Long time no blog

I am becoming a total blog slacker. Sorry. (Or maybe no one has noticed.) I've had a lot on my mind, but somehow haven't managed to translate any of those thoughts into blog posts. Might be just as well, come to think of it...

I made a personal resolution to blog about the movies I see in theatres this year, and I haven't even managed to get to the movies much. But I did go to In Bruges last week.

What did I think of this movie? Two main things.
1) Colin Farrell is an acting god when he's got good material to work with.
2) I really wish I'd gone to Bruges when it was suggested to me on a business trip to Brussels.

But at least now I have Bruges to visit all on it's own someday and probably wouldn't have had enough time on said business trip to do it justice. What a pretty city.

Actually, one of the jokes of the movie is how unimpressed with the city the Colin Farrell character is, while the Brendan Gleeson character is amazed by it.

But back to the movie... Certainly not ever going to be a blockbuster success... But while it's a quieter, dialogue and character driven film, the story is interesting and keeps you guessing for a long time before coming to a more traditional violent, gangster-movie-type climax. But little about this film is traditional. And the characters and dialogue were amazing. Even though the language and actual dialogue is very different from Pulp Fiction, it reminded me of Pulp Fiction in a way, in that the writer shows us brutal killers as humans talking about everyday things. But these are more layered and interesting brutal killers than any Tarantino created, in my opinion. And they both have consciences and their own codes of right and wrong -- where they draw the line and how to deal with conflicting loyalties.

This film isn't for anyone easily offended, but I found bits of it hilarious and both Gleeson and Farrell gave amazing performances for Martin McDonagh, a talented Irish writer/director I've seen compared to David Mamet on a message board on imdb.com.