No Saints for Sinners (2011)

Best movie of this year hands down!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Despite a promising first half No Saints for Sinners runs out of steam in the final half hour. The film tells the story of a member of the IRA (Mickey) who goes on the run(ending up in Los Angeles) after shooting one of his comrades while on a mission to retrieve some stolen drugs. Mickey is disillusioned with the movement for becoming involved solely in criminality (unlike the former days of both criminality and fighting the British). Like a lot of criminals his character is a paradox. He appears to have a conscious but it is wrapped up in his own sense of right. The man he shoots (Mercer) has no such compunction.The movie also has a certain inevitability about it - falling in with his new girlfriends seedy brother he gets sucked into helping the brother out of a predicament involving - you guessed it - drugs. As the story unfolds there is good character development and the story takes a predictable but believable arc. When the attempt is made to sell the narcotics to a Chinese buyer the film unravels as the scene is played with semi comedy mixed with violence. Then the inevitability kicks in as Mickeys past catches up with him.The direction is OK for such a low budget effort - if you really want to see bad camera work watch A Horrible Way to Die - believe me No Saints for Sinners was not that bad. The lead actor was born in Belfast- his accent and that of the Mercer character are wholly authentic.

A solid Saturday afternoon film. Nothing Oscar worthy here, but 90mins of mindless movie fun.Mainly about a IRA guy who gets in trouble in Belfast then must flee to Los Angeles (odd place, but that's where the producers live I guess) Once in LA he tries to begin a new life, only to pick up where he left off. Living the way of the gun. It catches up with him, along with his past. The film has great characters, we meet a lot of interesting LA drug lords, not very typical ones either. From a black flower shop owner (Keith David) who is one of my favorite actors BTW to a Chinese restaurant owner to Mexican thugs. The lead Mickey who was amazing has to deal with all these cats. The leading lady was OK, could of been hotter. And the brother Jimmy was kind of annoying. But I guess he is suppose to be. The tone went from realistic to hyper real, the film was stylized nicely. The director chose the rights shots and fished some great performances.

You can tell they didn't have the budget of major Hollywood action films, but they seemed to make up for it with clever dialog, rich characters, and good solid action. Mickey gets in trouble in Belfast, and now is forced to run from his IRA past. BTW the modern day IRA seems more like thugs and gangsters then freedom fighters. This is an interesting concept, one I wish the film focused on, but instead used it as a setup rather then a main story line. A bad choice, but I'll rate the film on what it is, not what I wished it was. Once Mickey lands in LA (his new hideout) he begins life. But winds up with a gun back in his hand. This symbolic tool opens the flood gates to the pain and furry Mickey tried to escape back home. A great line in the film "Live by the gun, die by the bullet" I thought the performances where fantastic. The bartender, and leading lady where a bit soft in spots, but the other cast members where great. Ritter was riot, and the Chinese dude was incredible. Lead was amazing. The look was gritty and raw, cool shots and moody lighting. Direction seemed spot on.

For a low budget production this seemed to do a decent job. It wasn't the greatest but it was plausible. The start of the movie was very strong and had me pumped. It was intense and felt like the rest of the movie was going to continue that way however, I was wrong and the intensity stopped there and it became more of a slow paced action movie. The actors are not well known but most of them did a good job. Directing was appalling. The shaky cam, dull close shots etc. If the directing was better this would could have been much better. The soundtrack choices were suitable for each scene and it seemed well placed. One thing that really bothered me was the accents. I am not an expert on Irish accents but it didn't feel right and seemed like the actors were trying a "wii" bit hard. Not a movie you will likely to remember or want to see again. I wouldn't advise anyone to watch this movie as I found nothing unique or worth watching.