It's hard to describe how excited I was to go and see this film and how lucky I was to be able to experience it on the big screen. Event is usually the term reserved for new Star Wars movies but the anticipation in the crowd began early and reached a crescendo before the credits were over.
The movie starts in an upmarket Bed and Breakfast where a funeral is taking place. This sets the scene for the rest of the movie which masterfully pieces together the events leading up to how and why our hero, played by Flatley, becomes a broken man. We're introduced to his team of spies called the chieftains comprising of an oddly subservient black man, an angry Irish drunk, a sad flat capped Irish drunk and two improbably beautiful women who, naturally, are just waiting for their man to get over his trauma so they can make their move.
Ten years later and they're still waiting as Victor Blackley (Flatley) has now opened a hotel and casino in Barbados where he spends his day sporting a succession of impressive hats at increasingly jaunty angles. Perhaps because none of them are large enough to properly fit his head or perhaps because it's what Bogart would have wanted. The women are still waiting for him to get over his trauma and the rest of the chieftans hang around drinking and making the place look untidy. Victor Blackley, however, manages to stay impossibly dapper despite his demons even when waking up after getting blackout drunk on the beach.
An old flame turns up and now the tension reaches fever pitch. Such is the towering performance by Flatley that we believe him to be truly broken and the director stretches out the moment of wondering whether he'll find himself again until the audience is at breaking point. Luckily Eric Roberts' worst-boyfriend-in-the-world is there to provide suitable inspiration. As you would expect from a master of dance, it is the dancing scenes in which our hero truly shines. The energy and chemistry he shows with a succession of women turning the heat up to 11.
The ending has to be seen to believed and sets us up for what is likely to be a spy franchise to rival Bond or Bourne in its intensity. This film has it all. The slow cool of Casablanca combined with the sexy edge of Bond at his finest. All delivered by a man channeling William Shatner in Impulse. The scenery has the epic sweep of Lord of the Rings at its finest and the dialogue is sharp and unexpected.
If you only watch one more movie in the rest of your life it needs to be Blackbird.
The movie starts in an upmarket Bed and Breakfast where a funeral is taking place. This sets the scene for the rest of the movie which masterfully pieces together the events leading up to how and why our hero, played by Flatley, becomes a broken man. We're introduced to his team of spies called the chieftains comprising of an oddly subservient black man, an angry Irish drunk, a sad flat capped Irish drunk and two improbably beautiful women who, naturally, are just waiting for their man to get over his trauma so they can make their move.
Ten years later and they're still waiting as Victor Blackley (Flatley) has now opened a hotel and casino in Barbados where he spends his day sporting a succession of impressive hats at increasingly jaunty angles. Perhaps because none of them are large enough to properly fit his head or perhaps because it's what Bogart would have wanted. The women are still waiting for him to get over his trauma and the rest of the chieftans hang around drinking and making the place look untidy. Victor Blackley, however, manages to stay impossibly dapper despite his demons even when waking up after getting blackout drunk on the beach.
An old flame turns up and now the tension reaches fever pitch. Such is the towering performance by Flatley that we believe him to be truly broken and the director stretches out the moment of wondering whether he'll find himself again until the audience is at breaking point. Luckily Eric Roberts' worst-boyfriend-in-the-world is there to provide suitable inspiration. As you would expect from a master of dance, it is the dancing scenes in which our hero truly shines. The energy and chemistry he shows with a succession of women turning the heat up to 11.
The ending has to be seen to believed and sets us up for what is likely to be a spy franchise to rival Bond or Bourne in its intensity. This film has it all. The slow cool of Casablanca combined with the sexy edge of Bond at his finest. All delivered by a man channeling William Shatner in Impulse. The scenery has the epic sweep of Lord of the Rings at its finest and the dialogue is sharp and unexpected.
If you only watch one more movie in the rest of your life it needs to be Blackbird.