Rating: 
Summary: Music is good! 5 stars for that!
Review: Well, after reading these reviews I have no desire to see the flick but the soundtrack certainly is excellent!!! Scorpions, Triumph, Zebra, wow!!! 5 stars for the tunes!
Rating: 
Summary: good movie, bad ending
Review: With a setting like ireland, and a genre like "crime drama" I was really interested in this movie. I liked it. I loved the way they tied in francis'(edward burns) faith along with his unforgivable past, to his love/ hate relationship with his brother sean(elijah wood). I thought the cast was perfect except for the casting of grace(rosario dawson). she did ok but that was it, ok. Overall, the movie was awesome but the ending was to abrupt. they should have showed more of what happened to sean and grace and their kid after francis helped them escape. Im leaving a lot out on purpose. I still recomend you see it.
Rating: 
Summary: Burns' writing is in steady decline
Review: With each passing movie, it becomes increasingly obvious Edward Burns was a one-hit wonder with "The Brothers McMullen".In fact, it may be necessary to look at "Brothers" in a new light. What seemed fresh and talented storywriting then has devolved into tired cliches and really atrocious casting. Elijah Wood is horrifically miscast in this movie. Are we truly to believe this timid kid could kill three assasins out to kill his brother? It started off with "She's the One". Take a cab in New York City sometime and tell me how clean-cut Edward Burns looking cab drivers are driving around. It is so unrealistic that his character Mickey in that movie would drift into becoming a cabbie. It's almost as unrealistic as his Mike McGlone character not sleeping with Jennifer Aniston to be faithful to his girlfriend Cameron Diaz. Then he made "No Looking Back" and wants us to believe that a woman as beautiful as Lauren Holly would end up working at a dead end diner in Far Rockaway. This movie "Ash Wednesday" was a mess from start to finish. To reveal the storyline implausibilities would ruin the movie for anyone hellbent on wasting the money or time to rent this. If it's snowing or raining and you're trapped indoors I suppose you could waste the time seeing it on cable. Not in a million years is a love relationship even feasible between Elijah Wood and Rosario Dawson. Had Burns cast Stephen Dorff or Sean Patrick Flannery at least we could have watched the movie without a vomitous reaction to how horribly miscast Wood was. Burns' smart-aleck dialogue has gotten very long in the tooth. A shame because I found "The Brothers McMullen" charming, sweet and virtuous. Despite all the beer product placement.
Rating:
Summary: Burns' writing is in steady decline
Review: With each passing movie, it becomes increasingly obvious Edward Burns was a one-hit wonder with "The Brothers McMullen". In fact, it may be necessary to look at "Brothers" in a new light. What seemed fresh and talented storywriting then has devolved into tired cliches and really atrocious casting. Elijah Wood is horrifically miscast in this movie. Are we truly to believe this timid kid could kill three assasins out to kill his brother? It started off with "She's the One". Take a cab in New York City sometime and tell me how clean-cut Edward Burns looking cab drivers are driving around. It is so unrealistic that his character Mickey in that movie would drift into becoming a cabbie. It's almost as unrealistic as his Mike McGlone character not sleeping with Jennifer Aniston to be faithful to his girlfriend Cameron Diaz. Then he made "No Looking Back" and wants us to believe that a woman as beautiful as Lauren Holly would end up working at a dead end diner in Far Rockaway. This movie "Ash Wednesday" was a mess from start to finish. To reveal the storyline implausibilities would ruin the movie for anyone hellbent on wasting the money or time to rent this. If it's snowing or raining and you're trapped indoors I suppose you could waste the time seeing it on cable. Not in a million years is a love relationship even feasible between Elijah Wood and Rosario Dawson. Had Burns cast Stephen Dorff or Sean Patrick Flannery at least we could have watched the movie without a vomitous reaction to how horribly miscast Wood was. Burns' smart-aleck dialogue has gotten very long in the tooth. A shame because I found "The Brothers McMullen" charming, sweet and virtuous. Despite all the beer product placement.
Rating:
Summary: A Few Misgivings
Review: Yes, the plot moves pretty slow for the first half. But overall, the movie is very good. Burns does an excellent job of setting the tone cinematographically, using the grey chill of late-winter New York to give the viewer a sense of discomfort.
I think Burns did a great job of introducing very real characters, with the exception of Wood, who I agree is very much mis-cast in this movie.
The 'location' shooting gives the movie great realism, and (unlike some of the reviewers) I thought the 'piano solo' soundtrack was one of the best things about the movie. The music very much fit into the mood Burns was trying to create.
I thought Burns did a wonderful job of portraying the urban ethnic religious society of Hell's Kitchen. In that regard, this movie reminded me very much of 'On the Waterfront'. As a matter of fact, this movie could be described as 'On the Waterfront' meets 'Miller's Crossing'.
I would have given it 5 stars except for the fact that it takes quite a while before the movie 'gets going'.
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