Pat Hayes Movies
- 1995
An Irish castle filled with eccentric characters, both upstairs and down provides the basis for this lively, loopy British comedy based on Henry Green's anti-novel set in 1941. The Castle Kinalty has become a haven for advocates of the traditional British class system. The aristocratic masters go about their business and try to ignore the nagging guilt that tells them they should return to England to fight in the war. The story (if it can be called a story) begins as Raunce is promoted to the position of head butler following the death of the former butler. The middle-age Raunce loves the power he suddenly has over the others and over the household accounts. Raunce is a little arrogant and very uptight and always courteously catering to the widowed mistress of the house and her randy daughter. Restrained Raunce finds himself targeted for love by the lithesome lusty young servant Edith who teaches him the advantages of unbridled passion. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1994
A teenager from Belfast finds himself caught between IRA and Loyalist battles in this drama. 17-year old Benny, a delinquent, favors neither side of the Irish conflict. He finds refuge in a rural school near the southern Irish border. The school is headed by a woman who set it up as a neutral outpost for young people. She is assisted by a former priest who is also her sometime lover. She finds herself sexually attracted to Benny. Problems ensue when the janitor, a stoolie for the local cops, is murdered. Benny gets tarred and feathered by the IRA and the British Army and the Loyalists are out to destroy the headmistress and the ex-priest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frances Tomelty, Alan Devlin, (more)
- 1991
Shuki Levy, best known for his work on behalf of the Saban Entertainment animated-cartoon firm, directs a group of "live" performers in Blind Vision. Lenny Von Dohlen stars as nerdish mail clerk, who worships Deborah Shelton from afar. Emulating Hitchcock's Rear Window (or is it DePalma's Body Double?), Von Dohlen watches his dream girl through a highpowered lens. When one of Shelton's boyfriends turns up dead, Von Dohlen is sucked into a vortex of intrigue. Don't be lulled into the sense of deja vu in the early reels; this one's got quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Written by Levy and his frequent Saban collaborator Winston Rickard, Blind Vision costars Robert Vaughn (as "Mr. X"!), Ned Beatty, and Louise Fletcher; the film was lensed on location in Norfolk, Virginia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1988
- R
Mark (Padraig O'Loingsigh) investigates the death of his pal Danny (Andrew Connolly) in this shadowy crime drama. Danny's sister Colette (Cait O'Riorden) convinces Mark that something went wrong that led to her brother's death. Mark soon discovers a link between the drug dealer Val (Gabriel Byrne) and the local detective McGuigan (Ian Bannen). Elvis Costello provides the soundtrack music that includes songs from U2, Hothouse Flowers, and The Pogues. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Padraig O'Loingsigh, Cait O'Riordan, (more)
- 1987
- R
A humble Irish farmer decides that it is high time to move that big old stone in his field that has been there seemingly since the dawn of time. This gory horror film, an adaptation from one of noted British-author Clive Barker's short stories, follows what happens next. No sooner does he move the rock when out rushes an enormous, blood-thirsty pagan demon, Rawhead Rex, who immediately goes berserk and begins biting people left and right. Among the bitten is the son of an American professor of history and anthropology. His father immediately begins researching the angry old god and plotting his demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Dukes, Kelly Piper, (more)
- 1984
- R
In the opening scenes of this politically-oriented drama, a killer enters the home of a policeman and in a shocking sequence murders him in cold blood -- an act that becomes the key to the rest of this film about the conflict between politics and life. Young Catholic, Cal (John Lynch) works in a slaughterhouse during the day and has participated in terrorist activities, but he wants out after he has been forced to drive a getaway car in the murder of the policeman. Meanwhile, he is slowly enchanted by Marcella, an older woman (Helen Mirren) who has just started working at the local library. Smitten but shy, Cal manages to ease himself into a job on her land, and when his father's home is burned to the ground by Protestants, Cal moves into a cottage on the woman's estate. Eventually, the two start a quiet liaison -- but Cal's inner turmoil disturbs the happiness he feels when he is with Marcella. Can he continue to hide his terrorist past from Marcella, who knows nothing about what he has done? While this question and others raised by the film are reasonable, director Pat O'Connor's treatment of the story may be too muted, and John Lynch's Cal too innocuous and frail (especially in contrast to Helen Mirren's Marcella) to win over all viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Helen Mirren, John Lynch, (more)
- 1983
The 1950s in Ireland comes alive in the transformation of two "country girls" from Irish schoolchildren in a strict convent to teenagers needing to get away from their families. The teens escape to the big city, and the contrast to their past is handled with both pathos and humor. The two leads are excellently interpreted by (Maeve Germaine and Jill Doyle). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Maeve Germaine, (more)
- 1979
- NR
- Add A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man to Queue Add A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man to top of Queue
Producer/director Joseph Strick continues his long cinematic love affair with the works of Irish author James Joyce in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Bosco Hogan plays Joyce's alter-ego Stephen Daedelus, an irrepressible boy at eternal odds with the strictures of his Catholic home and family. As in his earlier adaptation of Joyce's Ulysses, Strick manages to successfully convey the liquidity and ideology of Joyce's challenging literary style. Also like Ulysses, however, the director is stronger with monologues than with visuals. Joseph Strick's own son Terence plays the artist as an even younger man. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bosco Hogan, John Gielgud, (more)
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