The Irish Mob

I know absolutely nothing about Patrick McKnight, other than he wrote and directed THE IRISH MOB in 2023... and, from my point of view, he did not do as bad a job as the IMDB rating suggests.

Using crisp and believable dialogue, with heavy Irish/Dublin brogue, McKnight certainly makes characters come alive, none more so than the ruthless, remorseless psychopath of a criminal gang leader very effectively portrayed by Rob McCarthy.

Of course, everyone is aware of the old truism that crime only pays briefly or not at all - or, as the 'Val' Fagan narration puts it, the sole uknown is how long a leading criminal manages to stay at the top - but THE IRISH MOB convincingly conveys the cautionary tale of a man so used to the power of killing any opposition, perceived threat or dissent within his ranks that he loses sight of how far he can go, and of the reality spelled out by Inspector Liz Delahunt that there is always someone cleverer than you who will in time take your place.

Excellent cinematography, editing. The predictability of the script costs three stars, but it is still very watchable. 7/10.

Anyone remembers Love/Hate?"

"Nah, that was years ago"

"Great, let's just rip it off"

And from the opening credits on that's pretty much exactly what they did.

Anyone who's watched the excellent Love/Hate will, right from the start, be able to identify where each set piece comes from. Okay, they've mixed a few bits up, rearranged the deckchairs if you will, but almost everything is lifted straight from Stuart Carolan's work.

Now, okay, I guess there was always going to be some sort of overlap given the subject matter, however The Irish Mob goes that extra mile.

The production quality is reasonable, the acting pretty much what you'd expect, however it's the lazy story that really knocks it down the rankings.

This had potential only for dreadful casting for the Gardai. The lead could act and was credible in the role. I expected worse to be honest. Pauline O'Driscoll was terrible as lead cop and looked like a head school teacher and her superior was even worse. The narration was unnecessary and took away from the credibility of the movie also. Some scenes good and some not so good. Plots were stolen from Kin and The General, but I made it to the end which was surprising. With a decent director and some removal of "actors" like baz black etc...this could have been really good. Gangland in Dublin is a lot more intricate and complex than this and more characters with power would have helped. The Garda unit also, way to simple and poorly cast for this to be credible. Overall, just about watchable and mainly due to the lead and his sidekick.

I watched this film over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it , great to see some new faces to Irish Film,the action starts pretty quickly and the film moves at a nice pace story ran nicely and it was very easy to follow and even if you missed a bit ,the narration carries the story right to the end, I've seen worst films with much bigger budgets and well known cast so if you are interested in all things crime and gang related I can highly recommend this film, there is a plot twist I didn't see coming so kudos to the director and writers. A well made independent Irish Flick well worth a view..

I know none of the acters or writers, but found this very good it managed to have, a beginning middle and satisfying end, a few twists very down to earth sort of feature that had that 1970s feel, nothing fussy with interesting characters. Violent nothing overly gory and I felt it had a certain realism even though the plot was contrived to make a story. I have seen a lot of worse made by the mainstream media and having named acters. I did not feel my time wasted, also at under an hour and half it never outstayed its welcome. If the grimy world of gangsters is your thing I don't think you will be disappointed.