Lack of good storyline.

Great Film overall

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I have watched this film many, many times and yet it never fails to grip me.It quite simply is one of the finest British films of its genre. It is dark, gritty, witty and beautifully cast.For me the pivotal scene is the ending - sheer brilliance by the late, great Bob Hoskins. He captures Harold Shane's emotions perfectly without a single word. That 60 second scene is perfection!

The Long Good Friday is arguably one of the best British crime dramas I've ever seen. It concerns a prosperous London crime boss (Bob Hoskins) on the verge of making a lucrative deal with a group of American builders. Things however don't go according to plan when bombs are found and henchmen are dispatched by a mysterious group trying to muscle in on his action. In the quest to find these ne'er- do-wells Harry becomes increasingly paranoid and frustrated putting his own standing among London's underground at risk. The film costars Helen Mirren and features a young Pierce Brosnan in a blink- and-you'll-miss-it role.Those in my generation will remember Bob Hoskins as the gruff private dick Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Others still might know him as Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993) because a lot of people have unabashedly bad taste. Anyone who has ever wondered what he'd look like as a London gangster get exactly what they wish for as Hoskins slips into the role he was born to play. Likewise Helen Mirren is a revelation as his intelligent, faithful and capable wife she provides the dimming voice of reason in Harry's world which is getting smaller by the moment.I would have liked to see Harry's hands get a little dirtier throughout the movie. The film largely focuses on Harry's downward spiral and doesn't mention how he rose to such prominence as a leading mob boss in the first place. In fact, Harry tries to present himself as a legitimate businessman and it is only after the second act that a long dormant psychosis surfaces and his true colors show. Until then we see a largely composed and indulgent mafioso who is brought to a slow boil. All in all however, The Long Good Friday is certainly one of my favorites recommended to me by friends and I readily recommend it to anyone.

Having just seen The Long Good Friday for the first time in its new cinema release (2015) I am at a loss to understand the praise it gets. The script is feeble and the characters completely absurd, especially the two mafia guys and Helen Mirren as the gangster's moll! The actors are very competent, but the film has no atmosphere, no pace, no rhythm; it's just a sequence of set pieces, almost of tableaux. A gangster film should at least have a sense of danger about it, but this one doesn't because the confrontations are so contrived and implausible. For me the best and only enjoyable part is the swimming baths sequence near the beginning, with Paul Freeman (Colin) and Pierce Brosnan (1st Irishman) giving superb performances, brimming with tension. Significantly here they are not hampered by dialogue. Brosnan makes a second chilling appearance at the end of the film, again without dialogue. You can well see from this why he would be offered the Bond role.

I love it when I choose a film at random - no expectations, no preconceived notions (except that I like Bob Hoskins) and it startles me and finds a way into my system. I found it very hard to shake, haunting even, and I think about it still years after watching it. In the tradition of many great gangster films, it tells a complex story with all of the crucial ingredients including betrayal and corruption, murder, lust and an abattoir. It is epic in scope, and brutal in its narrative - following the rise and inevitable fall of a gangster, Harold, played with some kind of fury by Bob Hoskins in one of his most unforgettable roles. Hoskins has a brilliant way about him, and in many of his films he excels at showing both a vulnerability and a murderous disposition. He can make you laugh, then rattle the ground with curdling anger, often within the same scene. He is such a specific actor that it's often hard to imagine anybody else inhabiting the roles he chooses. An intense and intelligent thriller that will get under your skin and stay there.