When I recalled why I eagerly wanted to see this movie, I got lost. I mean, I don’t really understand why I’m interested in watching it in the first place. Wednesday was the first day release of “Seven Psychopaths” in Indonesia and I rushed myself to the cinema to watch it like for no reason. Oh, maybe the cast, yeah, maybe the cast that attracted me. Well, at least there’s Christopher Walken in it. Oh, there’s also Olga Kurylenko who had made her chance to be Bond’s girl in “Quantum of Solace”. Oh, Sam Rockwell is also there. Colin Farrell is also there. Phew, what a cast package.

See the film poster and you’ll be informed that “Seven Psychopaths” is not a murder movie. The word “Psychopaths” in its title refers to another thing. In “Seven Psychopaths”, you’ll be focusing on a character named Marty (played by Colin Farrell), an alcoholic screenwriter, in the middle of his so-called writer’s block. Marty was writing a screenplay for a film he titled “Seven Psychopaths” which talked, of course, about seven psychopaths. His friend Billy (played by Sam Rockwell) helped him as he lost ideas about the rest of all psychopathic characters for his screenplay. Unfortunately, both was involved in a crime after Billy’s friend, Hans (played by Christopher Walken), kidnapped a Shih-Tzu dog that belonged to a gangster boss named Charlie (played by Woody Harrelson).

Seeing “Seven Psychopaths” is like seeing “Zombieland”. It’s a comedy with so many blood and gory actions all over it. And when I said “comedy”, I didn’t mean a Will Ferrell or Seth Rogen-kinda comedy: it’s silly in a little bit different style. The premise itself is a laugh: a gangster stuff, a film-inside-a-film thingy, a rush over a cute dog, series of psychopathic stories, and questions about faith put altogether in a single film, with a sprinkle of blood squirts and dozens of bullets of guns here and there, and voila, here comes “Seven Psychopaths”! I didn’t laugh at all throughout the duration, maybe only some giggles, but I knew that it’s thrilling with, especially, the crime subplots. I admit that I couldn’t easily tell what the story is and I was like “what movie was that?” after finished watching it, but I’m sure that it’s attracting, ‘though only a little bit.

Meanwhile, the cast was okay. Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Walken could portray solid characterization for the three main characters and along the film I saw good character developments from each of them. I was curious if Abbie Cornish and Olga Kurylenko were added in this film just for marketing purposes or else. I mean, what did they do in the film? They only played in like two or three scenes and then they were gone. However, Tom Waits (portraying Zachariah) and Woody Harrelson really succeeded doing their parts. Martin McDonagh, as both the writer and the director of “Seven Psychopaths”, made a solid and sharp script, maybe with too much layers so that it ended up being too teeming and unfocus as well, and I was kind of confused with the way the plot flowed. The plot wasn't walking in a single path, but it's like hopping from one point to another. It’s not bad afterall, but I’m not sure if it’s something watchers could really enjoy.

Some persons sit behind my seat were beefing about how bizarre the film was, as finally they walked out before it finished and made me and two other persons to be the last watchers in the teather. “Seven Psychopaths” was too heavy—or maybe too weird—for being an easy entertainment.  I’m saying that it reminded me to “Zombieland”, and as I didn’t enjoy “Zombieland” that much, I didn’t enjoy “Seven Psychopaths” that much. I enjoyed it, but not that much. I mean, if you wanna spend your money to watch a straight, easy-to-tell comedy, you shouldn’t watch “Seven Psychopaths”. But, if you wanna feel the sensation of a mix of sharp crime and bizarre fun in a movie, you should try this one.

 ▲  Sharp screenplay, good characterization

 ▼  Too many layers, bizarre comedy

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS | COUNTRY UK YEAR 2012 RATING Rated R for strong violence, bloody images, pervasive language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use GENRE Comedy, Crime RUNTIME 110 mins CAST Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits WRITER Martin McDonagh DIRECTOR Martin McDonagh IMDB RATING 8.0/10 (to date) METACRITIC 66/100 (Generally Favorable) (to date) ROTTEN TOMATOES 84% (Certified Fresh) (to date) MORE INFO