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In Bruges [2008]


RRP: £19.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The considerable pleasures of In Bruges begin with its title, which suggests a glumly self-important art film but actually fits a rattling-good tale of two Irish gangsters "keepin' a low profile" after a murder gone messily wrong. Bruges, the best-preserved medieval town in Belgium, is where the bearlike veteran Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and newbie triggerman Ray (Colin Farrell) have been ordered by their London boss to hole up for two weeks. As the sly narrative unfolds like a paper flower in water, "in Bruges" also becomes a state of mind, a suspended moment amid centuries-old towers and bridges and canals when even thuggish lives might experience a change in direction. And throughout, the viewer has ample opportunity to consider whose pronunciation of "Bruges" is more endearing, Gleeson's or Farrell's. The movie marks the feature writing-directing debut of playwright Martin McDonagh, whose droll meditation on sudden mortality, Six Shooter, copped the 2005 Oscar for best live-action short. Although McDonagh clearly relishes the musicality of his boyos' brogue and has written them plenty of entertaining dialogue, In Bruges is no stageplay disguised as a film. The script is deceptively casual, allowing for digressions on the newly united and briskly thriving Europe, and annexing passers-by as characters who have a way of circling back into the story with unanticipatable consequences. That includes a film crew--shooting a movie featuring, to Ray's fascination, "a midget" (Jordan Prentice)--and a fetching blond production assistant (Clémence Poésy) whose job description keeps evolving. There's one other key figure: Harry, the Cockney gang boss whose omnipotence remains unquestioned as long as he remains offscreen, back in England, as if floating in an early Harold Pinter play. Harry has reasons inextricably tender and perverse for selecting Bruges as his hirelings' destination, and eventually he emerges from the aether to express them--first as a garrulous telephone voice and then in the volatile form of Ralph Fiennes. By that point the charmed moment of suspension, already shaken by several eruptions of violence, is pretty well doomed. But In Bruges continues to surprise and satisfy right up to the end. --Richard T. Jameson


I love midgets
Review date: 2008-11-21 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is the best film I've seen this year. I don't usually rate Colin Farrell but he's really good at this. If you like a bit of black comedy then you'll love this.

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Reviews


best film of 2008
Review date: 2008-11-12 Rating: 10 out of 10

In a year or hype and tripe at the cinema when all the sequels failed to sparkle and originality seemed dead 'In Bruge' slipped into the multiplexes, under the radar, with very little fanfare and a trailer that did it little favours. By pure accident, with nothing else on at the time I wanted, I grudgingly handed over my cash and plodded to the smallest screen Odeon had to offer. I emerged elated. Not since taking a risk on Withnail and I had I had such fun at the cinema. This was a great discovery and I vowed to spread the word. In Bruges is indeed a rare beast. Honestly I had resigned myself to never laughing throughout a film ever again until this. As horrible as the two lead characters are (two charming foul mouthed, racist, homophobic, killers) you actually grow to love them as they grow to understand themselves. This is films magic. It is so well written, acted and directed. It doesn't rush, it plods along quite happily. If Tarantino was Irish and a better Director and writer this would be the result.

Very Funny Black Comedy
Review date: 2008-11-08 Rating: 8 out of 10

Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) play a couple of Irish hitmen hiding out in the Belgian medieval town of Bruges after a bungled contract killing in London. They are given strict instructions to wait at their hotel for angry boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to call with further instructions.

Although In Bruges is a 'british gangster flick' of sorts, don't let that put you off. It's certainly not just another 'Lock Stock' clone with flash camera tricks and cockney geezers, this is an original and very funny film. The dialogue is fantastic and the two leads do an excellent job as the bickering pair. Colin Farrell is suprisingly funny outside of his usual macho roles and delivers his lines brilliantly. The setting of Bruges is beautiful too and filming takes in some stunning locations. Things turn nasty when Harry turns up and there are some violent scenes but In Bruges is essentially a black comedy with some very dark, very un-PC humour (racist dwarves, prostitutes and fat tourists).

Not Funny
Review date: 2008-11-02 Rating: 4 out of 10

I didn't like "In Bruges". It is an amoral film full of nasty,unpleasant characters who spend most of their time swearing and shooting each other . The film attempts to generate black humour out of such "hilarious" events as the murder of a small boy by an Irish hitman ,the blinding of a Belgian skinhead by the same character and making repeated jokes about midgets. There were quite a few unnecessarily bloody scenes as well. The makers of the film must have thought that all of this garbage would be rendered palatable by portraying the main characters ,played by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, as a sort of psychotic Father Ted and Dougal and shooting the film in the attractive medieval Belgian town of Bruges.Not for me it wasn't.

Bah .... a movie or a tourist's spot ???
Review date: 2008-10-29 Rating: 4 out of 10

Bah. A dark comedy ? Perhaps a boring story with a underemployed Farrell, but a decent cast, especially Fiennes.
In my opinion, more than a film, is a tourist's spot for a little, "insignificant" city in Belgium. In Italy there is a prize (a weekend in Bruges - ohh mygosh) linked with this DVD .... What else ?

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Brendan Gleeson
Colin Farrell
Ralph Fiennes

Creators:
Colin Farrell (Primary Contributor)
Ralph Fiennes (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582554892
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-08-11
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 103 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

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