Seven Psychopaths (15)

Film

Comedy

Seven Psychopaths

Time Out rating:

<strong>Rating: </strong>4/5

User ratings:

<strong>Rating: </strong>3/5
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Time Out says

Tue Dec 4 2012

Writer’s block can be a pain in the backside – or a bullet to the head – if, like Marty (Colin Farrell) in Martin McDonagh’s fun, knockabout ‘Seven Psychopaths’, you’re a movie scribe whose ideas make more impact in real life than on the page. Marty is a boozy Irish writer in Hollywood who complains to his livewire pal Billy (Sam Rockwell) that he needs inspiration to write a script called ‘Seven Psychopaths’. The result is more blood on the carpet than ink on paper.

Billy is partly a psychopath magnet, partly a writer’s dangerous inner voice made real. He and his cravat-sporting older pal Hans (Christopher Walken) are petty thieves who kidnap a shih tzu dog from a Mafia boss (Woody Harrelson) who wants his pup back – and Marty gets dragged into the whole violent affair. Meanwhile, Billy tries to help Marty by putting an ad in the paper for psychos; and they end up with a disturbed ageing killer (Tom Waits) on the doorstep.

Sundry nutters come and go (look out for a cameo from the legendary Harry Dean Stanton) as Marty finds himself at the centre of exactly the sort of bloody, macho melodrama he’d rather not be writing. Head-in-hands becomes Marty’s default position, and Farrell offers a good line in manic despair and passive exasperation.

You’ll have guessed that we’re in self-reflective, hall-of-mirrors movie territory for British-Irish writer McDonagh’s second feature-length film (after 2008’s ‘In Bruges’). There’s something a little turn-of-the-century about ‘Seven Psychopaths’, with its comic approach to violence, movie-in-a-movie navel-gazing and ample backstreet LA locations. The films of Quentin Tarantino (‘Pulp Fiction’) and Charlie Kaufman (‘Adaptation’) inevitably come to mind – but McDonagh is less saturated in film and pop culture than Tarantino and less prone than Kaufman to disappear down story wormholes.

What saves ‘Seven Psychopaths’ from being po-faced or tedious is its sharp-as-knives humour, energetic pacing, knack for surprising asides and fun performances from a cast that has a certain wow factor when piled up together. It’s undoubtedly a very male enterprise, and McDonagh acknowledges this, even if he doesn’t explain it: ‘Your women characters are awful,’ is Hans’s reproach to Marty at one point. The nods to bungled creativity and winks at questions of screen violence offer something to chew on. But above all, this is violent, seedy farce, pure and simple, and it’s McDonagh’s zippy script that keeps it ticking over until all the trousers have been dropped at knifepoint and the custard pies been lobbed with malice.

Author: Dave Calhoun

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Release details

Rated:

15

UK release:

Fri Dec 7, 2012

Duration:

110 mins

Cast and crew

Director:

Martin McDonagh

Screenwriter:

Martin McDonagh

Cast:

Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson

Cinemas showing Seven Psychopaths

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The Camberley Theatre

Knoll Road, Camberley, GU15 3SY Show map/details

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  • Address:

    The Camberley Theatre Knoll Road
    Camberley
    GU15 3SY

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  • Tue Jun 25:

    • 14:30
    • 20:00
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Comments & ratings

Rated as: 3/5 (19 ratings)

  • this is a sowhat disappointing film. As someone who saw In Burges, I enjoyed that film very much. However, this film s not as good. The script, which I found so good in In Bruges, was very up and down, though there were some very good speeches . The acting was a bit up-and-down, whereas you have the exaggerated acting of Sam Rockwell, but also the fine acting of Christopher Walken. the violence seems to me to be a little self-serving.

    Marek Mon Dec 10 2012
    Rated as: 3/5
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  • I loved this film, thought it was very well acted by all of the main characters, Christopher Walken was brilliant. I thought there was a lot going on, it kept me engaged & the audience was laughing out loud. Brilliant

    JayneM Sun Dec 9 2012
    Rated as: 4/5
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  • K.flyer, the £1.30 a time (Total Recall, just browsing Farrell films) is based on £180 p/a unlimited card watching 2 or 3 a week. This bargain is often reflected in my somewhat more tolerant views than most on here. Wouldn't go more than once a week without the £15 a month deal. Back to the film, it isn't at any stage laugh out loud funny but IS often cringey, like the end credit scene, which is one of many that come off like a student skit.

    scrumpyjack Fri Dec 7 2012
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  • This movie tries too hard to be something its not. Whilst it does have some good parts, there are no great parts. It just rambles between genres without actually getting anywhere fast. 2 out of 5 only for Walken and Tom Waits.

    K.Flyer Fri Dec 7 2012
    Rated as: 2/5
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  • Sorry, to be clear the last 5 lines refer to 7 Psychopaths, NOT Alex Cross which I watched beforehand.

    scrumpyjack Thu Dec 6 2012
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  • Care home wheelchairs taking up most of front row in ALEX CROSS so sat mid way and glanced a phone a few rows down for a few seconds mid way. Didn't challenge this time as very brief & film not worth it but what the fuck is it with these twat's? Is there no consideration left what so ever? In my time at a cinema any disturbance met with one warning then out, no refund, but those were the long gone days of (reasonably educated) staff in each screen. Film, frustrating but no time check. However you would have thought 4 years between releases would have been ample time to come up with a piece way better than this....& Has the 18 cert been scrapped? 7/10

    scrumpyjack Thu Dec 6 2012
    Rated as: 3/5
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  • I was really looking forward to watching this.A friend said it was great.I'll wait for a few more people to comment. As for the mobile phones.....I lost it ,and walked out a few months back.I was given a free ticket to go "try" to watch the film again,but having to sit through what I'd already seen AGAIN,takes away from the experience.Surely someone must be able to come up with an answer to this problem.

    NettaUK Thu Dec 6 2012
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  • We need more cinemas to start addressing the audience at the start of the film warning them not to use phones. This has now become a blight to my visits to the cinema. I actually endured one creep using his phone throughout a film and ....I saw him taking a one handed piss with his mobile phone in the other hand texting. Multi-tasking at it's worst. I was gonna nudge his elbow to send his phone into the urinal.

    ARCHGATE Thu Dec 6 2012
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  • Phone usage MUST be challenged. I sit front row so not too much of a blight but has happened twice this year - 3 girls already in my seats (front center) so sat 5 rows back....dreaded glow followed by Bieber ffs. Blew my top, they desisted. Second, adult that came to the FRONT of all places during Batman 1 & 2 to inflict his "essential" gadget on 300 viewers. Needless to say he sat in the wrong place and fled to the foyer within 5 seconds. Dreadful looking double followed by this today...looks so far as dreadful looking treble.

    scrumpyjack Thu Dec 6 2012
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  • I'm not sure what its aims are; not sure how well it's written or made; not sure how effectively it's performed. It seems like a slightly retarded farce and isn't quite funny enough but that's not just due to an insufficiency of good jokes. It seems as much to do with the variety of performances and that too many of them are sendups. Christopher Walken is unremittingly beautiful to watch and Sam Rockwell is surprising although some of that surprise subverts the film. Overall, it's insufficiently serious to be moving and Colin Farrell is a bit of a non-entity (perhaps the character is written that way; it's possible). Enjoyable in places but the end titles weren't unwelcome when they started. A puzzle with a good first hour.

    Phil Ince Wed Dec 5 2012
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