Seven Psychopaths (2012)

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS  (2012)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Martin McDonagh
    Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson,
    Sam Rockwell, Tom Waits, Abbie Cornish,
    Harry Dean Stanton, Long Nguyen, Olga Kurylenko
This movie made me wonder whether it's a sign of desperation when a screenwriter writes a script about a desperate screenwriter. The screenwriter in "Seven Psychopaths" is a guy named Martin, who's trying to come up with a script to go with the title "Seven Psychopaths". Coincidentally, the real screenwriter who wrote the script for "Seven Psychopaths" is a guy named Martin. Colin Farrell plays the Martin in the movie, and what happens is, he doesn't just write the script he's working on, he lives it. The seven psychopaths include Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell as a pair of dognappers, Tom Waits as a serial killer who specializes in killing other killers, Harry Dean Stanton as a vengeful Quaker, and Woody Harrelson as a gangster who's much too attached to his defective handgun. McDonagh also wrote and directed "In Bruges", and this movie has the same wise-guy vibe going for it, but the story's not as tight, and some scenes, like the ones where Harrelson threatens to shoot the film's only black characters, just seem pointless and mean. You could watch it for Waits and Walken, if nothing else, but if McDonagh's next project has anything to do with a desperate screenwriter, we'll know he's really desperate.