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The actors - Michael Caine, Dylan Moran, Lena Headey, Conor McPherson
Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
In this classic comic caper, struggling actors O'Malley (Michael Caine) and Tom (Dylan Moran) are looking for an escape from the nightly humiliation of repertory theatre. One befriends a local gangster and hatches an apparently foolproof plan to make some easy cash. In order to pull off the scam they take on various disguises and characters and discover a talent for crime, that they never had for acting.
When the real hoods arrive the actors-cum-criminals find their intricate web of deceit stretched to the limit.
Persons of interest
- Michael Caine .... O'Malley
- Dylan Moran .... Tom
- Michael Gambon .... Barreller
- Miranda Richardson .... Magnani
- Lena Headey .... Dolores
- Alison Doody .... Herself
- Neil Jordan .... Storywriter
- Conor McPherson .... Screenwriter
- Conor McPherson .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- The actors official movie site
- The actors QuickTime movie trailers
- Awards and film festivals:
- Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2004: Nominated: Funniest comedy
- cf. The impostors, Waiting for Guffman, Big Momma's house
- FYI: The structure of a five-act play, around which The actors is formed, consists of the following elements:
- exposition or presentation,
- conflict or the appearance of conflict,
- complication or development,
- crisis or climax,
- final resolution.
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
The actors is definitely a classic comic caper: little men doing big jobs, second-rate actors, dodgy crims, scary crims, mistaken identities, Shakespeare. You can't have a proper comic caper without Shakespeare. Michael Caine is a classic Theatrical™, self-important actor (with Ian McKellan's Nazi Richard III and Laurence Olivier's fake nose) who can't see past the ego on his face. Dylan Moran (star and writer of the brilliant comedy Black Books) is the perfect theatre geek, with a great line in character improvisation (yes, I know it's all in the script but he performs the ability of improvisation, which is no less important).
The plot tumbles all over itself, enmeshing you in the chaos that is two regular Joes trying to steal money from the big guns. Every action causes a re-action, every re-action causes a re-re-action until our heroes are running around like chickens with their heads chopped off. Hee, hee, hee. The more trouble Tom and O'Malley get into the more they become themselves (ie the polite public veneer is stripped away); it's great to see what they are really like underneath all that actorly twaddle.
This is a funny, funny film that I recommend to all thespians and lovers of camp comedy. What a hoot!
Security censorship classification
M (Medium level coarse language, low level violence)
Surveillance time
92 minutes (1:32 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 13 May 2004
DVD rental: 10 November 2004
VHS rental: 10 November 2004
Disc: 6 October 2010
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