Monday, February 18, 2008

NOW I WANT TO VISIT BELGIUM

IN BRUGES, the new Colin Farrell/Brendan Gleeson hitman film from playwright Martin McDonagh (THE PILLOWMAN), is a nasty piece of entertainment that dips its hands in black comedy, dark drama, and bloody shoot-outs. Farrell has probably never been better than he is here, and Gleeson, as always, is a joy to watch. Ralph Fiennes shows up in the final act and steals every scene and the surreal, bloody finale really seals the deal. The trailers for this film have been grossly misleading; they've only focused on the last 20 minutes or so (the parts with guns going off). IN BRUGES is more of a serious character study spiked with moments of bizarre, black humor than a non-stop action flick. My full review will be up soon, but if you find yourself in the position to catch IN BRUGES in the theater, definitely do so...it's terrific.

2 comments:

Breedlove said...

sounds like you had a solid weekend of movie watching. i saw 'cloverfield' and 'jumper' on friday. thought the former was a lot of fun and the latter was garbage. concept was great and i love the way doug liman shoots action movies, but the story was laughably incoherant. the movie was just a mess. terrible characters and story. a wasted opportunity.

also finally saw 'away from her' last night which i thought was overrated. it had some nice moments but many amateurish/clumsy ones as well i thought.

gonna try to see 'in bruges' this week.

Actionman said...

I really loved CLOVERFIELD, my favorite film of 2008 (but have only seen three films thus far).

Jumper...I am a Doug Liman fan...but it looks weak and the reviews were in the toilet so I will wait till dvd.

You thought Away From Her was amateurish? Really? I thought the writing was devastatingly honest and the performances were almost beyond compare. Julie Christie is getting a lot of acclaim, and rightfully so, but Gordon Pinsent was equally as heartbreaking.

Looking forward to hearing your take on In Bruges...it's a wild and wacky flick.