OK, nothing special

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2010)

I liked this movie; not enough to say it's some kind of great film (it's basically a less glossy variation on "The Matador" from a few years ago), but it's different and intelligent. Colin Farrell plays a newbie hit man who messes up his first assignment, and Brendan Gleeson is his friend who brought him into the organization and is tasked with bringing him out of it by the brutal kingpin played by Ralph Fiennes.
As I say some elements seem to remind me of other movies which is how I take this movie down perhaps a few points. The buddy movie hit-man thing was similar to "Matador", and Fiennes' whole character, role in the story, and even his performance was a bit too similar to Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast" (which is a much better movie). However this movie of course was different because it was.... in Bruges. The novelty of the setting wears a bit thin and at that point so does the movie, although not tediously so. I think that some of the characters were too arbitrary to really hold any weight, especially the drug-dealing girlfriend character. They're really just fantasy fodder for the teenage audience that wants to feel sophisticated watching a European movie.
Ultimately it's a good movie because Gleeson and Farrell are so good together, that they create some moments that are different and interesting to watch. But it all degenerates into silliness by the end.