Seven Psychopaths Review


Movie: Seven Psychopaths
By: Maniac E
Date: March 19, 2013

They Won't Take Any Shih Tzu

Sometimes you come across movies you don't know what they want to be this crime comedy with a black lining knows exactly what it wants to be. A crime comedy with a black lining! Normally we would be more into the horror movie stuff but black comedy is always a welcome thing. And with a cast like this who can ignore it.

Marty (Collin Farrell) is a struggling Irish screenwriter, who hopes to finish his screenplay for a film called "Seven Psychopaths," while battling a case of writer's block and author-indecisiveness. His best friend is Billy (Sam Rockwell), a boisterous dog-thief, who usually winds up dictating Marty's life rather than helping him along in tough times. Hans (Christopher Walken) is Billy's best friend and partner in crime when it comes to dog-snatching. After both Hans and Billy steal an unpredictable crime boss's (Woody Harrelson) shih-ztu, it becomes a violent, relentless cat-and-mouse chase to get the pup back, and in the meantime, we get lengthy monologues between characters about the production of "Seven Psychopaths" and how Marty's inspiration begins to bubble when he starts considering the barrage of real psychopaths in his own life.

Seven Psychopaths

Right off the bat, the first thing one can commend about this entire experience are the rich performances by actors of all different career heights. Collin Farrell plays a wonderful straight-laced man victim to idiocy and unhelpful circumstances, and is only made better by Sam Rockwell's character's shameless belligerence. Woody Harrelson, giving us one of his many diverse roles in recent years, has the rare ability of rustling up a fierce moment of seriousness and delivering a devilishly funny laugh in the same breath. And who could forget supporting-role king Christopher Walken, who continuously borders the line of self-parody here in a memorably sophisticated role? At times, Seven Psychopaths is a witty riot and at other times, it can be monotonous and lengthy. For starters, the film looks and feels like a Quentin Tarantino film blended with the likes of Guy Ritchie. Shots have a very slim sense of narrative cohesion and many, many times are we left bewildered at what we just watched. It's also apparent that the film has a meta, self-aware tone that can be pleasantly charming, and sometimes cloying and overly-cheeky. To simply my feelings; after many sequences was I trying to comprehend what was just given to me and how was I supposed to digest the experience all together.

Seven Psychopaths

I cannot deny that there are more than a few laugh out loud moments here, mostly in the first act which plays out like a very clever but understated comedy. But the rest of the film, with its hyper-eccentric (but purposeless) storyline and its meandering ways, is all sorts of disappointing. So, I guess the real issue with "Seven Psychopaths" is that tonally it's too all over the place. During its momentary lapses of quippy-ness, the movie is very funny, and works the way it is intended. But when McDonagh attempts to create a dark atmosphere, he doesn't hold back; slicing throats, shooting people in the back of the head, burning people alive, etc. In other words, if one scene resembles an episode of "The Odd Couple" (very timely reference, I know) then the very next scene contains gruesome Tarantino-esque violence (but without the coolness factor) that appears to come out of a different movie entirely. And while I could say that this movie may have worked better (on every level) in the hands of a filmmaker like Quentin Tarantino, that only reinforces that fact that McDonagh is no Tarantino, and shouldn't try to be.

Seven Psychopaths

I must say at first I didn' t want to see this movie at all I was like yeah another major production etc. But I am glad I did watch it, and it ended way better than I thought. All the star power in this movie just merge together well and it really is a home run combined. Of course the movie has its down falls but it completely gets blasted away by the over the topness and blackness of the comedy parts.


4/5




BLURAY REVIEW

Image quality

The movie has a near-perfect 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode that's presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. Following suit with the genre and tone, the video quality is both gritty and beautiful at the same time. The movie carries a slightly blown out look that causes the film grain and gritty style to appear very strong.


Sound

The sound leaves some points behind since the HD5.1 mix doesn't really make sure the complete set will be used. Most sounds are coming from the front speaker sides even heavy gun shots.


Extras

Not much going on here some trailers, bloopers and stills.


Overall

The Blu-ray's video quality is close to perfection, but it isn't always demo-worthy. Unfortunately, the audio quality is lacking, but that doesn't distract from the fun cinematic greatness that's there to behold. Special features aren't this release's strong suit either. Four of the six featurettes are unapologetic promo pieces. The other two are wacky fun, but nothing special. On the upside, the movie itself is more than enough to make this a disc worth owning. Recommended!


E1 Entertainment

Movie

Seven Psychopaths

Title

Seven Psychopaths

Director

Martin McDonagh

Country

USA

Year

2012

Cast

Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken