It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A very funny and entertaining Irish movie. Irish. Need I say more? U2, Irish guys, Irish humor. In the same time is funny, touchy and it makes you think about friendship, about taking life too serious and about sometimes making fun about all the craps you might find in the way. Each character of the movie has it's own charm and each character is so different than the others. The authors managed, somehow to make them perfect together in a very unique and, with the risk of repeating myself, funny movie. The plot keeps you in front of the screen and one cannot help of wondering how will the big finale be. It was totally worth seeing it and I'm already making plans to see it again with my U2 fans friends.

I sat down in the mood for a nice little light hearted comedy, as the previous reviews on IMDb had promised. A look at the nine and ten out of ten scores and an overall of 6.5 gave me the idea that if not brilliant, would have some laughs and be a decent film. How wrong I was. This is the sort of film that has adopted the 'all men are useless, clueless, fools, but in touch with their feminine sides' school of film making. The main characters are clunky, inept caricatures that one could have been forgiven for thinking that they had originally been written as pre adolescent girls, not grown men. Their ineptitude was the set up for the "comedy", which was just not funny and seemed very contrived. It all just served to irritate after a very short while and continued to do so as the film progressed. The line up consisted of some rather quite good actors and i'm not sure if it was the awful script, bed set ups, bad direction, miscasting or a combination of all the above, but non of their previously seen talent could have cut through this drivel with a chainsaw. I should think most of them will be embarrassed to have this movie on their C.V's. I think all in all, the high rating given to this film must be from interested parties skewing the figures and will in time even out when more people have faced the ordeal of sitting through this lame excuse for a comedy. i would avoid this one, go paint the fence or something, it'll be more productive.

The best part about the movie was the Irish Countryside and it is easy to get a grant from the Irish Film Board. A lot of the scenes appear to have been duplicated from other movies. The jokes were stale and predictable. A lot of the actors were miscast, especially, if the movie was geared towards an American audience. There was little chemistry between the bride and groom and there was no originality to the movie. I felt little empathy for the characters as they represented everything I disliked about the celtic tiger. The movie had potential, but needed to be worked on a few months more. The budget was clearly minute, so fair play for delivering a film on such a tight budget.

What may seem like a small fun, light-hearted comedy on the surface, turns out to be an incredibly fun, emotionally moving story which addresses the topic of masculinity in 2014.It's simple, it's really simple even – it's just a group of guys going on a Stag, and they unfortunately have to share it with the bride's crazy brother, known only as "The Machine" – so what makes it so special? It's an incredibly well executed, heart-warming tale in which every character is unique and lovable, and each actor delivers a fantastic performance in their respective roles. Andrew Scott of BBC's Sherlock is probably the main attraction here, but even his brilliant performance is easily upstaged by Hugh O'Conor and Peter McDonald who completely dissolve into their roles.Peter McDonald and John Butler's script brings to life these characters in a very fun-loving way. There's nothing outrageous or false about the comedic moments, they're genuine and at times heart-warming, which is a welcome change from what we've come to expect from comedy films. But beyond a few gags there's so much honesty in the storytelling and how the events unfold that you can't help but be drawn to it and immerse yourself in the characters' situation, to the point where you feel like you're a guest at their wedding after the Stag. With so many human, authentic moments, there is something about this tale that will undoubtedly appeal to you – and then there's the comedic aspect of the film, which is above-all, the icing on the cake."The Stag" brings forth a very important message about how we have a tendency to approach modern masculinity in a traditional fashion, and the movie acts as a learning experience for both the audience and the characters, resulting in the most heart-warming Irish comedy in the last 5 years.Follow me on twitter: @StuartComerford