Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths

By: Nicolette Karter

        I thought this would be rather funny, though it was gorier than what I thought it would be. Not that I mind gore, I just didn’t except that much. I like Colin Farrell (& his adorable accent), not to mention Christopher Walken & Woody Harrelson; they all star in this, along with Sam Rockwell, an actor who will seem familiar because he’s been in a lot of films as a supporting character, but I think is talented enough to be in a leading role. Not as prolifically as other leading men (some of which are in the movie with him), but to me, he seems to be a really good actor.

        Anyway, this movie is about alcoholic writer Marty (Colin Farrell) trying to create a screenplay about seven psychopaths. He is an excellent example of write what you know, because everyone (the characters) in this is a psychopath, so there is a lot of inspiration around him for this. Probably the most obvious insane person is his best friend Billy, played by Sam Rockwell, who works with Hans (Christopher Walken) stealing dogs, then collecting the reward money. That right there is a giant red flag as to their general well-being, but hey, times are tough out there & people got to make a living somehow.

        So Billy would do anything for Marty, but because he’s “out there” he thinks putting an ad in the paper for all psychopaths to come to Marty to tell him their story for material in the screenplay is a good idea. He also thought it would be a good idea to steal the dog of mob boss Charlie (Woody Harrelson), who is also a psychopath. Just know that the sanest person is Marty, and he’s in that gray area. In any case, Charlie is probably the second most psychotic person in this film, & he absolutely loves his dog. So stealing it is a deadly idea for everyone involved, which includes Billy, (the dog-napper), Hans (the reward-collector) & Marty (the drunk who got roped into this). After a brush with death, Hans & Marty briefly meet (& owe their lives to) the first psychopath we meet in the movie, Jack of Diamonds. This person doesn’t show their face, only pops up once in a while to kill people, then leaves the playing card (take a guess) the jack of diamonds.

        Then the three friends have to go on the run, with the dog, because Charlie will literally stop at nothing to get Bonnie (a Shi-Tzu) back. Personally, I don’t like Shi-Tzu’s, but if anyone took my little puppy, I’d go bezerk too. Throughout this film we see flashes of Marty’s ideas for his film, & Hans & Billy help him with ideas while hiding out in the middle of nowhere from Charlie. We also get the impression that Billy really wants a final shootout; his idea for Marty’s ending is a shootout involving all the psychopaths mentioned in both his movie & this movie, he drove them all to a spot he thought would be great for a final shootout (which somehow wasn’t a red flag to Marty or Hans. A psycho who wants a shootout drives you & a crazy mobster’s dog to the middle of nowhere because it’s an awesome place to shoot each other to death, which could easily happen because the mobster is coming after you with big guys & lots of guns & you just think “Sure, why not?” Every character in this doesn’t recognize their daft ways, yet never miss an opportunity to point out that Marty drinks too much. Poor Marty).

        This is the climax of the hilarious movie, and I actually liked it. It was a bit sad, because there was a sort of shootout (some people died & Bonnie was held at gunpoint), though much less dramatic & theatrical than the one Billy concocted for Marty’s film. I did really like this, I thought it was funny, & Colin Farrell gets to speak with his Irish accent, which is always a plus in my book. Oh, & heads up to those who don’t like gory parts of movies, the part with the bunny psychopath is brutal & gruesome, the first scene talks about violence with eyes (something I personally hate), and the scenes with the Mormon psychopath are the more bloody parts of this. So, what did you who saw this think? Did you like to see Woody Harrelson cry (as sadistic as that sounds, I just don’t see him as a crier, & he made it funny)? What movie would you like me to review next?