B N With a title like "The Stag" (or even "The Bachelor Weekend"), you get an immediate image of what is sure to come: bawdy male bonding with lots of heavy drinking and silly capering, carousing about town in search of more booze and strippers, all topped off with a cherry of inappropriate jokes at the expense of grooms and brides.But no. There's none of that. Well, not really. It is quite funny but also surprisingly emotional in a male-bonding sort of way. But not like in some misogynistic Hollywoodesque way with men spitting on the ground and getting into a barroom brawl. No. This is about sharing truths and staring life square in the face and manning up. Everyone in the film learns something.It's great.

neil-29353 I checked the reviews before wasting a couple of hours on this and it seemed that there were a lot of 10's and a lots score closer to 0's, Its always hard to know who is correct in this situation. Believe me the scores closer to 0's are spot on.I'm guessing you know enough background about the film from the title and trailers.. 6 lads on a hill walking stag weekend... right?Billed as a comedy but this is as far from comedy as you could get. Its completely devoid of any humour... They try so hard to be original and they really aren't. Predictable and truth be told pretty boring.Yes they put the characters as the new style D4 Irish rather than the stereotyped drinkers and fighters which are so often portrayed in films but they were equally bad and offensive.The only exception to the group is the one character called "The Machine" who is called "The Machine" with the emphasis on "the" in every other line in the script...oh dear god please stop... it couldn't have been more annoying. Even his sister phones him and says "Hi, The Machine"... seriously so annoying. I don't know what angle they were trying with the gay couple...were they trying to shock us on film 30 years too late? Were they trying to shock us that Ireland has a gay community??... this couple in a relationship of 6 years in every scene stuck to each other like love sick teenagers... *gasp a man hugging another man... the outrage... I can only assume they did that so that you could differentiate from the other 3 male characters (not including "The Machine" because you really wouldn't know who was supposed to be gay.Apologies to the gay community if you are all really loved up after 6 years together...maybe I'm just an old cynicAnyway... it was all very obvious what was going to happen... losing their clothes, chased by the dog and the farmer....absolute pants. To conclude with an overly sentimental sickly best man speech and bizarre poorly mimed cover version of a U2 song after a nonsensical out of place rallying speech for the people of Ireland... Oh one last thing... accents!!???!!! Peter McDonald who is a pretty fine actor what was going on with the accent?.. Born in Dublin yet it jumped from the North, to the midlands to an American accent...and the rest sounded EnglishDo yourself a favour and don't watch this

l_rawjalaurence Five middle-class Irish men go away on a hiking weekend to celebrate Fionnan's (Hugh O'Conor's) stag-party. They spend a lot of time and money trying to find the appropriate gear, and look forward to enjoying themselves. Unfortunately their leisure-time looks as if it might ruined by the presence of The Machine (aka Richard) (Peter McDonald), a boorish bully, who just so happens to be Fionnan's future brother-in-law.The basic scenario of John Butler's film provides the basis for a weekend of discovery, as all six men realize that their preconceptions have turned out to be false. Fionnan, a slightly metrosexual personality who did not really want to go away at all, finds out something about his best friend Davin's (Andrew Scott's) past that puts their relationship to the test. The two Kevins (Michael Legge, Andrew Bennett) understand that they are not really social outcasts after all, even in the eyes of Fionnan's father (John Kavanagh). The Machine turns out to be a vulnerable person, covering up his personality deficiencies under a veil of bravado. On the other hand, he has a devil-may-care attitude to life that exposes some of the middle- class pretensions of his five fellow- hikers.Butler and McDonald's script contains some very funny moments, especially when we see Davin trying to negotiate plans for his wedding with the planner Linda (Justine Mitchell), who obviously has little or no clue about what he is saying. The film contains some neat set pieces - notably the sequence where The Machine inadvertently sets fire to the tent, forcing the hikers to live rough, something they had never really anticipated. They had simply viewed the hike as an extension of their middle-class existence; now they have really been catapulted 'back to nature'. Later on they throw off their clothes and go for a naked midnight swim; unfortunately the idea goes horribly wrong, forcing all of them to confront themselves totally unclothed, both physically and emotionally.The basic scenario of THE BACHELOR WEEKEND (aka THE STAG) might be a familiar one - the importance of male bonding as a means of self- discovery - but the material has been handled with a light touch. In the end the film has an important point to make about friendship and trust as the basis of any effective relationship between people, irrespective of their gender. Needless to say, the action ends happily with everyone reconciled and Davin manages to wed his fiancée Ruth (Amy Huberman).

hediditallrelaxed Marketed as an Irish version of The Hangover, cinema goers expecting to see a gross-out outlandish comedy will be left disappointed. In its place they will find a charming, genuinely touching and not to mention hilarious comedy drama. This is a movie that belongs more in the realism of Barrytown then the fantasy world of Las Vegas.At her wits end with fiancée Fionan's (Hugh O'Conor) obsessing over every detail of their upcoming nuptials (particularly in one fantastic scene with wedding planner Justine Mitchell – who nearly walks off with the film in her brief scene), Ruth (Amy Huberman), enlists the help of his best man Davin (Moriarty himself, Andrew Scott) to take the metro… Politan Fionan away for a stag weekend. He is joined by mild mannered U2 denier Simon (Brian Gleeson), gay couple Kevin and Kevin (Andrew Bennett and Michael Legge) and, against his best efforts, by Ruth's boorish brother, known as The Machine (Moone Boy's Peter McDonald).The set up is nothing original, with everything from The Hangover to last year's Few Best Men mining the pre-wedding blow-out as an excuse for raunchy, far flung mayhem. What sets this film apart is that none of the cast fall into their expected token role. The Machine could quite easily have turned into the movie's equivalent of Stiffler but McDonald (who also co-wrote the script) is in spectacular form, grounding his character with real depth and a realism to any group of friends who all have that 'one' within the group. He never crosses the line to offensive or tasteless and, as a result, the audience is rewarded with a character that resembles an actual person as opposed to a catchphrase spouting bore.The cast are excellent across the board, Brian Gleeson (son of Irish film legend Brendan) shows enough guile and put upon humor to suggest it won't be too long before his name isn't suffixed with his famous father's name and becomes a respected talent in his own right. Andrew Bennett and Michael Legge convey a wonderful chemistry as a couple plagued with all too real and topical problems and thankfully their sexuality is never played for tasteless laughs. Their story arc is beautifully handled and threatens to overshadow the main plot, which sees tensions between Davin and Fionan simmering to a boil due to the best man's feelings towards his friend's fiancée. Scott, fresh from his reappearance in Sherlock, gives a wonderfully nuanced performance, his eyes tinged with sadness while maintaining his loyalty to his best friend. The duality is never conveyed better than during his heartbreaking rendition of the Patrick Kavanagh classic Raglan Road, which hopefully will find its way into the soundtrack. Stuck with what could have been the least interesting role in the movie theater, stand out Hugh O'Conor inhibits Fionan with enough restraint so as to never make the character a whiny cliché, but also stands his ground enough that we never want to just see him cast aside for the more romantic Davin to step in. It is a very tricky balancing act and O'Conor, who has been on the cusp of a break out role for the past few years, absolutely nails it.The film though will ultimately live and die by one measuring stick, is it funny? And on that front the film is a massive success. Foregoing any artificially outrageous set pieces – no tigers or giraffe decapitations here. The film instead relies on the delivery of its talented cast, along with its slick humor and stinging one liners. This is not to say that director John Butler is above moments of crudeness, as he puts his game cast through the ringer during one unforgettable reenactment of the Emperor Penguin huddle. It is a nice commentary on male bonding rituals without ever sacrificing story for laughs. It is the best Irish film for quite some time and seems destined to be spoken about in the same terms as The Snapper or The Commitments. Highly recommended. www.followingthenerd.com