Martin McDonagh, the international hot property playwright-turned-filmmaker whose stylishly violent oeuvre includes 2008’s
In Bruges, steps further out on the literary-eye-gouge limb with this exasperatingly predictable crime yarn about a slow-witted Hollywood would-be screenwriter (Colin Farrell), his comically seedy friends (a wonderful Sam Rockwell, a suitably dour Christopher Walken), a pissed-off hood (one-dimensional Woody Harrelson), and assorted criminal flotsam played by Tom Waits, Michael Pitt, Kevin Corrigan, Abbie Cornish, Harry Dean Stanton, Gabourey Sidibe, et al. McDonagh’s first American-set film project is a bit better than most Quentin Tarantino imitations, but that’s all it really amounts to, despite McDonagh’s snappy patter and Rockwell’s spirited hamming. Not nearly absurd enough to compensate for the overworked tough-guy tone. Is the London-born, Irish-identified whiz kid ready for the Tinseltown fast lane? Maybe next time, (105 min.)
By
Kelly Vance
See our full review:
My fillum. Let's kill 'em.
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