Certainly the filmmakers rounded up the right cast of tough-guy actors for this story of mob activity, but their presence doesn't lend much vigor to this unfocused and sentimental tale.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 15, 2011

The cast makes up for some occasionally spotty storytelling and telegraphing of events that keep "Irishman" from being as good as it could have been.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 7, 2011

What makes this film special and memorable is the character of Danny Green, who is not the usual neighborhood hoodlum you see in movies, the kind who gets in deep and gradually loses his soul.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2011

Stevenson is big and swarthy and not altogether without credibility, but he's got as much charisma as a potato.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 24, 2011

The problem is that writer-director Jonathan Hensleigh doesn't do much beyond filling in the template; he's telling the specific, true-life tale of mob decline in 1970s Cleveland, but every character and setpiece feels like it fell off a truck.

| Original Score: C | Mar 24, 2011

There's an irresistible, Cleveland-esque, underdog quality about this whole production.

Full Review | Mar 18, 2011

Stevenson is a good actor, but Kill the Irishman is standard mob fare, neither exciting enough nor interesting enough to matter.

| Original Score: C | Mar 18, 2011

At the same time overemphatic and insecure.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 18, 2011

As a kind of St. Patrick's Day hangover, "Kill the Irishman'' gets the job done.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 17, 2011

The setting lacks the gritty feel of the mean streets of New York, Jersey or even Boston mob movies. It is, after all, Cleveland. The story, which gets bogged down in detail, often feels predictable and lacks spark.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 17, 2011

An extravagantly corny ode to the collapse of the Cleveland mafia in the 1970s.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 11, 2011

In the lead role, the snarling Ray Stevenson suffers from a charisma deficit.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 11, 2011

Clichd shards of mob movies that add up to the usual "Goodfellas" knockoff.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 10, 2011

The structure of the storytelling in Kill the Irishman is pretty square, but the cast is tasty...

| Original Score: B | Mar 9, 2011

It's got solid roots, but a painfully weak life-to-book-to-film transition turns an extraordinary story into something that's not only forgettable, but hard to remember, too.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 8, 2011

Flavorless writing and direction and a low-wattage cast turn potentially strong material into a routine crime thriller.

| Mar 8, 2011

This mob-war romance could still find an audience in niche release, given its action-oriented underdog story and Ray Stevenson's oddly charismatic lead performance.

Full Review | Mar 7, 2011

A mind-numbingly familiar saga of thuggish tough guys, dapper mafioso, and urban warfare that, despite a based-on-real-life pedigree, proves indistinguishable from its imitative brethren.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 5, 2011