Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

2012 R 110 Minutes

Comedy | Crime

A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.

Overall Rating

8 / 10
Verdict: Good

User Review

  • WHAT I LIKED: There's no doubt that 'Seven Psychopaths,' is occasionally amusing, and that the performances from Woody Harrelson, Colin Firth and Sam Rockwell are all truly brilliant. That is certainly no surprise, but it's something that we definitely shouldn't take for granted.
    WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Unfortunately though, what is a surprise is that the film itself largely falls flat on its face as the humour isn't really that clever or witty so the satire doesn't work, and the story lacks any real emotional resonance to play with in the first place anyway. Seriously, doing silly cine-literate things and referencing it in the script doesn't make for good comedy, and you'd have thought that Martin McDonagh - creator of the perfectly-written and down-right hilarious 'In Bruges,' - would understand that more than anyone, but sadly this lacks all of the clever snappiness of his first project and instead plays its "meta" humour ridiculously blankly. As a result this not only ends up wildly un-funny, but also genuinely boring in the end, as without its laughs, the whole thing is rather empty and as dead as the victims of the characters within.
    VERDICT: Oddly, Martin McDonagh's 'Seven Psychopaths,' is a badly constructed comedy that tries and fails miserably to do satire with heart. If it wasn't for the cast, it wouldn't just be boring, it would be a very horrible watch indeed.