How can anyone not like this film keeping in mind this is a non- Hollywood big budget production?! Wow, I was blown away... I still feel uneasy 30 min after the ending credits.

This film was the Irish equivalent to a Tarantino film!

Novice writer and director Mark O'Connor just nailed every aspect of this film. His directing is comparable to any top Hollywood director. Camera angles, close ups, pan-in & outs, just perfect! Even the cinematography and score could have not been fitted any better into this film.

Then we have actor and writer John Connors who just nailed his character so well, you felt you were right there feeling his emotions and tension. It felt as if this was all actually happening and you were just in the background observing everything.

Nothing about this film felt acted, phony or 'Hollywood-ish'. The realism was on point. I've never heard of any of these actors and every single one of them played their characters to perfection.

I'm just shocked at some of these negative reviews, especially the one who was so judgmental on the actors appearances, charisma, etc... and he didn't even get past 20 mins of this masterpiece. Know-it-all critics like that need to be banned from this site, as they are clearly not critics! Try Googling 'how to critique a film' and then analyze each component and you will see this film is a winner. Add the tense enjoyment and realism and this film is perfect.

Do yourself a favor and watch this film, ignore the negative reviews, take your blinders off, and see this film for what it is... a non-Hollywood, low budget amateur film masterpiece. It's a slow start, but gets much better. And if anyone thinks my review is fake, click on my username and you will see I'm more legit than 80% of the people on this site with over 600 ratings and almost 300 reviews!

A perfect and well deserved 10/10 from me! Bravo to John Connors, Mark O'Connor and all the rest of the cast and crew who put together this masterpiece! I hope you win many well deserved awards.

This is my second in a row Irish gangster flick, the other being "Calm With Horses". Seems the Irish get their kicks with violent crime movies just like us Americans. I have to say though, the small time gang in this one never had a chance against the local drug lord and his thugs, and a hothead like Connolly (John Connors) was too self centered to realize that unintended consequences would come his way every time he flew off the handle. Getting involved with Kim Murphy (Kierston Wareing) was a major pitfall that would have been discovered in due time with an outcome on the ugly side. I got the biggest kick out of Jay's buddy Dano (Fionn Walton) who talked big but was unable to back up any of his statements or actions. For the non-Irish viewer, it takes a while to get accustomed to the dialog and what the characters are talking about. After enough mentions though, I figured out that a 'gaff' was a place where someone lived, but my favorite was 'session moths', which apparently referred to girls who liked to party. The story has an abrupt if not exactly telegraphed ending when Derra (Jimmy Smallhorne) caught up with Dano and Jay, the biggest mystery being why Jay ran back to Kim out of some sense of loyalty. He should have figured that with the guys he was messing with, she would have been pressured to have him show up to get what was coming to him. He got what was coming big time.

Good, gritty crime film.

'Cardboard Gangsters' is very much worth a watch, it's relatively well made. The plot is nothing spectacular, you can probably guess where it's all heading, though that doesn't mean it's a bad film one bit.

John Connors carries things nicely as Jay, but Fionn Walton as Dano would be my pick of the bunch - he is pretty impressive. Damien Dempsey and Kierston Wareing also give noteworthy performances.

It's a little predictable no doubt, but this is a film that is definitely worth viewing.