Seven
Psychopaths must have been described in some meeting as Pulp Fiction
meets Adaptation and although thats as reductive as any X meets Y pitch,
damned if it isn’t sorta accurate. This is my version of a popcorn
movie. It’s entertaining as all hell, but when it’s over it doesn't
feel very substantial. Writer Director Martin McDonagh last made In
Bruges (also with Colin Farrell) and the black as coal Irish wit
returns; Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Walken gabbing is a
wonderful thing to see.
This
film is simultaneously very original and very unoriginal. The plot
doesn’t really have any surprises, but man is it fun to watch. The RZA
has worked in the film world for years, providing music or acting in
brief roles. But he finally steps up to the plate with one hell of a debut feature. The RZA wears many hats here: writing, directing, scoring and starring in a martial arts pastiche full of wacky
effects, aptly named characters, and copious blood-letting.
Robert
Zemeckis has finally crawled out of the mo-cap ghetto and made a film
with a real living breathing cast again, headlined by Denzel Washington as a drunk pilot who saves the day. This is a film of many
contradictions. It’s kinda preachy about quitting drinking and joining
AA but it also shows that you can fly a plane, land an exploding plane,
and survive a grilling at a federal hearing all while drunk. And high
on cocaine that you bought from the world’s fattest cocaine dealer
played by John Goodman.
This
film is like an apple pie left in the rain: mushy. The Wachowskis, of
The Matrix fame, and Tom Tykwer, of Run Lola Run fame, bring you an
absurdly ambitious film with an absurdly un-ambitious message that being
nice is good and being mean is bad. There are six stories in the film,
linked heavily by theme and lightly by plot, which are intercut over
three hours:
Lets
get this out of the way. This movie is funny. Intentionally funny.
Character-based humor, not falling-in-shit gags. I laughed out loud at
least ten times during this film and I’ve laughed less at comedies that
I gave good reviews. Abraham Lincoln liked to tell stories, whether
they be parables or anecdotes, and they are funny. Even the reactions
to his stories, sometimes before he even starts telling them, are funny.
There is a warmth to this movie, a story about bloodshed and misery
and depression and demons and the nation torn asunder, that is
unexpected and wonderful. Abe Lincoln loved his country and his fellow
man, and this is a loving tribute to the man.
