Man About Dog

Great funny film, three men in Ireland, penniless and trying their luck with hilarious results.

If you like gambling films, then you will love this film it has all the tension and keeps you on the edge of your seat, I could not help but cheer them on on their way.

This film is fast paced and action packed, you join them on the road in Ireland getting chased, getting into hilarious Situations, and trying to race their greyhound while they are at it.

I enjoyed this film very much and it made me laugh a lot, which I find that many films cannot manage these days.

I think that people outside the UK may have trouble understanding the broad Irish accents though, however that aside the three main characters were brilliant in their roles. I recommend this film very highly.

A decent comedy following the misadventures of three young Belfast men who happen into the world of hare coursing.

Stylistically, this has the feel of a lot of British and Irish films of the past decade. It's aimed at the same market that made Trainspotting, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch such big hits. On a number of occasions I thought this was overdone; it seemed to be trying too hard to be Belfast's answer to those films. This would be forgivable from a new director but it's less understandable from Paddy Breathnach.

The acting is excellent. Allen Leech does a good northern accent, although it's not quite West Belfast. The storyline is entirely unbelievable, but I wasn't expecting realism!

6 out of 10 because it's funny in spots, but not THAT funny. I also think that to really appreciate it you have to have some interest in gambling in general, and gambling on dogs in particular. If, like me, you have neither, you'll probably find it a bit difficult to get into.

The Irish director Paddy Breathnach has a keen visual sense and seems to me a born story-teller, (though he doesn't write his own material he shapes it in real cinematic terms). While "Man About Dog" isn't in the same class as his earlier "I went down", (that was written by the great young Irish playwright Conor McPherson), it is a highly engaging comedy road movie nevertheless. Allen Leech, Tom Murphy and Ciaran Nolan play three Belfast wide-boys on the make who inherit, lose and then re-inherit an extraordinary money-making greyhound called Ceberus. The plot is flimsy and one or two of the performances are shaky but the film has flash and a sense of energy. It is not strikingly original, (Breathnach borrows a bit too much from his better known American counterparts), but there is so much going on here and the lines have the poetry and raw humour of the vernacular, you are prepared to overlook the film's shortcomings. Give in and this is a comedy as robust as they come.

Well good harmless fun if you do not mind a lot of swearing (it is set in Ireland after all). This pleasant little film about three chancers acquiring a greyhound that they end up entering in Irelands biggest hare coursing festival is a well made piece of escapism from the humdrum of Belfast life. The film is well made running to a tight time scale with little to no wasted scenes, featuring good performances from a cast most of whom I was unfamiliar. Without ruining it for anyone this is the sort of film where you can see the end coming a mile off, but because of this fact it makes it harder for the director to entertain you which they manage with aplomb. Some viewers may have problems with the thick Irish accents but it is well worth persevering with.

It's clear from the off that this is not so much an homage to Guy Ritchie, as it is an opportunistic mugging amid a dearth of originality. It takes a bloke-ish topic - greyhound racing (I guess it was either that, boxing or poker) - and three laddish young Irish guys (Messrs Cocky, Unlucky and Peaceful...gosh), then drags the plot through a series of contrived encounters with the usual Guy Ritchie ensemble; bookies, tough gypsies, hard men, loose women etc. All with the cliched goal of ending up with a big bag of cash at the end of the movie. There's some pretence that this is about the love of dogs, but their violent deaths are used as a 'joke' so often that this flick is clearly confused about what message it wants to send.

Along the way, we are treated to droll scenes such as the lads getting involved in a fertility drug trial, with predictable consequences, and hooking up with three 'foreign birds' (because they're easy, right lads?). As per the rules for bloke films, women are only allowed as sex objects and don't get to speak more than a line or two. Long, inconsequential blather between the lads act as filler along the way until, finally, the director throws in a Trainspotting rip off as the Lock, Stock theft runs low on returns. Low brow, paint-by-numbers comedy for the Lad Bible crowd. But in Ireland.