The film is very Irish with Irish Film Board sponsorship and a likely backhander from the tourist board too. It’s pretty gentle stuff with a bit of growth being the main driver, but it was mostly enjoyable with lots of redemption thrown in for good measure.
Andrew ‘Moriarty’ Scott stars as Devin, a lecturer in Dublin who is due to be best man at his friend’s Fionan’s wedding. That name gets plenty of laughs with no one ever getting it correct. In fact, if he was called ‘Brian’ the film would be five minutes shorter.
Fionan is not exactly a man’s man and would rather go on the hen night than contemplate a stag weekend with his pals. His bride to be Ruth, insists that he has the final blow out and soon it is agreed that a small group of Fionan’s friends will join him on a hike around some of Ireland’s more scenic parts. On its own that’s a bit dull so a wild card is thrown in, in the shape of ‘The Machine’, Ruth’s brother, who is known to be a bit of a handful. He got so much of a build up that I was expecting it to be Hulk Hogan or somebody, but it was just a regular bloke with a funny name.
The guys avoid The Machine’s calls and hope to go on the hike without him. After a quick, and mostly tiresome trip to the camping shop, they head off on their adventure with no The Machine in sight. Happily for the film, Ruth gives away the destination and The Machine shows up in an entertaining torrent of gay slurs and bad language.
They head out the next day with The Machine wearing just his usual about town gear. The rest are kitted out like Millets’ gold card users, but things soon level out when their gear gets lost along with the car keys and a compass that may have some emotional attachment for Devin.
With the lads high on elicit substances, some home truths are revealed along with their arses. As they try to make it back to civilisation will the wedding happen and will they all ever be the same again?
I liked this film and despite a couple of dips it had enough to keep me entertained throughout. It was well observed with the usual guys bullshit and hierarchy all present and correct.
Scott had most of the weight to carry and he do so well with his usual wide eyed shouty style. I twigged the twist early on but to be fair you’d need to lose your compass not to spot it.
The Machine character had most of the laughs and best lines but it was disappointing when he gave up vulnerabilities of his own. I guess we all play a part and inside we’re all as messed up as each other.
The pivotal scene with the lads in the nip was good fun but it went on a bit and there are only so many arse cheeks I can watch in one sitting.
There were a few laughs and a couple of decent payoffs especially with the U2 scene where we just knew a character’s hatred of all things Bono was going to be disproved.
The hike itself seemed a bit easy to an experienced hill walker like me but I guess the crew weren’t for humping equipment up hills. The cast did well and threw themselves into some pretty demanding and revealing scenes.
The wedding at the end wrapped everything up nicely and although a bit pat (even gay hating Dad turned out nice!) it was hard to grudge them a happy ending.
THE Tag Line : A 7 Point Stag! 70%
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