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Created Oct 25, 2012 08:58PM PST • Edited Sep 08, 2021 06:31AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Seven psychopaths, a Shih Tzu and an alcoholic screenwriter add up to a damn funny movie. Each psycho gets featured in a short within the larger movie, then gets additional screen-time based on how immediately expendable they are. As with horror-comedies, most are introduced just to get entertainingly bumped off.

   We’re talking over-the-top violence played for laughs. The laughs do come, some hearty and from the belly, others chortles from the throat. However, the horrid level of sacrilege means you can’t wash the stench off, though funny is funny and Seven Psychopaths is damn funny.

   The cavalcade of a cast is memorably led by a maniacal Sam Rockwell, a twitchy Colin Farrell and a zenfully weird Christopher Walken. Rockwell and Walken deliver inspired performances for the ages. Farrell has a moviestar mug for the ages.

   Think of it as Pulpier Fiction: surrealism meets violence meets comedy.
   It’s set in Los Angeles, so there’s native weirdness right there.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken deliver classically over-the-top performances as a couple of comical – almost lovable – psychos. Colin Farrell hangs with them, though he gets by as much on his matinee idol looks as his acting.

   They’re richly supported by a huge cast.

   • Michael Pitt & Michael Stuhlbarg as a doofus hitmen. Pitt’s got a potent young De Niro vibe.
   • Abbie Cornish as Farrell’s sexy girlfriend, constantly put down by his buddy Rockwell.
   • Harry Dean Stanton as a grim reaper guy, a classic Harry Dean Stanton role.
   • Woody Harrelson as a mob boss who’s obsessed with his Shih Tzu. Bonny, the ShihTzu.
   • Zeljko Ivanek as his chief lieutenant.
   • Gabourey Sidibe as an unfortuante drug mule.
   • Long Nguyen as a Vietnamise terrorist.
   • Christine Marzano as “The Hooker” with a killer bod.
   • Tom Waits as a somewhat charming psycho.
   • Olga Kurylenko as a glamorous moll.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Writer-Director Martin McDonagh successfully transposes his British sensibilities to Los Angeles, the quintessential American cinematic city. Unlike his last film, he makes this one consistently funny, though the many fans of In Bruges will argue that it too was consistently funny. In any case, if you liked that oddball comedy, this one is a lock.

    Was McDonaguh inspired to create Seven Psychos by a peyote-fueled reaction to Seven Samurai? Inquiring cinemaniacs want to know.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Horrid 3.9

    Erotic + Savage + Nasty = well into Horrid. Beware. It’s not just that nothing’s sacred, it’s that savaging the sacred is the point of the movie.

    This is scurrilous Left Wing comedy, complete with women routinely referred to as c**ts, references to Noam Chomsky and jokes about a burned American flag. The only thing missing is a cross in urine.

17. Sex Erotic 2.7

18. Violence Savage 4.4

19. Rudeness Nasty 4.5

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.3

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Surreal 3.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0