Why so much hype?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

A distraught young family make the long journey from America back to Ireland to discover it is much worse than when they left.Starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle.Written by Frank McCourt ( Book ), Laura Jones (Screenplay) and Alan Parker (Screenplay).Directed by Alan Parker.This is an incredibly touching and well acted movie. I was especially impressed with the young actors. They always say never to work with animals or children but I don't think I've ever watched a film with better acting performances from children.As well as the terrific acting, the storyline is emotionally compelling and at times pretty hilarious. The location filming is superb and it is overall a brilliantly produced movie. It is nostalgic, heart warming and terrifying in equal measure.I haven't read the original book yet but I have a feeling it's probably even better. I'll have to read it at some point.Great film.10/10

Directed by Alan Parker, and based on a memoir by Frank McCourt, "Angela's Ashes" stars Robert Carlyle as the father of a family struggling to live in 1930s Ireland. A coming-of-age tale, the film primarily focuses on young Frank, one of the family's gloomy sons.In the mould of Bill Douglas, whose films offered grim portraits of early 20th century Scotland, Parker conveys the bleak, gruelling conditions of 1930s Ireland. This is a world in which human beings are ceaselessly assaulted by death, disease, starvation, poverty, poor living conditions and miserable weather. Catholicism, and the hopeful embraces of churches and pulpits, pretends to offer some respite. "Angela's Ashes'" better elements are undone by a generic coming-of-age plot. Though funny, moving and even wise in places, the film's overall structure too often forces Parker's material down familiar avenues. The film stars child actor Joe Breed, his furrowed face at times more powerful, more devastating, than the film its in. Emily Watson co-stars as the family's privately suffering mother.7.9/10 – See "Wendy and Lucy", "Stroszek", "My Childhood", "Frozen River" and "Bread and Roses".

I'd have more respect for the author if he'd stayed in Ireland and tried to do something positive for his people."Author" being the appropriate word as apparently Mr McCourt later admitted to making a significant proportion of "Angela's Ashes" up. "Welcome to Ireland - please set your watches back 100 years" as the Aer Lingus cabin crew used to say jokingly to one another. I blame the Brits - I mean why not?You'll never get to heaven if you blame The Pope now will you? However you dress it up,the McCourt's unquestioning acceptance of the Church's teachings and their own position at the absolute bottom of the pile were at least partly to blame for the intense misery of their lives. Set in what is clearly Limerick's rainy season,the movie is an unremitting grind of squalor.Women are merely baby - making machines and if you lose one child you can have another soon enough so you can. In complete contrast to the wonderful "The Commitments" where the very existence of the group is a two - fingered affront to the perceived roles of its members,"Angela's Ashes" shows the Irish people to be fearful,superstitious and totally subservient to the Church/State which is a sign of how much the country has developed in the intervening years. Mr R.Carlyle has a fine old time as the drunken wastrel father .Weak,gaunt and haunted,he is too much of a stereotype to engage any sympathy.Miss E.Watson,doomed to eternal pregnancy by her faith is stoic and loving. "Angela's Ashes" was a huge success as a book because you could put it down,open a nice Merlot,knock up an environmentally friendly sustainable snack then continue to read about some poor sods starving to death in a freezing cold country as you wriggled your toes in your Peruvian Lama wool socks. In the cinema there was no such comfort - hence the movie did rather less well. Misery - it is said - loves company.But apparently only in the privacy of your own home.

I first saw this film in high school. My English teacher asked us to watch this movie and write a personal response to it. When I first saw this movie, I did not know what to expect, but when my viewing was complete, I found only a composition that took my breath away. The story about a young boy, Frank McCourt, growing up in the poor and bleak city of Limerick, Ireland, during the Great Depression, under an autocratic church and a father that could not get a job because he was addicted to alcohol moved me deeply and emotionally. Frank McCourt struggles not only with troubles on the home front, but with a church that teaches the people about Jesus without mentioning the concept of forgiveness of sins. They constantly put people in fear to live because they taught that you are doomed forever if you sin. I not only saw how ugly the church authority was, but I was also moved by Frank's life. For example, when Frank saw his father for the last time, he comments, through a narration, that he does not even have the freedom to say, "I love you Dad", because "in Limerick, you are only supposed to love God and horses that win... Anything else is softness in the head". When I saw this part, I almost wept, because it showed the limited freedom of a life in Limerick. As well, the theme that there is always hope in a troubled life is beautifully portrayed by the visuals. In the midst of the dark streets of Limerick, green grass grows in the cracks. Eventually, Frank triumphs when he gets enough money to go to America and start a new life. Also, near the end of the film, he meets a priest who understands that God forgives us when we sin. At last, there was a priest that truly understood the message of Jesus.The plot is beautiful, and the score not only captures the time period of the 1930's, but it is gently moving. It beautifully fits the atmosphere of the film.I would strongly recommend this film to anyone. It is a really underrated gem that deserves more credit.