Not as good as I had hoped

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2008)

I had high hopes for this movie. Roeper and Whoever made it sound as though it was one of the best movies of the year, and hilarious.
It was pretty good, but it was not great, and I don't know exactly why.
It had a few laughs, but it was not a comedy.
Two hit men go to Bruges (pronounced Brooj) after a hit. The person who hired them sends them there, supposedly for a little r & r after a hit. One of the hit men, played by Brendan Gleeson, soaks in the history. The other, played by Collin Farrell, is bored to tears, until he meets a local woman. She has an ex-boyfriend. She also deals drugs to a movie cast and crew, who are filming in Bruges.
We don't know why the hit men (well, actually, the hit man - Farrell was the hit man, Gleeson was the person who recruited him) were hired to do the job, or why the hit was commissioned, but this was not important anyway. Ralph Fiennes plays the guy who called for the hit.
oh - there's also the hostess of the hotel (or was it a b & b) where Farrell and Gleason are staying in Bruges. She's pregnant.
I'm not going to say too much more, because to do so would give away too much of the plot.
The acting was fine. Gleeson especially shines. Ralph Fiennes is properly menacing. Farrell does a pretty good job as a novice hit man. The women are fine, although they really aren't given much to do with their parts.
The movie was entertaining, and it held my interest, and it was a nice change of pace from a Hollywood story, but I can't highly recommend the movie.
It was worth the price of a matinée, plus a medium popcorn and soda.