IMDB-Monster I never thought I'd be interested in watching such a movie. I probably watch five movies a year, so I'm pretty choosy about what I spend my time on. With that being said, I saw 'Far and Away' one day on the TV and was hooked. I guess it goes to show the general idea of movies and storytelling. Any decent story with a clear goal can make for an enthralling experience when you just wanna sit back and enjoy a little journey. It's the living room equivalent of sharing stories by the campfire. And this movie does a good job in presenting the journey of some young people. You get attached to it and root for them to succeed. 'Far and Away' also represents the time period well and creates a specific coziness associated with it. The traditional Irish music also helps a lot. Thus, this movie offers somewhat of a compelling atmosphere -- the one thing I value the most in movies.But these positives just cant't outweigh all the negatives. Cliché plot, childish acting and many stupid scenes. Penis checking, double death, very unrealistic fighting, killing a guy fresh off the boat, casually finding an empty house, the death of the horse, just to name a few. It's like the target age for the movie was 12. This is a mediocre movie at best. Nothing about it stands out. It's just as generic as they come. If the best movie ever is 9.5 stars, then I gotta give 'Far and Away' 5.5 - 6 stars. Funny thing about it is I'm actually surprised how much I enjoyed it. It might be the worst movie I enjoyed so much. You never know, some day I might watch it again and replace Tom Cruise with Conor McGregor.

Jackson Booth-Millard Directed by Ron Howard (Splash, Apollo 13, Ransom, A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code), I knew this film had mixed or negative reviews, it was rated two out of five stars, but I was willing to give it a chance. Basically set in 1893 Ireland, following the death of his father, young Irish man Joseph Donnelly (Tom Cruise) is facing property eviction, and he wants to get revenge on his landlord Daniel Christie (Mrs. Doubtfire's Robert Prosky). However in his attempt to kill Christie, Joseph is injured and sentenced to a duel against Christie's arrogant manager Stephen Chase (Thomas Gibson), meanwhile Christie's daughter Shannon (Nicole Kidman) is growing dissatisfied with her parents' generation of traditional views and longs to be modern. Shannon makes her plans to leave for the United States of America, and Joseph escapes with her, they arrive together in Boston, find jobs and begin saving money. Joseph makes money becoming a local bare-knuckle fighter, while Shannon works in a chicken processing plant and as a social club dancer, all is well until all their money is taken away after Joseph loses a boxing match. Joseph and Shannon are left starving in the cold of winter, Shannon's parents meanwhile leave Ireland to join her, they are facing a devastating loss, Chase joins them, he was leading a search to find Shannon, but Joseph brings her to them following an accident. To make money Joseph works on a railroad after heading west, but in a dream sequence he sees his father reminding and confronting him of his desire to own land, so he joins the wagon trains and arrives in Oklahoma Territory. Joseph is just in time for the Land Run of 1893, aka the Cherokee Strip Land Run, a chance for more than 10,000 to claim land, his fate lie in his participation, Shannon is also joining the ride and willing to help Joseph plant the flag that will ultimately claim the land he finds. Also starring Barbara Babcock as Nora Christie, Cyril Cusack as Danty Duff, Colm Meaney as Kelly, Bread's Eileen Pollock as Molly Kay, Michelle Johnson as Grace, Wayne Grace as Bourke, Douglas Gillison as Dermody, Niall Toibin as Joe, Barry McGovern as McGuire, Gary Lee Davis as Gordon, Jared Harris as Paddy, So What Now's Steven O'Donnell as Colm, Clint Howard, Ron's brother as Flynn, Brendan Gleeson as Social Club Policeman, Rance Howard, Ron's father as Tomlin and Father Ted's Pauline McLynn as Prostitute. Cruise and Kidman do their best to put on Irish accents, but only make it sound cartoonish, at least their performances are reasonable, and being married at the time their relationship is convincing, the love story between them is fine, but the memorable moments are the fights, the horse and cart rides, and of course the big sweeping riding across the Irish plains, the ending where Cruise looks dead for a moment and waking again is ridiculous, but once the credits role the great song "Book of Days" by Irish singer Enya rescues it, it is a slightly naff and stereotypical film, but as a whole it's not a bad romantic period adventure drama. Okay!

Muskrat36 Yes I know it was rubbish, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I almost stopped watching when our young Oirish Omadan Tom Cruise was battling with his Poteen drunk brothers, but once his father returned from his death to give him a final blessing, I was hooked. I wondered at this point if it was a screenplay written by a good Irish playwright. Nicole Kidman had a surprisingly good West of Ireland accent I thought, but Tom's was pure Kerrygold. Possibly the clichés were deliberate, and the whole thing was a satire on the American view of the Irish, but probably not. Scenery lovely, Nicole and Tom physically lovely. If you don't like it within a quarter of an hour, give it up. It doesn't change.

TC-Batsy Far and Away is a beautiful film that was executed perfectly by Ron Howard who co-wrote a brilliant screenplay about Irish immigrants searching for a better life in America due to the oppression they had to endure at the hands of greedy landlords in the late 1890's. Joseph Donnelly - played by Tom Cruise in one of his unforgettable roles - is a poor farmer with ambitions of having his own land, he seeks revenge after his father dies as result of a riot initiated by the tenants against the rich land owners. He flees Ireland with the help of a spoiled rich girl who has dreams of owning her own land in the Oklahoma territory. Both Joseph and Shannon experience the hardships of achieving their dreams in a distant country as they rely on each other for survival while living in Boston where Joseph earns his living as a boxing champion. The love story and the grand race are perfect elements in this epic movie.