" doesn't convince at any level. Stephen Tompkinson has already had a stab at playing a TV policeman -- the leaden "DCI Banks" -- and failed utterly in that role, so why he's here essaying the same kind of grim teeth-gritted stoicism all over again is baffling.About the only thing that does ring true is the way "Harrigan" -- too close to Don Siegel's "Madigan" for my liking, though it's doubtful anyone involved in this British production will even have heard of that superb US police procedural -- seems to have been shot on a budget typical of a 1970s British TV show.But that doesn't redeem anything. Unrelentingly drab, dismal, and derivative of a thousand B-Movies that have gone before -- including Westerns as well as copper operas -- "Harrigan" is yet another example, were such needed, of how small-scale British movie making is today incapable of working the crime genre in the way that films like "Violent Playground" and "Never Let Go" did, half a century and more ago.Still, at least there's some originality in the write-in campaign that seems to be underway where this comment thread is concerned -- a case for investigation by Detective Harrigan, perhaps? Or IMDb itself . .

On viewing this film you have to take into account thats it is an Indi production with a first time Director Vince Woods and entirely funded by individuals including lead cast then you watch the film and ask how did they make a period seventies film with riots and action scenes with such little resource. Had this been a French made film it would already have had awards . It is an unbelievably impressive film dark gritty and rough in the art of film making a real gem. Stephen Tompkinson takes the lead role in an untypical hard faced character that is very different to his recent TV roles but with support from Craig Conway as the disgusting paedophile criminal opposite its easy to take sides for the good and sit on the edge of your seat while the battle for control of the Newcastle streets between these two characters unfolds. I predict at least cult status for this violent and dark piece of policing history.

Don't believe the ten star ratings. This is poor. Very poor.Depressingly bad script, poor performances and visuals devoid of any soul.Not sure how the producers managed to pour 1.3m into this steaming pile of doggy doo but someone, somewhere must be laughing their socks off.Even by low TV movie standards this is terrible.Stephen Tomlinson is no movie star and he proves it in what amounts to a dull, plodding and brow furrowed non performance. The rest of the cast from the evil pedophile and his crew to the rest of the depressingly familiar, seen a million times, figures that pop up are non-entities.Harrigan is boring, depressing and instantly forgettable Another nail in the coffin of independent British film.