The Van

The characters drink, bicker, whine, drink more, try to get their act together, bicker, whine, drink, whine... The writers could have used someone to ask them some tough questions. Why are these characters friends? What are you trying to say about these people? If the answer is "for some people, hard work will never pay off," then pray tell us, why not? Does it have something to do with being Irish? If so, what? If not, then what? The friendship between the protagonists is not adequately developed, and when the friendship hits rough times it is hard to care. They didn't seem to like each other very much to begin with. I began not to like them. I didn't see them as tormented, confused or angry, just disagreeable. Although I don't demand that all films about the Irish have a gentle Bill Forsyth touch, a little of his character development and motivation would have helped here. The concept is charming, why are the characters so harsh and helpless?

The guys Larry and Bimbo are clever to make their own chipper van and selling lots of good stuff. However I wish they never failed at the end when they had very poor hygiene and getting rid of the van. Therefore the swearing and the attitudes are amusing!

As an Irish person I couldn't help but cringe a little whilst watching this film, much as I enjoyed it. Its seems to be the same ''poor us,we've nothing, down on our luck'' story that seems to be the running theme through a zillion other Irish films & in particular, Roddy Doyle stories. We've seen it all before. The film has some quite funny moments, and the stereotypical Irishman, Colm Meaney does his usual business but the storyline is quite weak and simplistic really. I don't think I came away from the film any wiser than before. I think its time Irish film making upgraded with other countries and maybe feature something like casino's, beaches, hot girls, edge of the seat mob thriller instead of war, famine,unemployment, tradgedies, gypseys, priests, and in this case two idiots opening a chip van.

"The Van" is one of very few novels that have made me laugh out loud, on numerous occasions, whilst reading it. Thus, I feared the movie couldn't possibly live up to the book and I was right. The characters appear nowhere near as appealing as they do in the book -even the lead characters name has changed from Jimmy to Larry. In fact the Rabbite family has been drastically culled. The dialect can be difficult to catch at times (my wife mistook "World Peace" for "Wolf's p**s" during one pun). The "Living Dead" appear from nowhere and........no, I'm not doing any more comparisons. If you want a good laugh read the book.

Anyone who lived through the drama of the Italia 90 World Cup in Ireland should watch this movie. It brings back the drama and memories..but that is not all. The film really shows how friendship comes with a price. Simple folk, simple situation and the humour of the Irish really create a great story. My favourite moment in the film is when a little chubby kid strolls up to the van and asks for a choc ice. I won't spoil it but what happens then had me in stitches. GENIUS!

OK, apparently, Colm Meaney (happy birthday, Colm!) is best known for a "Star Trek" role, but I always associate him with his roles in adaptations of Roddy Doyle novels. They are "The Commitments", "The Snapper" and "The Van". The last one casts as a down-on-his-luck Dubliner who with his friend finds a grimy abandoned van and opens it up. While I mostly liked the movie, it did have the problem of showing the Irish drinking and moping about life's travails; is that the only way to stereotype people from the Emerald Isle? But otherwise, I found it a pretty good look at working-class life in Ireland. Once again, Stephen Frears added another accomplishment to his resume, recently continued with "The Queen". I recommend it, and see whether or not you want to get a bite to eat from any random van after watching this.

This is the story of two men belonging to the the Irish working class who after being sacked decide to start a business with a van for making and selling hamburgers and the like stuff. After a while their mutual relationship turns into a boss-employee one and things began to become worse until because friendship is thicker than money they began again to get well along with each other. The story is told in a half serious half funny way. It's very simple but not the less deep because of that. It's full of amusing episodes and details of everyday life but its very true, authentic and realistic.