The Long Good Friday (1982)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Years before the flashy show-off antics of LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS came along, The Long Good Friday showed everyone how it was done - this classic movie easily beats GET CARTER into the top spot of "best British gangster movie ever made". Set over the course of a gruelling 48 hours, The Long Good Friday is an often tense, theatrical, and suspenseful thriller with an unusual plot - gangster Harold must turn detective, using his unorthodox methods, to discover who is responsible for a sudden campaign of violence against him. His methods include slashing up a well-known grass, hanging up suspects in an abattoir along with the carcasses, and committing unreasonable violence to all and sundry. The gangster is played by the one and only Bob Hoskins.Now, I know a lot of people will not be convinced by the authenticity of Hoskins - probably best known to American audiences for his role in WHO KILLED ROGER RABBIT? - playing an East End gangster, but his role is a tour de force here and one he has not matched since. Hoskins creates a violent and unpleasant little man, but is never anything less than likable throughout - you come to sympathise with, and care for his character. Hoskins' superb acting - especially the well-remembered ending in the taxi, where he goes through 360 degrees of emotions using his facial expressions only - is something to behold and holds the film together throughout. On top of this, the excellent cast includes Helen Mirren as his long-suffering wife, a good supporting role from Derek Thompson (BBC1's mild-manned "Charlie" in CASUALTY) who is involved in the film's nastiest scene worthy of a video nasty, P.H. Moriarty as the imposing right-hand man Razors, and a cast seemingly populated by actors and actresses that would go on to achieve fame in later years (Gillian Taylforth, Dexter Fletcher, Paul Barber, Pierce Brosnan).The movie has some spectacular set-pieces, usually involving exploding buildings which come as big surprises, as well as my favourite unexpected moment when two men are gunned out of a glass window on to a race track below. For the most part, the film is a detective story with tons of tension as time ticks down, and you can't keep your eyes off the screen. The last half an hour gives the opportunity for Hoskins to become king of the world, but you know it won't be long before it all comes crashing down for the offbeat and daring conclusion. A true classic, worth watching by all and sundry, this has a superb script full of genuinely witty humour, and a story and characters epic enough to make it feel like a Shakespearian tragedy.

British gangster movies can be a little predictable. What keeps them alive is how well the lead is and how interesting the plot unfolds. This film accomplishes both excellently. This is one of the rare movies where you learn what's the major issue along with the main character and this is a good 45 minutes into it at least.The film opens with a lengthy sequence of scenes strung together by Francis Monkman's excellent score. While no one is speaking, you are following things because they are moving quickly. These events are not explained to us though. We simply see them. I won't describe them except to say, it's this sequence that the viewer learns the meaning of along with Bob Hoskins' Harold Shand who is introduced immediately following it.Shand arrives home from an undisclosed location but you can assume it wherever he was, it was a major success for him and his organization. He has plans to expand his organization but he needs further financial assistance by American gangsters who he meets on Good Friday. Without knowing anything about what's happening, people in his employ are being brutally murdered. He launches an investigation and needless to say, things are a surprise to him.What makes this film interesting is Bob Hoskins' portrayal of Harold Shand. You learn all about the type of man he is, the type of character he always had and most importantly, how he got to be as powerful as he became. You learn the value of Helen Mirren's Victoria (Shand's wife). If nothing else, she stabilizes his inner reactionary rage. I imagine Shand fell back on her channeling him more than a few times in order to get to where he is in the story.The story is somewhat dated but it's dated like the movie War Games was. The then news headlines played a heavy role in the events in the story. In War Games it was the panic of an all out nuclear war between the US and USSR many were assuming was inevitable in the early 80's. In The Long Good Friday, it was something else entirely but no less important to what the landscape of London looked like in the late 70's and early 80's A young Pierce Brosnan has a dialog free role but no less important to the story. Paul Freeman also has no spoken word role in the story but he also is vital to how the story unfolds.On the whole, this is a movie that comes off as an experiment that really works well. All of the aspects of a good crime/action movie are here but they are presented in a different way, with a different story and with explosive, at times highly disturbing results. Truly worth seeing.

This film is very highly rated by many critics and also by audiences. But unfortunately, the film failed to meet the hype and my expectations from it. Along with being a gangster film, it also has some political aspects related to the IRA. It started out well in a mysterious sort of way and the plot did not get revealed at once. The director chose to gradually unfurl the story step by step. Up to the midway point of the film I was engaged, but since that point, I really lost interest due to the standard and predictable nature in which the plot continued and the ultimate denouement was not a shock at all. Bob Hoskins is one of the few bright spots of the film. He really gives a powerhouse performance portraying raw masculinity and a viscous anger which were essential traits to his character.I wanted to like this and I did like the initial part of the film. But sadly I would have to say that this was a disappointing experience for me overall.

This is the film Guy Ritchie has been trying to remake his whole career, and he's never come close.Big fish in small pond London gangster manages to upset precisely the wrong band of fanatics, and underestimates the enemy to his great cost. In amongst all the violence, there's true drama and pathos (Helen Mirren, for goodness' sake - is she capable of giving a bad performance?), while the humour never seems forced or tacked on. This isn't a glossy, GQ Magazine, drama schoolboys playing poker with over-the-top wide-boy accents, token one-dimensional crumpet British gangster flick. Oh no. Superb performances from the entire cast, including Pierce Brosnan's finest movie role to date (he doesn't say anything), and Oh! what an ending! Verdict: Mockney Gangster Porn? I've sh*t it! NOTE: disappointing note on the DVD release - the director's commentary is one of the most dull and un-insightful commentaries since I sat through half of Tim Burton's commentary on Edward Scissorhands. Most disappointing!yetanotherfilmreviewblog.tumblr.com