Bad copy of "Sexy beast"

Rating: 4/10 (6 July 2008)

The plot in a nutshell: two hit men are "hiding" in Bruges, their boss is angry because one of them messed up his first job, some redemption and hope at the end. So far so good, apart form the fact that I was not specially in need of yet another Brit-underworld movie. However, the main problem with this one is that it tries too hard. It tries hard to be - at least - like two very good movies, such as "The third man" and "Sexy beast". It tries hard to be funny, cool and smart, failing miserably along the lines. It tries hard to make Bruges look like a place you want to visit (I have been there and I agree with the Colin Farrel's character - it is not, to put it mildly)
The part where it tries to be "The third man (in Bruges)" is obviously the location and night scenes, but also the fact that the main villain is named Harry. Said villain is played along the lines of the great Ben Kingsley - the psycho you'll love to hate, which made "Sexy beast" such a good movie -.
Ralph Fiennes tries too hard to upstage Kingsley, but he is never believable as the gang leader with a personality split between the psycho and the loving father. Kingsley is just unbeatable exactly because he was constantly over the top, with none of the mushy sentimentality of a good father.
But the huge, black hole of the whole story is the attempt of making us believe that these criminals actually "care" about strangers. Unfortunately, there is no honor among thieves. If they are criminals it is exactly because they do not care about collateral damage, being it a pregnant woman, a harmless child or an elderly guy.
Finally, it is extremely difficult to root for any of the characters. They are incredibly verbose, just go on and on with lines of absurd dialog; act in ways that are not consistent with criminal backgrounds and are simply very unlovable.
Colin Farrell is supposed to be the nice "bad" guy but he is quite nasty, with serious anger-management issues which would suggest he is way beyond redemption. In a restaurant scene he hits a man AND his girlfriend, just because they complained about cigarette smoke. If that is acceptable behavior in somebody's book, is not in mine. I would object having my face smashed even by a good-looking thug like Colin.
I am surprised by the good reviews, but maybe it is because I have been in Bruges and totally do not care to go back.