Seven Psychopaths
(2012)They won't take any Shih Tzu.
From the writer and director of In Bruges comes this Los Angeles-set crime comedy involving a screenwriter, the gangster underworld and one mobster's beloved Shih Tzu. Stars Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken.... More
Marty (Farrell) is a struggling writer who dreams of finishing his screenplay, Seven Psychopaths. All he needs is a little focus and inspiration. Billy (Rockwell) is Marty's best friend, an unemployed actor and part time dog thief, who will help Marty by any means necessary. Hans (Walken) is Billy's partner in crime, a religious man with a violent past. Charlie (Harrelson) is the unpredictable, psycho-pathetic gangster whose beloved dog Billy and Hans have just stolen. Marty is going to get all the focus and inspiration he needs, presuming he lives to tell the tale.Hide
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Midnight Madness, Audience Award winner at Toronto Film Festival 2012
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Directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Abbie Cornish, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Olga Kurylenko, Tom Waits, Helena Mattsson
Written by Martin McDonagh
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 4 providers
Flicks Review
BY Liam Maguren Flicks Writer
Following up on his stupendous feature debut In Bruges, writer-director Martin McDonagh attempts to merge Pulp Fiction with Adaptation in Seven Psychopaths. As awesome as that sounds, the schizophrenic script will hold you back from falling in love with it.... More
McDonagh once again makes great use of Colin Farrell as Marty, a struggling Irish scriptwriter caught up in a chaotic chain of events. This unwanted life-or-death situation acts as the muse he needs to rid himself of writer’s block, introducing him to characters he can adopt into his screenplay.
Woody Harrelson does subdued craziness well as the ruthless killer whose heart bleeds for his beloved Shih Tzu; Christopher Walken ups the comedic ante well above his usual shtick as the scene-stealing wise old psycho with a hilariously OTT backstory; Sam Rockwell cuts the written lines of verbal diamonds his gunfight-craving basket case has been given (brilliantly outlining a fallacy in a Gandhi proverb in one scene).
Unfortunately, Marty’s inability to choose what kind of story to tell seems reflective of McDonagh’s own inability to pick a consistent direction with Seven Psychopaths. Sometimes, it’s a simple character-driven comedy. Sometimes, it’ll shift gear to being something more intimate. Sometimes, it’ll hint at breaking the fourth wall. McDonagh’s film changes its mind as often as Marty does, and perhaps that’s the point. However, it still left me with a floating sense of vacantness.
There are plenty of cinematic gold nuggets to mine from Seven Psychopaths but it just feels a little overcooked. Though like the characters it portrays, while it may be imbalanced and flawed, the film proves funny and extremely likeable.Hide
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Seven Psychopaths
BY Random-One lister
If your choice of movie is generally in the lines of Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice or any Rom Com then this movie is not... More for you. Not for the faint hearted.Hide
BY JackWallace superstar
BY adamatdramatrain superstar
Sam Rockwell's Billy is an LA lowlife who, along... More with old-timer Hans (the ever-wonderful Chris Walken) kidnaps rich people's dogs and then returns them to collect the reward from their grateful owners. Only Billy and Hans make the mistake of dog-napping the beloved pooch of sociopathic Charlie (Woody Harrelson at his over-the-top best) and - that's it. Some won't like the dark humour and the sudden mid-movie mood swing that wrenches a tragic twist in the tale, skewing the comedy into a desert-set existential road-movie, but personally? I loved it. But then I'm a sucker for bleak existential comedies - especially if they star Chris Walken, who frankly I'd enjoy watching read the telephone directory out loud whilst taking a crap. The guy oozes charisma and star quality. When one of Woody Harrelson's hoods demands that Walken put his hands up, Walken simply refuses. "No" he drawls "Why should I? I don't want to."
Mixed up in his friends dognapping scam is Colin Farrell's Marty, a screenwriter (um, 'Marty', like writer/director Marty McDonagh... geddit?) struggling to write a script. Early on in the movie Marty is asked by Billy how his screenplay for 'Seven Psychopaths' is coming. Marty replies: "Slow. I've got the title... just haven't been able to come up with all the psychopaths yet." When Billy asks just how many psycho's he's got, Marty tells him: "One. And he ain't really much of a psychopath. He's more of a... Buddhist...I'm sick of all these stereotypical Hollywood murderer scumbag type psychopath movies. I don't want it to be one more film about guys with guns in their hands. I want it, overall, to be about love - and peace. But it still has to be about these seven psychopaths, so this Buddhist psychopath, he doesn't believe in violence. I don't know what the fock he's going to do in the movie..."
And there's the movie in a nutshell. A comedic ensemble caper comedy that contemplates violence and movies, comically... not to mention violently. Violently comically. Um... yeah. It's a boys own caper, sort of 'Oceans 11' for hipsters - with an Uber-cool cast, featuring alongside Walken, Farrell, Rockwell, Harrelson the likes of Tom Waites as the rabbit-loving killer, Zachariah. Think Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs' with dialogue by Woody Allen, because McDonagh's script snaps crackles and pops with comedic dialogue. Remember Woody Allen's 'Play It Again Sam'? Hitting on a girl in an art gallery, Woody asks: "What are you doing Saturday night?" She replies bleakly: "Committing suicide." Quick as a flash, Woody responds: "What about Friday?" In 'Seven Psychopaths' when Zach tells Marty he's going to kill him Tuesday, Marty replies bleakly: "That's good, I'm not doing anything Tuesday."
So, if you're free Tuesday, or any other night, and fancy some meta-movie existential comedic violence, you should check out 'Seven Psychopaths.' The mix of comedy, drama, melancholy, violence and meditation doesn't always work and certainly isn't for all tastes, but if you like watching great actors having a ball with a script that dares to be different, then it's a heck of a lot of fun.Hide
BY Brian1 superstar
Perhaps not my style, interesting acting and storytelling, but I came away underwhelmed.
BY freshdude superstar
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS is an unpredictable, funny, occasionally faltering but regularly excellent piece of cinema.
Some may call it messy, all over the place ... I guess it is, and deliberately so, just as the protagonists themselves. It's weird and fun and sad and gross and clever and definitely very entertainig while being full of messages on a wide variety of subjects . Go see it, it's good.
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The Press Reviews
82%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Well, they have the title right. Full Review
Enormously entertaining, endlessly quotable, perfectly cast and packed full of the richest acting you'll see from an ensemble cast all year, but the result is ever so slightly hollow. Full Review
After a while the narrative falters, the ideas flag and it simply gets dull. Full Review
There's way more wit than weight in Martin McDonagh's second feature, but still much to enjoy. Full Review
Hilarious, unwieldy, clever, snarky and snide it may be, but it's always entertaining. Full Review
A collection of weird riffs that not even engaging acting by Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken and Tom Waits can bring together. Full Review
Meta to the max, filled with clever jokes and observations that stick like barbs and deflated ones that land with a thud. Full Review
Engagingly off-centre, like Charlie Kaufman taking down Quentin Tarantino... often closer to chaos than it is to genius. Full Review
Arm-wrestles the split between shlock and sincerity... Full Review
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