The Actors (2003)

First off- What are some of you thinking? This is the best movie I've seen in ages! Secondly- I don't think of it as a British movie as it is set in Dublin and has mainly Irish actors- Moran, Gambon, Aisling O Sullivan(Rita), Deirdre O'Kane etc.Thirdly- I thought that Moran was excellent. He was hilariously funny through out. Micheal Caine seemed only to be there to get Moran context. Each character he took on he perfected. Abigail Iversen I thought was better than any other child actor I have seen. She was believable as the smart kid and also as a kid and an adult(yes I know that sounds strange but hey...). Even she managed to upstage Caine. Iversen and Moran worked very well together and were very funny in the preparation scene.Barreler(Gambon) was very funny in his ineptitude.

We saw this in a bargain basket at the local Asda: £1.50 for the DVD. reading all the hype plastered all over the cover saying how "hillarious" it is, and it also had a really good, established cast, we thought this must a great film.So we bought, took it home, shoved it in the DVD player, sat back and waited for the funnies to begin.......and waited.......and waited.....and waited a bit more.Some 90 minutes later, although it felt more like 3 hours, the credits rolled, and that was the end of that.What a letdown - even paying £1.50 seemed a con. God knows what Caine, Richardson and Gambon were thinking when they said 'yes' to this tosh. And as for Moran: well much as I enjoyed Black Books, Shaun of the dead, and his comedy tours, I felt he was out of his depth in this film. He tried too hard playing for laughs, probably thinking that if retaining the characteristics from his Black Books character, would work here.Sadly it back-fired. The gags fell flat after awhile, and then he became just an irritation. Which is a shame because I believe given the right part he could be a very good film/character actor.Anyway, to sum up: the actors in The Actors, failed to Act!!! **/*****

The gags don't always come off, but the overall effect is amusing enough. Dylan Moran is perfectly cast as Tom, a loser actor. Caine is not challenged O'Malley but I didn't find him very funny. Unusual to find Michael Nyman music in a comedy, but it works well. It is a pity there were only bit parts for Michael McElhatton and Deirdre O'Kane. Good fun.

The Actors is never going to win any awards for originality, ingenuity or cinematography, but what it does do is to entertain without ever remotely taking itself seriously.Michael Caine (The Quiet American), Dylan Moran (Black Books), and Michael Gambon (The Singing Detective) star as 2 actors who are down on their luck, and one apparent gangster (Gambon) who the actors will try to exploit. Of course the scheme doesn't quite work out as planned, and the yarn spins out thereafter.All the players appear to enjoy themselves tremendously. Gambon and Caine especially give the impression of enjoying this light relief as a little break from their more 'serious' roles. And Moran is just excellent in comedy anyway as proven by the British TV comedy, Black Books. Forget what the critics say, this is a blast assuming you don't expect an intellectually stimulating comedy.Thumbs up.