|
starring: Finn Atkins, Justin Brady, Eliot Otis Brown Walters, Ryan Bruce, Kathy Burke
List Price: $50.99Amazon.com's Price: $48.44 You Save: $2.55 ( 5%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781404934375
Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
ISBN: 1404934375
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Release Date: February 10, 2004
Running Time: 104 minutes
Sales Rank: 80762
Studio: Sony Pictures
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is credited as the closing part in a loosely connected trilogy by director Shane Meadows. A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) and Twenty Four Seven (1997) preceded it, and ultimately the viewer will be hard-pressed to discern more than the British Midlands locale linking them together. That and the generally grim tone. Here we have what boils down to a tale of a girl (Shirley Henderson) who can't decide between two guys (her ex, Robert Carlyle, or her current boyfriend, Rhys Ifans). Wrapped up in some easy comedy and framed in the occasional nod to the spaghetti Western genre, the movie initially has plenty in its favor. Unfortunately, the intrusion of a B-plot involving some Scottish thugs overpowers the more pleasant family portrait. As a result, the stellar performances by Kathy Burke and Ricky Tomlinson get lost in the drama of the love triangle. After swinging back and forth indecisively, Shirley's conclusion to the tale doesn't have the emotional punch that it should have. This third Midlands tale may be the most accessible in terms of familiar characters and aspects of contemporary British life, but what it isn't is the kind of escapist movie experience suggested by its title. --Paul Tonks
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A major disappointment
From the days when it was a legal requirement to cast either Robert Carlyle or Rhys Ifans if you wanted to get lottery funding for a British film, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is another in Shane Meadows' line of deeply disappointing films before he finally came into his own with Dead Man's Shoes. To be fair, the project went through major development Hell, and the results are all too obvious in the sketchy construction and characterization. Carlyle's bad boy spurred into winning back his wife ... Read More
Rating:  - Middle-of-the-road UK love triangle
Superb acting is squandered in a lackluster and uninspiring hybred of comedy, romance, and thriller that tries too hard on all fronts and falls flat.
Rating: - average love story
Robert Carlyle is brilliant in this kind of role-violent, shiftless, abusive guy who somehow lulls those closest to him into a certain blindness and obeisance to his brutality. He reappears on the scene in his ex-girlfriend's life when he sees quiet, mild-mannered Dek (Rhys Ifans) proposing to Shirley on a tv talk show. When she refuses the proposal, Jimmy (Carlyle) sees it as his grand opportunity to claim the one who got away. Shirley is portrayed by Shirley Henderson, who seems to pop up in small, ... Read More
Rating:  - When Jimmy Comes Back to His Ex-Wife... Amusing UK Drama
Though the title sounds like a Sergio Leone film, or any Italian made Westerns, 'Once Upon a Time in Midlands' is a low-key British comedy-drama starring Robert Carlyle ('Full Monty'), Kathy Burke (Nil By Mouth'), Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle in 'Harry Potter'), and Rhys Ifans ('Notting Hill'). Opinions divide among the viewers, especially the critics who find similar themes in recent UK films -- like gangsters -- but the similarity is only on the surface.
Robert Carlyle is a Scotsman ... Read More
Rating:  - If you like offbeat this is the ticket.
This is an offbeat love story. If you like offbeat foreign films you'll love this movie. At times understanding what people were saying was difficult. I've heard this from a couple of friends who saw this also. I only had problems understanding one of the characters. But the story and offbeat moments is wonderfully great. This is a must see!
|
