Purely Joyful Movie!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It really is very difficult to know what to say about Adam & Paul. 'I enjoyed it'? Is there really much enjoyment to be had from seeing a day in the life of two loser junkies who have absolutely nothing, are at rock bottom and then things get even worse? No, not really. 'It's well made'? Yes, it is extremely well made, from the acting, to the cinematography, to the direction, to the dialogue, and it is a 'better made' film than any number of huge budget movies coming from the big studios. But it is far more than simply 'well made'. 'It was funny'? Yes, there were moments of extremely dark comedy in it, but in the sense but the existence of Adam & Paul is anything but funny. Quite honestly, the film is not about 'two junkies' looking for a fix: just as pertinent are the hopeless lives of their friends and family members which are also portrayed and the pertinent fact is that this is not 'fiction' but merely a true reflection of the lives of far too many people from here in the Western world with its 'welfare state' to any number of other countries. For this viewer Adam & Paul is film-making at its finest. It is not a 'big' film, or an 'important' film or anything of that kind. I don't know what it is, but — for this viewer at least — it and a good many films like it stand head and shoulders and then some above your Avators or Hancocks or Independence Days. Looking up the credits, I noticed that Tom Murphy also acted in Small Engine Repair, another Irish film which stands head and shoulders about your usual Hollywood 'product'. As I said, it is difficult to know quite what to say about Adam & Paul, but what I can say is that it is very good that actors, directors, producers and writers can still be bothered to make films of this calibre, and may they continue to do so until at least my death.

Having watched a lot of Irish films recently, this is one of the better ones, and yet there is something off kilter in making a laugh out of junkies' dysfunctional lives. Mark Halloran's script is problematic at times – Laurel and Hardy on smack being the tag-line. But his performance is impressive; he inhabits his character well, while Tom Murphy plays the pathetic sidekick for laughs. The story is episodic, basically two heroin addicts trying to score. They wander around the city, meeting other characters and even get round to mugging a disabled person. There is a suitably jaunty soundtrack, but after a while it becomes a little repetitive. The director's background in advertising shows in the slick visuals and the whole package is well put together. It throws up interesting questions about portraying the marginalized. Are their stories being robbed to win plaudits and awards. Would a film about coke sniffing advertising folk be as interesting.. Still in a sea of mediocrity, it's worth a look. High point the resolution, low point Murphy's occasional gurning for the camera. Warning: Brendan Gleeson is not in this film.

Touted as one of the best Irish films of the year, Adam and Paul was one huge disappointment in my opinion. With other huge titles such as Intermission, Cowboys and Angels and Man about Dog to compete with, this clumsy tale of 2 heroin addicts in inner city Dublin simply does not meet the standard.While the acting was above average (particularly in Tom Murphy's case), the characters simply don't seem believable and the development is weak and slow. Adam and Paul both seem to morph into different characters as the plot permits: One minute they are playing with a toddler while the next they are robbing a handicapped teenager. The storyline is unstructured and tedious to say the least, with plot holes appearing left, right, and center. Meanwhile, the comic relief is dry and certain scenes seem to drift by without adding anything to the story or the character development.Overall Adam and Paul isn't a bad movie but far from the critical acclaim it has been receiving recently. The director Lenny Abrahamson shows good potential however I believe his style would be better-suited to a more aggressive movie, as the long scenes of Adam and Paul seem to drag on behind the passive tone of the movies main characters

A film about two messers with much to live for and very little to love.The two characters wake up on mattress in the middle of a field in which one of them finds themselves glued to; Things cant possibly get worse for these to but that's all that seems to happen to these to supposedly harmless and unintentionally witty degenerates. The new breed of dubs who have hit rock bottom but seem to stay down there in a hopeless dead-headed fashion.The dialog and characters melt into an almost beckett-like feel, but don't be fooled there is no particular art in this, but sheer desperation and hopelessness.Both characters are met with hostility and mistrust almost everywhere they go.One f**k up after another leads them into some kind of divine miracle of two bags of heroin that literally falls out of the sky.The hardest thing about watching this film is working out whether it is a tragic- comedy or the lines and characters are actually played the way it would have been in real life. God know, if you have ever lived in Dublin these lads are all over the place. Lads who came from nothing with nothing to give the world let alone themselves but somehow survive in a frowned upon but reluctantly accepted way of life.The movie struck a note with me and left me feeling sad and hopeless for our two leads. i guess there is no hope after all.Like Intermission it had that 'real dublin' feel to it but i'd say even darker.It deserves to be seen so far as it was probably made for a couple of hundred thousand euro's as the performances are strong and varied.'this is not a commercial movie and 'i don't think it will make much of name for itself but it deserves to be seen by those who would appreciate it for what it is.A slice of bleak reality in modern day Dublin city.