Watch Route Irish For Free

Undescribable Perfection

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

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.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

ROUTE IRISH is really angry and wants you to know all about it. Like all Ken Loach films it is about an oppressed Celt fighting the system. This time he's an ex-SAS and ex-PMC squaddie who refuses to accept the explanation offered by his former employers about how his best friend died in Iraq. After a cursory romance with his mate's gal, he quickly finds out that it's the corporate posh boys to blame again and so decides to go mental and take revenge. Although the trailers emphasise the action in Iraq, it's actually about the mental disintegration of an ex-soldier in Liverpool. Also, be warned that the Scouse accents are almost incomprehensible to non-Brits. Like most Loach films there's lots of excellent working class actors, gritty locations and a core of solid social drama. Sadly, like most Ken Loach films it is also absurdly partisan and preachy; his hero is almost schizophrenic in the way he switches from racial prejudice (soldiers as brutalised pawns of the elite) to loopy far- left ranting (which sounds like no soldier I've ever met) about the evils of the Iraq War. If Loach and his screenwriter Laverty could only get over their own prejudices then it would be a much better film.

I have been a bit of a fan of the work of Ken Loach for a while now, ever since I saw Kes (made in 1969, but I saw it much later) and more recently Looking for Eric (2009). This one, although still good, failed to quite hit the mark (for me). There were several aspects of it that seemed incomplete. I'll tell you more after this very brief summary.Whilst working for a security firm in Iraq, in 2007, Frankie is killed. His best friend, Fergus, is devastated and feels there is something not quite right about the circumstances of his death. A former mercenary himself, he begins his own investigation. Enlisting the help of Frankie's widow, Rachel, and an Iraqi musician, Harim, he begins to piece together the events leading up to Frankie's death. I won't say any more or the Spoiler Police will be shooting at that taxi I'll be taking home on Thursday night. Oh, I should also mention, just for completeness, that 'Route Irish' is the code name used for the route between Baghdad Airport and the Green Zone.Set in Liverpool and with an extremely gritty edge to it, there are no punches pulled in this realistic drama. Of course budget constraints mean most of the action has to take place in the UK, but there is a fair bit of archive footage of events in Iraq at the time to fill the gap. Be warned though, some of it is quite graphic. As far as performances go, well, both Mark Womack as Fergus and Andrea Lowe as Rachel were excellent. A lot of the dialogue is ad-libbed and I thought they both did an excellent job! John Bishop, better known as a comedian here in the UK, plays Frankie (in flashback) and he did a pretty good job too. I thought Talib Rasool as Harim was very good as well.Over all, it just failed to hit the mark. I think I found the ending a bit of a let-down but sadly I cannot talk about it here. It did have its good points though and I did find it quite enthralling up to a point, but it was a little too long for me. It's a shame because I really wanted to like this one, but then you can't have everything I suppose. I will still deem it worthy of a viewing, but be warned of a lot of swearing and some graphic content.My Score: 6.4/10.IMDb Score: 6.3/10 (based on 1,051 votes at the time of going to press).Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73/100 (based on 26 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Just adding my balance to the reviews here. The acting does stand out as being particularly off in points, as you can see some of the actors eyes searching in the back of their heads trying to remember their lines as though they had received the script that morning. The story was hard to follow and unconvincing as a reason for a conspiracy. On the plus side, it did have potential, however potential is not any use to a finished product. I have to agree with another reviewer who suggested that Hollywood would have done a better job of it...and THAT really pains me to say as I do love British films mainly for that exact reason that we tend to make more subtle realistic action which makes it more believable and therefore more thrilling by its realism instead of impossible stunts (read Mission Impossible and anything by jon woo)

I almost don't want to be too honest about Ken Loach's latest. He is a national treasure after all. But then I remember what my job here is. 'Route Irish' is different from any other Loach film I've seen. Half the story is set in Iraq (Jordan), and uses techniques more typical of a Blockbuster. Route Irish was, during the Iraq war, believed to be quite literally the most dangerous road in the world, where suicide bombings, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and other nasties were commonplace. Disbelieving that his best friend and army buddy, Frankie (comedian John Bishop) was KIA, Liverpudlian Fergus (Mark Womack) vows to get to the truth. Frankie, says Fergus, 'was born lucky'. If you can forgive this soupçon of implausibility from which the story emanates, you can enjoy (parts of) the film.Twenty-four hour news makes us immune to the carnage of war. We tuck into our cornflakes while yawning at Apocalypse Now-style footage. Here, Ken Loach personalises war. He's always used film as a political medium to mirror his Left-leaning views. But there's a distinctly pluralistic advocacy on display in this film. Iraqis are at once sympathised with and blamed. The role of a soldier is both defended and upbraided. And the use of private contractors in the 'war on terror' is equally shielded and condemned. The only bits that are worthy of Loach are the scenes of tension, for instance when Fergus explains to Rachel (Frankie's partner) that of course Frankie played around: 'Every day out there (Iraq) could be the last – how can you go from that to shopping at Tesco?'. For such a kindly codger, Loach has quite a tolerance for profanity. The 'f' word doesn't bother me, but it's overdoing it a bit when you put the likes of Tarantino to shame. As the peerless critic Roger Ebert said of another film, 'profanity is used as punctuation'. Strangely, a full-on waterboarding torture scene has no more terror than an exploding party popper. Clearly not destined to bother the Russian roulette scene from 'The Deer Hunter'. It's in tune with the general tone of the film: big ambitions, too little follow-through.Various technical points distracted me from an otherwise half-decent melodrama. Fergus casually lets slip that he's ex-SAS. That would imply he's a man of considerable resourcefulness. So why can't he himself extract video clips from Frankie's primitive mobile phone to establish how he died? And why does he need to conduct online conference calls to amateurs for information? What's stopping him from Andy McNabbing his own way into Iraq? www.scottishreview.net