business_kid

I have some knowledge of affairs up North. The Troubles never was a Dublin story. The film seems set in the mid 1980s or 1990s. They have the Northern vibe right, and very realistic. The 'southern' or 'Dublin' vibe is all wrong. The lop-sided educational system was being levelled out, and young guys were more interested in Drinking pints and chasing girls than in fighting someone else's battles up North. There had been Dublin folk who joined the IRA, but that was strictly in the 1970s. It may have happened later once or twice, but it was not typical. Unlikely to have a firing range in the South, either. I knew of an IRA girl who went from my job to an IRA training camp on Valentia Island. (Very South West).

In their own areas, terrorists ran protection rackets, sold drugs.

This is sobering and sad. How do people like the Taliban, most who have never in their lives known peace, adapt their gerontocratic, patriarchal system based on an extreme interpretation of Shar'ia Law to the complex needs of running a country?

They evidently tried, and failed. The country seems very much on a war footing, even in peace.

Hollywood gate doesn't show one shot of a woman. To the Taliban, of course, why should it? To the Taliban, A woman is a human 'cow' that you buy and raises your kids. The more educated these women are, the more they protest and demand rights, so you cut that out fast!

There's only one sentence if you're guilty of something - death. The Mafia are kinder. The IRA were kinder. Islam has many forms, and this one is nasty. It's a shame to see a modern country dragged back to the Dark ages in so many ways. Hollywood gate lets you see all all that. That's the depressing power of this.

This movie has a lot of very watchable segments, and mixes them all in quick succession. Early 60s mania; OTT pop performers; dancing in crowded places; James Bond style 'reality attacks pomp'; folks dealing with biological realities; political resistance movements; Comedic Nazis; spies breaking in & upsetting villian's plans, etc.

All have been done before. Too much of any can be slow, painful & boring. This does them all. It does them quickly, briefly and very well. Even the (then incumbent) POTUS doesn't escape.

It even extracts the urine out of itself in brilliant fashion. I won't spoil those moments. I'm docking one point for some unnecessary labouring of scenes.