The Flag (2016) User Reviews

Flag doesn't fly

[xxharrison · 3/10 · 30 December 2016]

The scenario is not all that promising to begin with. Disillusioned navvy (Pat Shortt) returns to Ireland for father's funeral, then hatches plan to return to England and reclaim the 1916 GPO tricolour from a British barracks. and return it to Ireland. So, a certain amount of farce and paddywhackery are to be expected. What we get is even worse, an awful mess that has no idea what it wants to be. The film lurches from farce to bittersweet, slapstick to romantic. I would use the word 'comedy' with above terms, but there isn't a line or event that's remotely funny. Despite a fine cast who do their level best to keep the thing afloat, the leaky scenario is quickly sunk by a woeful script and the failure of the director to impose any form of order or tone on the proceedings.

Definitely missed its intended release-date...

[Coffee_in_the_Clink · 4/10 · 21 April 2020]

This was clearly just thrown together quickly in order to have it out in time for the 1916 centenary celebrations during Easter 2016. But it wasn't released until October that year in Ireland, which makes me think that there was disappointment all round the studio. Not only for missing the date, but also perhaps for throwing out such a tepid film that had the potential to be so much better. Pat Shortt is an Irish favourite and he is always a joy to watch, and he is the one good aspect here. But even he can't sustain such a poor script that looks like it was just thrown together one lazy afternoon, and when the supporting cast aren't up to par, there isn't a whole lot one man can do. It's meant to be a madcap comedy looking at the adventure that one man goes on after he finds a letter written by his late grandfather, stating that he was the one who raised the Irish flag over the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising. The flag is now hanging up on the wall in an army barracks in England. Inspired, he decides to head over and see if he can get it out of there and return it home. It's all very weak indeed, poorly performed and hardly worth a mention.

Grand Pat Shortt film!

[Irishchatter · 8/10 · 27 December 2016]

I have to say, Pat Shortt did a decent job with this film! It was showing on the RTE ONE channel on Christmas Day a few days ago and I decided to sit down to see what it was like. At the beginning where Pat Shortt's characters finding out his poor little hamster had died, was heartbreaking. My hamster died this year and seeing the little body of that other hamster, made me think back when I discovered my little pet passing away. I probably should've skipped the beginning and move onto the middle part, I would recommend others too to do this too if they are sensitive to seeing dead animals.

Anyways onto the positive side here, I found it really funny when Shortts character and his buddies being chased by the police in the lorry they stole. Also when Shortt and Dunford's characters were thrown off the lorry, they got a random horse from some field and used the animal to catch the lorry so that the Gardai wont catch up with them.

I never seen this Irish movie being advertised before and Im very surprised that it wasn't advertised around Easter of this year! After watching it, I thought it was a good movie to kill your time and honestly, there was so much action in it, especially for an Irish movie like this one. I'm giving this a rating of 8/10!

Enjoyable bad movie

[aaron09912 · 8/10 · 25 December 2020]

Not wrote a review for a while. This movie is basically an indie movie but the premis is simple enough that there were no crazy scenes that needed CGI or expensive locations. So it looked pretty decent and it worked relatively well over all. There were some serious daft parts where you laugh at the movie rather than with it but it's enjoyable.

I felt the live story part was badly paced some of the scenes seemed long but overall enjoyed the script. I'm not a huge part short fan but the acting was fine, pacing was slow to start but I enjoyed the heist part with the band of eejits.

I had a genuine laugh at the horse showing up at the end I didn't actually expect that but the shots riding the horse were terrible, which I also got a laugh out of. Same with the police chase where they were throwing bread and cones out of the truck.

I was less of a fan of the dramatic "death" scene at the end because mouse would obviously live. If there was more tension or stakes it might have been emotional and if the movie was trying to make fun of scenes like it I didn't find it funny.

Anyway 8/10 is pretty high. I rate based on how much I enjoyed it which was a lot. Doesn't make it a good movie. It has slow moments but a relatively interesting script, the love story drags a bit, there's plenty of moments that are funny as well as film making on a budget that made me laugh but overall it was entertaining. Don't expect great things from it and it's time well spent from watching