Entertainment

LIFE IN THE BELFAST LANE

IT’S hard to come up with a new take on the violence that wracked Northern Ireland in the ’70s and ’80s, but “Five Minutes of Heaven” does it very effectively, in no small part thanks to terrific performances by Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt.

The second English-language film by German director Oliver Hirschbegel (the endlessly YouTubed Hitler flick “Downfall” and the disastrous “The Invasion” with Nicole Kidman) opens with a prologue featuring the actors’ characters as teenagers.

It’s 1975 and Neeson’s 17-year-old self, a Protestant terrorist, accepts an assignment to kill a young Catholic — but impulsively decides to spare the victim’s younger brother, who grows up to be Nesbitt.

Three decades later, a TV crew brings the survivors together. Neeson, who spent 12 years in prison for the killing, is now a slick, globe-trotting expert in conflict resolution. Nesbitt is a working man whose life has been shattered by the incident.

The latter brings a knife to the interview site and admits to a production aide that killing Neeson would be “five minutes of heaven.” To the movie’s credit, things don’t play out as you might expect — nor is there a pat ending.

Canadian Kari Skogland’s fact-based “Fifty Dead Men Walking” also has fine performances, by Jim Sturgess as a young Belfast man recruited by British forces to infiltrate the IRA in the ’80s, and Ben Kingsley as his handler.

But it follows a more familiar pattern that shifts from soap opera (our hero has a pregnant girlfriend) to thriller (he is tortured by the IRA after his cover is blown and his partner, played by Rose McGowan, is captured).

The title of the overlong “Fifty Dead Men Walking” refers to lives saved by Sturgess’ character, who is still in hiding years later.

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN Running time: 90 minutes. Not rated (violence, profanity). At the Angelika, Houston and Mercer streets. FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING Running time: 117 minutes. Rated R (violence, profanity, drugs). At the Empire and the Quad.