Johnny Was

"Stop running. Face the future."

Jul 19 2006 R 1h 33m
Action, Crime, Drama

Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland to lie low in London, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of Brixton Prison...

Plot

Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland to lie low in London, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of Brixton Prison, hell bent on derailing the Irish peace process with a few well-placed bombs. Unable to escape Brixton, they are trapped together in Johnny's anything-but-safe safe house, sandwiched between a Rastafarian reggae pirate radio station upstairs and a West Indian 'Yardie' crack-dealing gangster, Julius, downstairs. As the charismatic Flynn finds common ground with the Yardies, Johnny fights to realize a peace process of his own, but makes the mistake of falling for Julius's girlfriend Rita, causing all-out war. A thriller in the vein of Lock Stock and The Long Good Friday, in which questions of race, morality, identity and loyalty play out against a great sound-track of reggae, rock, new wave and soul.

Written by

Brendan Foley

Directed by

Mark Hammond

Production Countries

United Kingdom

Production Companies

Was Productions Ltd., Ben Katz Productions

Languages

English

Awards

2 wins

Scores
# of Votes
1,782
Average Rating
5.5 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA