jennielusty I thought the movie was very good, the first half brought some very good music tracks back to life. I seem to remember that in 1979 the snooker was on the BBC for hour after hour, and if memory recalls Higgins lost to Taylor during that championship. However 1979 was a dark year for most of the people in the U.K. when something happened that made the £ or $ sign more important than people. It took Higgins another ten years until 1982 to win the title again, which is where the film portrays him to be struggling as the best, but not the most commercialized snooker player. The films shows one of the main characters out to be a child of this greed for cash. Nearly forty years later I still have the same opinion as do nearly all my mates of that said person. Anyway good sounds, good story, (not sure if all snooker player portrayed sold their souls for cash) In short it appears that the title would of been more appropriate to be named as, (Barry Hearne is a CTNU)

Chris Gaynor The Rack Pack is more of a reminisce on the good old days of snooker in the 80s, than an informative look at it. While it's a great piece of entertainment, it does nothing to solve the problems snooker faces now, i.e, why there are so many clubs shutting down despite the top dogs claiming it's a global sport. To get snooker to the heights or, at least back to the glory days of 85 would be near impossible if there were more clubs and talent scouts around to nurture the next generation of talent. Sadly, for me, this film was just a piece of dotage on the past, a time that will never be recaptured unless something is done now to inject a bit of vigor into the game at grassroots level. A great watch, but a forgettable piece of drama that won't leave you craving to watch it again and again...For a detailed review, go to the NEWSHUB/Snooker: what do you learn from the Rack Pack...

gareth_pegg From Treadaway's accent and mannerisms, to the clever interposition of excerpts of TV commentary from those early 1980s matches.. this film is (like the Steve Davis era it portrays) universally professional.The characters are spot on, the emotional story played with respect, but without deference and above all (in capturing the effectiveness of this piece) the snooker sequences are brilliant! If you go onto Youtube and watch Higgins' 1982 Semi-Final "break of the tournament", then straight after you watch Treadaway jerking and swaying to the same beat you will see what I mean. How on this planet they recreated that blue to the top corner??? - The best thing I've seen for at least a year!

Prismark10 Just before the start of the 1982 snooker world championship, Alex Higgins gave an interview to a newspaper. He criticised Steve Davis as staid and downplayed his own chances for the tournament. Davis as defending champion was knocked out in the first round and Higgins went on to win the tournament.Ten years earlier Higgins was the youngest world snooker champion, a bolt of lightning in a sport known to be slow and played by old men. My older brother used to rave about Higgins in the 1970s.Then again if you watch this film the only person that raved about Higgins were people who never met him or got to know him. Higgins was a drinker, drug taker, womaniser and a bona fide hell raiser. I think this film just showed us the edited highlights and a toned down version at that. There was a disgusting true incident where he threatened to send the paramilitary terrorists to sort out Dennis Taylor that was wisely excised from this film.Nerd Alert Warning: I saw Steve Davis when he made his snooker television début in Pot Black in 1978 where he played Fred Davis. I saw him do the first televised 147 break which was on ITV and hence not commentated by Ted Lowe as shown here. I even remember his chat show 'A frame with Davis.' Actually I am a fan of Steve Davis even though he is a Tory supporter.This drama made Davis out to be a lot more nerdy than he was at the time but I think it was just to add contrast to the characters. Barry Hearn as portrayed here was a lot more jovial than the hard headed businessman he is and you have to be ruthless if you enter the world of boxing promotion which Hearn did in the mid 1980s. I did think the actor playing Higgins was just too much of the caricature of the Higgins we know from the press and television although I was amazed by the potting skills of the actors or it might had been clever use of CGI.Of course there was a lot more shades of greys in real life back in the days when snooker took off in the 1980s. We just see Higgins and Jimmy White as the bad boys of snooker and the press were more interested in the rivalry between White and Davis who were the emerging new generation.Yet during the era many snooker players lived life to the hilt with booze, drugs and women. Even Cliff Thorburn shown here as dull and with a dodgy Canadian accent was exposed as a cocaine user.Still a celebration of a time when snooker was more than a load of old balls.