Despite trying a little too hard to be cool and edgy, this is nevertheless an entertaining thriller with a decent twist.
Comment
09/14/09
Fifty Dead Men Walking (2009)
86
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:43
Fresh:37
Rotten:6
Average Rating:6.7/10
Consensus: Though somewhat uneven in places, Fifty Dead Men Walking is a gripping portrayal of Ireland's violent history, carried by the strong performances of its lead actors.
Synopsis: In the 1980s when the Irish civil conflict was at its most treacherous, 22 year old Martin McGartland was recruited by the British police to infiltrate and spy on the IRA. He lived his life under... [More]
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers, Rose McGowan
Director: Kari Skogland
Reviews for Fifty Dead Men Walking
One of the more absorbing and riveting portraits of The Troubles since 1993's In the Name of the Father.
09/11/09
Although the ranks of great IRA films are swelling rapidly this combination of political history and mystery suspense masterwork is one of the best.
08/28/09
Jim Sturgess makes a believable cocky lad who signs on for the con; an oddly bewigged Ben Kingsley is fussier and too actorly as his handler.
08/26/09
Conventional modes of representation hamper Fifty Dead Men Walking and its look at a subject that demands a fresher point of view.
08/26/09
A viscerally intense, gripping and character-driven thriller filled with pulse-pounding action, strong performances and stylish, gritty cinematography.
08/24/09
Skogland is a crisp and efficient storyteller. She keeps the players vivid and relatively honest, and never shies away from the brutalities.
08/21/09
Sturgess is solid and Kingsley predictably sneaky, but the atmosphere -- scurries through the Catholic/Protestant border, tense stand-offs, spontaneous riots -- is what's genuinely gripping.
08/21/09
Suspenseful thriller about divided loyalties and tensions of a double agent in his own home, informing on those he has known since childhood, but without political context.
08/21/09
A streamlined, adrenalized thriller that is not as deep as it would like to appear, treads a retrospective political tightrope.
08/21/09
Top CriticAn action packed adventure that grows more suspenseful with each sequence.
08/21/09
This is gritty storytelling where violence is a way of life and confrontation between Catholics and Protestants and police a daily occurrence.
08/20/09
Fifty Dead Men Walking provides another example of what happens when mediocre moviemaking meets an interesting life.
08/20/09
What makes Fifty Dead Men work is the story’s sheer moral complexity, which dares viewers to sympathize with anyone onscreen for more than a few minutes at a time.
08/20/09
...the filmmakers never really make us buy that this man was so averse to violence he was willing to sell out his friends - for profit mind you - to help save the British. And yet the film really works as a political thriller.
08/20/09
executes with appropriate energy, poignancy, and just the right balance of tension
08/20/09
In this film, Skogland, as Kathryn Bigelow does in The Hurt Locker, demolishes the notion that women can’t direct action.
08/20/09
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/20/09
God forbid anything even slightly suspenseful or significant should happen without revved-up ’80s Irish rock blasting over the soundtrack.
08/20/09
Gruesome scenes or torture and murder bring home the political climate once prominent in Northern Ireland.
08/19/09
Latest News for Fifty Dead Men Walking
August 20, 2009:
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