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Other Years:  2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Mystery/Romance Released: 2008 Rating:      I am not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best films of all time. It is perfect in every aspect of filmmaking, i.e. acting, directing, pacing, editing, make-up, set design, special effects. Literally, EVERYTHING! What's funny is that Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette aren't even the best part of the film. It is the story and the make-up that really drove this home. I couldn't wait to see how these characters would look as the time would go on. The movie is two hours and forty-five minutes long but I didn't want it to end. This film has one of the greatest resumes of all time. The director, David Fincher, has never directed a bad film. He has directed Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Zodiac and Panic Room. The film is written by Eric Roth who adapted screenplay by F. Scott Fitzgerald (who wrote some book called The Great Gatsby); who wrote a movie you may have heard of called Forrest Gump. The film then stars two of the best actors in Hollywood. One thing I think people forget is how good of an actor Brad Pitt is. I feel like his talent gets lost in all the publicity and the tabloids. Go back and watch Fight Club, Snatch, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford or even True Romance. The film also stars Cate Blanchette and Taraji P. Henson (Hustle and Flow). This flick has one of the best plotlines I could ever think of. I'll never forget the first time I read George Carlin's dialogue about living in reverse. We are born in diapers and we end up diapers. How would it feel to be able to have all the knowledge of an old man when you are going into first grade? It is such an interesting concept. The film revolves around Benjamin Button (Pitt) who was born the day after WW1 ended. He was a curious case though, no pun intended. His mother died giving birth to him and his father abandoned him to a nursing home where a woman named Queenie (Henson) ended up taking care of him. He was born an old man but in baby form. They never officially say how old he is supposed to be but he had the same qualities as an 80-90 year old man. As he starts getting "older," he has to learn to walk, etc. He has arthritis right as he is born. When he reaches the age of 7, he meets a 7 year old girl named Daisy (Blanchette) who he immediately falls in love with. As the film goes on, we go through the life of Benjamin Button as he travels the world and gets younger. I don't want to give anything away but let's just say the film never has a dull moment. Overall, all I can say is WOW. The make-up artist on this movie needs to win a Pulitizer prize. I literally was just sitting there the whole time trying to figure out how they did the make-up jobs. There were scenes when Pitt was an "old-young" man and they had his head on a short person's body. It looked completely flawless. The story provides perfection because as Pitt and Blanchett meet at different points in their lives, one is getting older and the other is getting younger, which just creates a mind blowing experience. My mind literally felt like it was blown throughout the entire film. There was this continuing comedy bit that played throughout about a guy getting struck by lightening. It was the perfect balance of comedy to the film's serious, yet hopeful tone. Though, without giving anything away, I only counted 6 times! Not a 7th! Besides the movie being great, it also has a great message, one that I never really thought of myself. A character in the film makes a great point that death is necessary because it helps us appreciate life. It helps us know how much someone meant to us. That literally makes perfect sense. Fincher created a perfect scenery for this film. There was one particular scene where a submarine and a boat are exchanging fire and it just blew my mind. Please go see this movie right away. It is a beautiful theatrical film to see and I hope that everyone can share this movie with everyone, hence the 5 BDK rating. If you want to know how they did the make-up and effects in this film, check out this interview: http://movies.about.com/od/benjaminbutton/a/taraji-henson.htm Click here to watch the FOX 5 Morning News segment from 12/25/08 (video)

The Dark Knight Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Mystery/Thriller Released: 2008 Rating:       As I sit here to write this review, I am honestly speechless because I was so blown away by what I saw that I don't think I can put it into words. What can I say about this film that already hasn't been said over the past couple of months? Well, what I can give you is my opinion. Yes, Heath Ledger's performance is Oscar worthy. Will he win? Well, the academy surprises the hell out of me all the time so that's a toss up. Could this film be up for Best Picture? Yes, it is the best film I have seen this year by far and I don't think that anything else this year will top it. I know that is a very bold statement but believe me when I say this; there is NO WAY you cannot like this film. Is Ledger's performance better than Jack Nicholson's performance in the original Batman? The short answer is HELL YES! Blasphemy you say? Well, to tell you the truth, as my buddy said, they are two completely different roles, so how can you compare them? The reason you can compare the two is that they are THE SAME CHARACTER!!! The reason that Ledger's is better is that it is more of a villain than Nicholson's was. When I look back on Nicholson's performance, I don't think of it being scary or violent. I think of it and laugh. When I think of what I just saw from Heath Ledger in this film, I get sick to my stomach because I didn't think anyone could ever act like that. Is there a possibility that Daniel Day Lewis was behind that make-up? I was just shaking my head the entire way home. I just don't understand how this movie could have been so good. It was perfectly crafted, directed, acted and even SCORED. Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) wrote an extremely intense but subtle score which built up perfectly throughout the film and once you finally get that FULL ON SCORE that you hear in the trailers, it just moves you to a point where you want to start crying. Bale is and always will be my favorite Batman out of the entire series. He plays the part perfectly. One thing that did bother me at first about his role was the DEEP voice he creates. It does sound a little over the top at times. People keep saying and I keep reading this in articles that Ledger's death is going to cause people to only remember his character from the film. Let me the first to say that this is NOT TRUE at all. They balance his role out perfectly. Yes, he might be the shining light of the film, but as I walked out of the theatre, I felt that I had a well enough balance in the movie and they leave you with the BATMAN feel. That is all I will say regarding the film that does not include the plot. The Dark Knight has one of the best resumes out there, considering it is directed by the mastermind Christopher Nolan, who directed Memento and Batman Begins. The cast for this film is just beyond belief. One of the major changes they made was trading out Katie Holmes for Maggie Gyllenhaal. I don't understand why Holmes wouldn't come back to do this movie considering it is going to be the biggest movies of the summer. They kept the character the same though. Even Cillian Murphy (Scarecrow) gets a little appearance in this movie. The Dark Knight stars Christian Bale (American Psycho—if you haven't seen this film, please go check it out, The Presitge), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, A Knight's Tale), Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking, No Reservations), Morgan Freeman (The Bucket List, Bruce Almighty), Gary Oldman (TRUE ROMANCE, THE PROFESSIONAL) and a great performance out of Michael Caine. The plot line to the film is a little bit confusing and I am not going to go into too many details because this is a movie that should not be ruined for anyone out there. You need to see this movie fresh and try to stay away from as many trailers as possible. The movie opens with NO BACKSTORY on the Joker and we just meet him as a CRAZY dude just robbing a bank. This is no secret. These 5 minutes were leaked online months ago before he passed away. It was at that point that I could tell his performance was going to REIGN over Jack Nicholson's performance. This character is RIDICULOUS and doesn't care about anyone. He just wants to create complete and utter anarchy. Just to give a little background, Bruce Wayne's (Bale) parents were killed by a group of criminals and that is why he started fighting crime as The Batman. He grew up with a girl named Rachel Dawson (Gyllenhaal) and she was always there for him, as well as his master Alfred (Caine). In the first film, Batman fought the amazing villain, Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and we were introduced to the fact that the joker would make an appearance in the sequel because of a playing card that was thrown out. We also learned that Batman was sought after by the police but he had a connection with Commissioner Gordon (Oldman) . Now, The Dark Knight starts off with Ledger as the Joker, like I said and the main story revolves around the fact that Gotham City is all corrupt and all of the mob bosses are keeping their money in certain banks. The city has a new DA, Harvey Dent (Eckhart) and he wants to help clean the city up but not before these mobsters are approached by the Joker (Ledger) to talk about taking down the Batman so they can't get their money back. So basically, you have the Joker who is terrorizing the entire city and doesn't care who dies and you have Batman and the city police trying to stop him. The Joker has inside people helping out on the police force, so that makes it so much harder to stop him. Morgan Freeman is back as Lucious Fox; the main man who creates all of Batman's suits, armor and vehicles. Overall, as I sit here and type the end of this review 6 hours after I have seen the film, I still wait in anticipation to see the film again as if I have not already seen the movie. The movie is freaking CLASSIC already. Move over EVERY SINGLE movie that has come out this year! This is one of the darkest films I have ever seen and Ledger/Eckhart add that perfect dark flavor. Think about a cup of coffee. They didn't give you any cream or sugar, they just left it black. I have to touch on Ledger, as I am sure everyone else will in their reviews. THIS PERFORMANCE is masterful. You can say to yourself all you want; "Oh, he's only saying that because Ledger is dead." Well, you don't know what you are talking about because when you see this performance, you will be stunned and even forget that the guy is passed away; God bless his soul. I tried looking for Ledger's face during the film and you can't see it. You don't even think of Ledger. He is just The Joker. As my buddy said, he went out on a high note. This is the performance of his career and I don't know if he would have ever been able to top that. Every time Ledger was on screen as the Joker, I couldn't breathe. Now, some people have been arguing whether or not you can watch the movie and look past Ledger. You can and without giving anything away, let's just say that they leave you thinking of BATMAN as a whole, rather than just his performance. Nolan did a great job balancing it out. In the two and a half years I have been reviewing movies, I have never given a film above a 5 but this movie warrants that. It is better than a 5. I have given (4) 5's this entire year so far; WALL·E, Wanted, Iron Man, Cloverfield. This is going to be my first 6 BDK of all time because it is ONE NOTCH above anything I have ever seen. If you don't see this in theatres then you will have missed out on one of the biggest films in history to hit the big screen. There are action scenes in this movie that will literally blow you out of your seat and just make you want to clap. Click here to watch the FOX 5 Morning News segment from 7/18/08 (video) ******************** DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING SPOILED!!!!! P.S. I just wanted to bring up a scene in particular that struck me. When The Joker is walking out of the hospital after talking to Two-Face and he has to blow it up and he is wearing the nurse's suit, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was so bad-ass. Also, when he flips the truck with the Batpod. Everything was insane. ********************

Slumdog Millionaire Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance Released: 2008 Rating:      Slumdog Millionaire is definitely Boyle's best film to date taking the use of cinematography, music and storytelling to a new level. On the surface, this film doesn't seem like it would be that good. The title is very odd, as well as the story line. I had the pleasure of having Danny Boyle on my radio show a couple of weeks and the insight he gave into this film was just astounding. Considering the film takes place in India, Boyle had never traveled there in his entire life. What is cool is that Boyle actually had an Indian co-director on set with him to help with the language barrier. Loveleen Tandan, who co-directed the flick, was obviously there to help because there are certain areas where you cannot film in India. Boyle stated in my interview that since there were parts where you could not roll film, he had to use a camera that took high quality still pictures and then edit those together to create motion. You will notice this a lot during the beginning scenes of the story where the characters are little children. I am really pushing for this film to be nominated for some Academy Awards (not like they matter anyways since it is all political). The main reason, other than the fact that it is a great flick, is that Boyle makes a different movie every single time. He never really stays in that same format. Every movie he has done has been different and that is probably one of the main reasons he didn't go on to direct 28 Weeks Later (which I thought was better than Boyle's 28 Days Later...). Boyle has done such great films as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, The Beach and even a kids flick called Millions. There is nothing this guy can't do and Slumdog Millionaire might be his masterpiece. The film doesn't rely on any big stars and many of them are actually Bollywood stars. The flick stars Dev Patel (from a show called "Skins"), Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto (this is her first major role) and Irfan Khan who plays the police inspector. The films story line is really enhanced by how well the story is told. You have a teenage boy named Jamal (Patel) who has just won 10 million rupees on the India version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" The only issue is that the host believes he is cheating. How could a teenage boy possibly know the answers to all of these hard questions? Jamal is tortured and then sat down by a police inspector (played by Khan). As we go through every question on the videotape while he is in the police inspector's office, we are taken back to when Jamal was a kid and how he was able to answer every one of those questions. For example, there is a question about which musician wrote a famous Indian song. Once that part of the clip is shown, we are taken back to when Jamal and his brother Salim (Mittal) became slumdogs (which are basically poor children who work for a boss and beg for money on the streets). At one point, he was forced to learn this song or he would be killed and that is why he was able to get the answer right. We the audience are learning the life of Jamal and his brother while the police inspector is trying to find out if he is cheating. The audience is slowly starting to learn though that the only reason he wants to be on this show is so he can find the love of his life, Latika (Freida Pinto). Without giving anything away, something happened earlier in their lives which separated them and now all he wants is to get her back. The question is whether or not he will make it back on T.V. that night to answer the 20 million rupee question. Overall, this is one of the best films of the year hands down. Every little aspect of the film works perfectly. One of the best parts of the movie is the music. If you listen to my interview with Boyle (click here), you can hear him talk about his musical choices and how he used MIA for one of the tracks. You might recognize that song from Pineapple Express. The kid who played Jamal, Dev Patel, did an AMAZING job. MAN THIS KID WAS AMAZING. Boyle even said he wanted a kid who was the underdog so you could root for him. Considering a lot of these guys in INDIA are really buff guys, he wanted someone who was skinny and pathetic so you could feel for him. The way this film is shot and edited is one of the biggest pluses for me. The way he shot the still photographs and then put them together to create motion for some of the scenes was just genius. It also has an effect on your emotions because it is shot in such a way that it almost makes you feel off. The movie is extremely intense and very violent at times considering these boys are living on the streets of India and begging for money, etc. Jamal is the good brother and Salim is the bad brother so there is a lot of conflict involved between the two, considering they both want the same girl, Latika. This is a film that deserves to be seen in theatres and is just perfectly done. It will not make any money and that is shame because it is an independent movie but I will be the first to admit that I squirted a few tears for the film. The tears were out of sadness and happiness because the film is so perfectly balanced and takes you all over the place. Even seeing India shot this way was amazing. I have only given seven 5 BDKs this year, so please check this out. This is definitely worth seeing!

WALL·E Genre: Animation/Comedy/Family/Romance/Sci-Fi Released: 2008 Rating:      For lack of a better phrase, Wall·E is truly an animated masterpiece, and that word shouldn't be thrown around that easily but for some reason I cannot think of a single problem with this film. The film contains minimal dialogue but has one of the biggest hearts I have ever seen. The big difference between this and EVERY other animated film out there is that they didn't have to sell you with the big named actors doing the voice work. This movie is all about the characters and not which big named star is voicing your character. Everyone expects Pixar's movies to be fantastic and they usually are. With such classics as Toy Story, The Incredibles, Cars, Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc, etc, you have to have pretty high expectations thats the film will turn out nothing short of great. Well, I am here to tell you that this is the best film they have done. For a G-rated film, I found it to be very dark, beautiful, smart and extremely well-written even though there is not much dialogue. It is all about the emotions that Wall·E is going through throughout the film. This is one of the first times that I do not need to sit here and list 100 actors to you or tell you what other films these actors have done. The stars of the film are Wall·E and Eve and that is all you need to know. There are 2 small roles by Fred Willard and Sigourney Weaver. Wall·E is actually done by a sound engineer named Ben Burtt who is a phenomenal sound designer who has worked on a bunch of films including Indiana Jones and some of the Star Wars films. The female lead, Eve, is voiced by Elissa Knight who also did voice work on Cars. The film is directed by Andrew Stanton who also directed Finding Nemo and Cars. According to Wikipedia, he actually thought of Wall·E before he made Toy Story. Wall·E (or Waste Allocation Load Lifter- Earth-Class) itself is actually a type of machine that disposes of garbage and makes into a nice tight and compacted square. The machines were put on earth to make our garbage piles smaller. Keep in mind that the film takes place in the year 2700 and humans are no longer living on earth. We are actually located in space on ships living our lazy lives. We have actually become so fat and lazy that we don't even walk around anymore. From the looks of the film, the character Wall·E is the last "Wall·E" left on earth and he is completely lonely. He cleans up garbage all day long goes back to his little home, which looked like a garbage truck and watches old musicals, wondering when he will find his true love. He also likes to collect certain pieces of garbage that might interest him. One day a ship lands on earth right where Wall·E lives and lets out a little flying robot named Eve, whose sole purpose is to go to earth to find something that might be able to save civilization. Everything is now run by a company called Buy N Large, which created all the machines to clean up trash and has basically run humans off the face of the earth into space. Wall·E immediately falls in love with her but when she is taken back he decides to follow her because he wants to be with her. This takes Wall·E on a ride that he will never forget. When I say the movie is dark, I mean just that. The film opens up with a 28 Days Later type feel where no one is left on earth. It was pretty insane seeing something that dark in a G-rated film. You also have to understand that there is barely any dialogue in the first part of the film. It is just a bird's eye view of what this machine does on a daily basis and it is extremely entertaining, funny and sad at the same time watching him roam around picking up trash and waiting for his true love to come. Overall, it is an understatement to say that this is a great film. I was talking to some critics in the elevator after the film and we were talking about how people were worried that there was going to be no dialogue. One critic said there shouldn't have been any dialogue. I would say out of the entire 96 minute film, there was about 15% of dialogue. The rest is facial expressions and noises/sounds. The majority of the dialogue is Wall·E saying "EVE" and Eve saying "Wall·E." The animation was stellar. All of the machines looked so freaking real. You could tell the humans were animated but they did such an amazing job on Wall·E himself. I felt like he was just another person and I could relate to everything he was doing. I wanted to reach through the screen and hold his hand. The film is downright beautiful and when you see it on the big screen, you will see what I mean. I have only given (2) 5 BDK ratings this entire year and Wall·E is officially my third 5 BDK rating. This is a must-see and definitely relays messages about how our society is becoming lazy and fat slobs. In the end though, all that matters is finding that special someone who makes you happy. The movie has everything you could want; visuals, comedy, action/adventure. Please go see this film and don't let the G-rating shy you away. This is a movie for everyone. On a side note, there is a short 4 minute animated film before the movie starts that is ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. I believe it was called PRESTO and it deals with a magician, his rabbit and a magic hat/cone. You will be dying laughing.

Frost/Nixon Genre: Biography/Drama/History Released: 2008 Rating:      Frost/Nixon had the same intensity of an action flick but uses the number one weapon; great dialogue and great acting. I was sitting there watching this flick and said to my buddy, this is like an action movie with no action. I felt just as much intensity as I would feel during a horror flick or an action movie. You really can never go wrong with a Ron Howard flick but that is not why it is good. Please don't let the name of the director take all of the credit away. There are so many factors that went into this film, i.e. screenplay (which was originally a stage production by Peter Morgan) and the amazing acting performances which went into this film. I could see this movie being up for Best Picture. Even the score was phenomenally done by Hans Zimmer (former guest on my radio program, The Dark Knight, Gladiator). This is just a perfect example of a how a mainstream movie can actually be different and hopefully make some good money. Yes, it is based on a play but it was a story I didn't know. Everyone knows the Nixon Watergate scandal but not a lot of people know how a lot of the details came about. Nixon had just resigned in 1972, after over 400 million people watched his resignation on television. I wasn't alive at this point, considering I was born in 1984, but it is one of those defining moments in our history that is constantly taught in high schools around the world. It's funny because we just had a defining political moment in my lifetime with the election of Barack Obama. It was British talk show host David Frost who went after him first and this movie tells that story. The flick stars Frank Langella (Good Night Good Luck, Dracula), Michael Sheen (played Tony Blair in The Queen), Kevin Bacon, Rebecca Hall, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt and Toby Jones (played Karl Rove in W.). I was reading through a little booklet I received in the mail for the film and there were some great tidbits about how the idea came about. Peter Morgan, who wrote the stage play and screenplay, wanted to explore more of a historical factual story. He had already written such great films as The Deal, The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. Then you attach someone like Ron Howard and you got a classic in the works. According to the booklet, the David Frost and Richard Nixon interviews "attracted the largest audience for a news program in the history of American T.V." The best part about that statement is that talk show host David Frost was British. He wanted to be edgy but was thought of more as a comedian. He had syndicated shows in Australia as well as London but was looking for the next big thing. Nixon had just resigned from the Presidency following the debacle of Watergate and he proposed to his producer that they get Nixon on the program. Nixon had not done any interviews post the resignation and Frost knew this would be costly. He had to offer the President 600,000 dollars and they were able to negotiate a contract where four 2 hour interviews would take place and only 25% of which would be Watergate material. See, the idea was that the ex-President's people thought that because of Frost's comedic background that this could be used a puff piece but little did they know that the two other men behind the scenes (Rockwell and Platt) were going to provide him with information that could make this one of the most revealing interviews of all time. Overall, this movie was so well done and a lot of that is the way the story is told. It is told around a documentary/film style where we are watching the story as it is, but Howard also cuts to interviews with the characters talking about how the whole thing went down. That made the movie seem more realistic. Both Frost and Nixon were PERFECTLY acted. Frost being played by Michael Sheen was done in such a way that you just wanted him to win so badly. He always seemed so calm and collected but you could tell something was bubbling on the inside of this character. I just loved his awkward smile and his facial expressions were always perfect. Frank Langella (who played Nixon) might very well be the contender for best actor this year. WHO IS THIS GUY??? This was one of the sickest performances I have seen in a while and he was just NON-EMOTIONAL. I don't remember too much of Nixon but I have to say the character alone was just acted beautifully. Howard's direction mixed with Zimmer's score couldn't have been more perfect. Howard directed this movie very naturally and Zimmer's score kept it going. There were a lot of scenes where there was just dead silence and you would just be able to hear your own breathing. You sit there and just wait for something to happen while you are holding on. Howard did a great job at creating that intensity, especially during the interview scenes. Those were so intense because one minute you think Frost might blow it and then the next minute anything could change. This is one of those rare movies where you sit there for 2 hours and the time just flies by. I wanted to see more!! Howard perfectly edited the movie and the dialogue couldn't have been better. There were particular scenes where Nixon calls Frost in his hotel room and they have such an intense conversation. I will say though that my favorite part of the movie was Rockwell talking to the camera. There was particular time where he talks about how vulnerable TV can make a person. The close-up shots of Nixon are just priceless and tell so much. As Nixon said in the movie, the sweat on his upper lip made him lose the Kennedy election. PLEASE CHECK THIS MOVIE OUT!! It is very intense and there is no action. It is purely dialogue and just amazing to watch. I give it a 4.5 BDK rating because I feel it needs to be seen in theatres!

In Bruges Genre: Action/Comedy Released: 2008 Rating:      Until I saw this movie today, I knew nothing about it except for the fact that it had some big name stars and that someone told me if it was in the same vein as a Guy Ritchie film. I was deciding on seeing this or that new Paris Hilton film. I clearly made the right decision. Now, you can call me an idiot, because I have never heard of BRUGES. Until I saw the film, I was pronouncing it using the S at the end like a complete idiot. I didn't know that the S was totally silent. I have never even been out of this country, except for once to the Bahamas, let alone going to BELGIUM. Who has ever heard of Bruges? Well, Colin Farrell's character thought the exact same way I did in the film. Now, you could almost consider this movie like a running advertisement for Bruges, even thought Farrell's character is trashing it the entire time. His sidekick in the film is the one that actually enjoys the place and makes it out to be somewhere interesting to visit. In Bruges stars Colin Farrell (Phone Booth, Alexander), Ralph Fiennes (Red Dragon, The English Patient), Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Gangs of New York) and Clemence Poesy (French actress who has no big US films). The film opens up with shots of Bruges and we get a voice over from Colin Farrell about how he has killed a man and was told by his boss to go to Bruges with his buddy Ken. Ken (Gleeson) and Ray (Farrell) are both hit men and they are told to go there to hideout until the dust settles on this murder. When they initially get to Bruges, you can tell the Farrell just hates being there and Ken absolutely loves it. They are under strict orders from their boss, Harry, to stay out of sight and be completely on the down low. All Farrell wants to do is go out and drink; shocker. Ken is the smart one though and wants to take a tour of the city and actually embrace being there. While there, Ray meets a woman he likes and they start dating. All the while, their dick boss, Harry (Fiennes) is keeping tabs on them like they are kids. Turns out that Harry wants Ken to kill Ray for what he did. This isn't really spoiling anything but about 30 minutes into the movie, we learn that when Ray did his first job as a hitman, he was ordered to murder a priest. He did this fine but he ended up killing a young boy as well. This is the reason that Harry wants him dead, considering he killed a kid. So now you have this tension between Ray and Ken. You actually feel bad for Ray because he is so distraught about what happened and killing the kid was a total accident. You slowly find out that Ken cannot commit the murder himself, so the boss man has come over to Bruges to take care of it and he is not too happy about this. Overall, the movie moved along extremely slowly, but it was counteracted by the amazing script and acting. I really thought Farrell was a mediocre actor, but he gave a hell of a performance in this film. He was just a cocky drunk Irish guy who loved to talk crap to people and always said what was on his mind. Farrell and Gleeson's chemistry was perfect. I will say though that the star of the film was Ralph Fiennes. He was freaking amazing. Now, the day before the film, a fellow critic mentioned that In Bruges was in the same vein as a Guy Ritchie film (Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). That got me thinking during the movie and Fiennes' character did remind me a lot of BRICKTOP from Snatch. He was just a morbidly funny guy that would kill you in a heartbeat. One thing that really stuck with me about this movie was how slow the film would be moving for one second and how fast it would pick up the next. The movie is mainly all dialogue but you get a sprinkle of some hardcore violence, especially at the end. I did notice that this writer was very politically incorrect. He loved to use racist jokes and talk about midgets a lot. There is a character in the film played by a midget, who was basically the butt of all of Colin Farrell's jokes. He was absolutely hilarious. For a movie I knew nothing about going into, it really surprised me and I had a great time watching it. It isn't the greatest thing ever, but the dialogue is clever and it is just hilarious to watch Fiennes' and Farrell in these acting parts. I also really enjoyed the oddball music during the film. I give it 4.5 BDKs because I feel that it is definitely worth seeing in theatres and it is definitely one of the sleeper hits of 2008.

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