With In Bruges, the British gangster movie gets a Croydon facelift. It may not be new, but it’s a wonderfully fresh take on a familiar genre: fucked-up, far-out and very, very funny.
In Bruges (2008)
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Reviews Counted:151
Fresh:121
Rotten:30
Average Rating:7/10
Consensus: Featuring witty dialogue and deft performances In Bruges is an effective mix of dark comedy and crime thriller elements.
Rated: 18 [See Full Rating] for strong bloody violence, pervasive language and some drug use.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:07-03-2008
Synopsis: Mr. McDonagh makes his feature directorial debut on the film, from his own original screenplay. His plays (which include The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman) have brought him two... Mr. McDonagh makes his feature directorial debut on the film, from his own original screenplay. His plays (which include The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman) have brought him two Olivier Awards and four Tony Award nominations. He wrote and directed Six Shooter, starring Brendan Gleeson, which earned him the 2006 Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film. In Bruges was filmed on location; Bruges (pronounced "broozh"), the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travelers from all over the world. But for hit men Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson), it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry (two-time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks. Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray's often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city. But the longer they stay waiting for Harry's call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor (Jordan Prentice) shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloë (Clémence Poésy), who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray's vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences. --© Focus Features [More]
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy, Jordan Prentice, Jérémie Rénier
Director: Martin McDonagh
Director: Martin McDonagh
Screenwriter: Martin McDonagh
Producer: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin
Composer: Carter Burwell
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for In Bruges
Playwright Martin McDonagh's debut feature of his own script shows still-tentative cinematic skills, yet his flair for dialogue and inanity delivers the laughs as the bodies hit the cobblestones.
A morality tale with a distictly Coen-ish air, making excellent, occasionally surreal, use of a great location and lacing the comedy with bloody unpleasantness. It even has a quirky score by Coen collaborator Carter Burwell.
A double-act with depth, the cast of In Bruges seize upon an invigorating script and defy expectations.
A wonderfully absurd film. McDonagh is never stuck for a brilliant kiss-off line. I doubt he’ll ever be stuck for an audience either.
It's like prime era Mamet with relentless, unstoppable super-profane dialogue!
Hugely enjoyable, frequently hilarious comedy-thriller with a superb script and terrific performances from Gleeson and Farrell.
Ralph Fiennes is no Sexy Beast and writer/director Martin McDonagh is stronger on dialogue than story, but this is still a laugh-out-loud dark comedy, giving Colin Farrell his finest role in ages.
Farrell has brought his A-game to this cracking little comedy-noir written and directed by Martin McDonagh. He is absolutely superb.
An entertaining blend of dark comedy, gruesome suspense and tender emotion
Colin Farrell raises eyebrows, belly laughs and sympathy in Martin McDonagh's debut feature.
Its mock-artistic thriller trappings notwithstanding, ‘In Bruges’ is basically a funny, tragicomic two-hander, with the casting of Farrell alongside Gleeson enabling a pleasing Irish inflection.
McDonagh’s dialogue is often bruisingly funny -- particularly once hambone Ralph Fiennes makes his belated entrance -- and his sense of the absurd never falters.
There's a Mametian rat-a-tat to McDonagh's dialogue, but the offbeat humor and the characters' genuine pain and regret feels unique.
Feels like two short films bolstered end to end, one a deliciously dark comedy with a heart of gold and the other a less accomplished gangster flick that is too derivative and neatly tied up for its own good.
'After I killed him, I dropped the gun in the Thames' -- so begins In Bruges, an insanely clever thug's tale so rife with obscenity that those 11 words form one of the longest complete sentences that can be repeated safely here.
A film that's so bloody wonderful (in both meanings of the word) that all other movies this year might as well go straight to video.
It's definitely not to everyone's taste, but the most interesting pictures never are.
Not entertainment for the faint-hearted and mindlessly censorious, and in this particularly chaotic period, it seems right in tune with the times. It goes almost without saying that the acting of the three leads is, in a word, splendid.
Latest News for In Bruges
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November 07, 2008:
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August 15, 2008:
Movie Spots: Brooding, tense, allegorical, quirky, tragic and unbelievably funny, In Bruges may be the most intelligent, introspective and bizarre gangster thriller in quite some time, perhaps ever. ![]()
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