SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS

Colin Farrell is Marty, an alcoholic screenwriter who is trying to finish his latest screenplay called Seven Psychopaths. He’d have a good chance of finishing, if he wasn’t surrounded by at least 3 psychopaths: Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrleson, and Christopher Walken. The movie is called – you guessed it – Seven Psychopaths.

Farrell is unknowningly dragged into a dog-kidnapping business (yes, you read that right) by Rockwell and Walken. Harmless business for these two psyhcopaths. But when the dog of a ruthless mobster (played by Harrrelson) is stolen all hell breaks lose. And Farrell spends more time trying to stay alive then writing his script. If you enjoyed the dark, violent  comedy of 2008′s In Bruges – and I certainly did – you’ll surely find Seven Psychopaths as funny, disturbing, and violent.

It gets an 8/10

 ARBITRAGE

From Psychotics to Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon are a affulent couple living in Manhattan. Gere’s Robert Miller, a well known hedge-fund magnate, is celebrating his 60th birthday with his family and all is well on the surface. But there’s a young mistress and fraudulent money problems. The movie is Arbitrage.

Arbitrage is a financial term meaning the simultaneous purchase or sale of the same securities or commodities. Financial rule breaking, jumping through loopholes, this is Gere’s world. But that world is closing in on him. His investment gamble has failed, money is due, and the feds are looming. But that’s not his worst problem. An incident involving his inpatient mistress is about to turn his world into even more trouble. You’d think with a timely, tense storyline like this – not to mention a solid cast - that Arbitrage would be one of the year’s better films. But it’s not. The tension is there, edge of your seat at times, and Gere is solid. If you’ve watched Law and Order over the years you’d see half a dozen plot holes and police screw ups that for me were too difficult to ignore.

Arbitrage gets a 6/10

ARGO

And lastly, Ben Affleck stars in and directs Argo. It’s 1979, and the Iranian revolution is in full swing. American hostages are seized, but six manage to escape and thanks to then-ambassador, Ken Taylor, spend the next few months hiding out in the Canadian Embassy. Taylor would get them out and later be declared a hero. In 1997 Bill Clinton de-classified the information on this incident and we learned the CIA had a whole lot to do with this rescue, including creating a phony movie to be shot in Iran called Argo. Affleck has created a tense and at times funny, fast moving thriller. But it’s based ON a true story, not THE true story. That said I did enjoy this film as entertainment. I only wish brave Canadian Ken Taylor could’ve been portrayed as more than just a glorified inn-keeper.

Argo gets an 8/10

Jim Gordon – Film/DVD Critic
CTV Vancouver
CTV News Channel