and his appearance as Remmick, as well as his disturbing cameo in “28 Years Later.” The truth is, though, he’s been grinding away for years in some equally impressive and unfortunately forgotten films, three of which were all released in the same year. Back in 2014, O’Connell made a massive push on the big screen and appeared in three separate war films that were all released mere months apart, with one being ever so slightly far-fetched than the rest. A year after his exceptional performance opposite Ben Mendelsohn in the prison drama “Starred Up,” O’Connell went it alone in “’71”, which saw him as a soldier stranded in Belfast when the riots during the Troubles of Northern Ireland broke out in 1971.
The film marked a directorial debut for Yann Demange, who has since gone on to direct “White Boy Rick,” the pilot episode of the short-lived series “Lovecraft Country,” and was one of the many filmmakers who tried to take on “Blade” for the MCU, before parting with it last year. “’71” was thankfully an exceptional example of work from both the star and its director and is absolutely worth a watch. As for the other two? One still stands as a rather disappointing sequel following on from a groundbreaking hack-and-slash chunk of cinema, while the other was a true story bursting with awards-grabbing potential but just didn’t quite make the cut, even with Angelina Jolie at the helm.
