Review of The Devil's Own (1997) by Ben F — 28 Mar 2010

It just seems like Harrison Ford loves to be in movies about the IRA doesn't it? While this film is wildly different than "Patriot Games" it's still a treat to watch. A lot of people didn't really like it, but I thought it was pretty good. The movie kept me entertained, and from two alright performances from Ford and Brad Pitt, the movie is surely enough for me. For me...it was fun.

So basically Brad Pitt's dad is gunned down in front of his eyes when he is only eight, and he becomes apart of the IRA. He needs big weapons to fight the SAS, so he goes to America posing as someone else, and lives with Harrison Ford, who is a New York Police officer, in an attempt to get a lot of weapons, but things go wrong. The plot isn't complicated, so it makes it easy to watch. You could say it was a little predictable, but for this film I didn't care, cause I thought it was cool.

What good is a movie like this without an awesome soundtrack? James Horner composes amazingly for this movie, and that really boosted the overall goodness of the film. Like the opening credits, or even the first scene, are all carried by the music alone, and it's awesome. No complaints there.

So as I said before, the acting from the main stars are fine, but the performance by Treat Williams is probably why everyone hated the movie.

He's annoying, horrible, and when he's supposed to be mad, it's obvious that he's not. He really just takes up screen time, and that's disappointing. I wanted him just to be killed of as soon as he appeared on screen, because he really did bring the movie down.

This movie is intense as well. Harrison Ford is obviously involved in his aging action fight sequences which he's so good at. You know that he's getting old, but you still know that he can kick some ass. That's what it's all about. Anyway, all the fight scenes are coordinated pretty well, keeping the film entertaining during the scenes. So that was a plus.

I just liked this movie, because I'm kind of a sucker for this kind of stuff. The Irish music playing in the background, along with Harrison Ford and Brad pitt being all intense. You could think it's ridiculous, corny, or predictable, and though it may be those things, you can't help but be entertained. I thought "The Devil's Own"...was good.

"I told ya...it's not an American story.....it's an Irish one....".