Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The Long Good Friday (1979)

Director: John MacKenzie

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Overrated thriller, often ludicrously compared to the only superficially similar Performance. About an East End gangland leader, with plans to develop the Docklands with the help of organised crime from overseas, who sees his empire threatened with extinction after a number of disasters are inflicted on him by mysterious rivals, it certainly manages to create a more convincing and contemporarily relevant London underworld than is usually seen in movies; and there's no denying the charismatic quality of Hoskins' slightly mannerised and stereotypical characterisation of yer typical Cockney 'ood. But the gangsters' connections with Mafia, IRA, big business and so on, are paraded like the latest fashions rather than examined, and the admittedly well-constructed set pieces are all too often diminished in effect by the uninspired camera-work.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Will B said...
    Posted on Sep 27 2007 17:34 Completely agree with your review. Why this dull and badly scripted film has reached such acclaim beyond me.
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: John MacKenzie

Producer: Barry Hanson

Cast: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, Eddie Constantine, Brian Hall, Stephen Davis, Pierce Brosnan full cast

Genre(s): Gangsters

Duration: 114 mins

Related articles


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.