Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-08-11
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The considerable pleasures of In Bruges begin with its title, which suggests a glumly self-important art film but actually fits a rattling-good tale of two Irish gangsters "keepin' a low profile" after a murder gone messily wrong. Bruges, the best-preserved medieval town in Belgium, is where the bearlike veteran Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and newbie triggerman Ray (Colin Farrell) have been ordered by their London boss to hole up for two weeks. As the sly narrative unfolds like a paper flower in water, "in Bruges" also becomes a state of mind, a suspended moment amid centuries-old towers and bridges and canals when even thuggish lives might experience a change in direction. And throughout, the viewer has ample opportunity to consider whose pronunciation of "Bruges" is more endearing, Gleeson's or Farrell's. The movie marks the feature writing-directing debut of playwright Martin McDonagh, whose droll meditation on sudden mortality, Six Shooter, copped the 2005 Oscar for best live-action short. Although McDonagh clearly relishes the musicality of his boyos' brogue and has written them plenty of entertaining dialogue, In Bruges is no stageplay disguised as a film. The script is deceptively casual, allowing for digressions on the newly united and briskly thriving Europe, and annexing passers-by as characters who have a way of circling back into the story with unanticipatable consequences. That includes a film crew--shooting a movie featuring, to Ray's fascination, "a midget" (Jordan Prentice)--and a fetching blond production assistant (Clémence Poésy) whose job description keeps evolving. There's one other key figure: Harry, the Cockney gang boss whose omnipotence remains unquestioned as long as he remains offscreen, back in England, as if floating in an early Harold Pinter play. Harry has reasons inextricably tender and perverse for selecting Bruges as his hirelings' destination, and eventually he emerges from the aether to express them--first as a garrulous telephone voice and then in the volatile form of Ralph Fiennes. By that point the charmed moment of suspension, already shaken by several eruptions of violence, is pretty well doomed. But In Bruges continues to surprise and satisfy right up to the end. --Richard T. Jameson

Synopsis
After winning an Oscar for his short Six Shooter, director Martin McDonagh moves to this crime film starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes. A pair of hit men (Farrell and Gleeson) are sent to Belgium after a job goes wrong in England, but their exile turns out to be more than it first appears.

Customer Reviews

Funniest film I've seen in quite some time
Totally agree with the previous two reviewers. This is a film that deserves to be seen by loads of people, as it is truly hilarious!

Granted, it might not be everyone's cup of tea, as there is the odd bit of violence, and the humour is very dark and often non-PC. But hey, we're all adults right!? And anyway, one thing that surprises a little as the film unfolds is that it does actually have some morality at it's heart, as we witness Colin Farrell's character regret his past actions, and Brendan Gleesan's character see a chance for Farrell to find redemption.

The two leads are fantastic - with good chemistry - delivering the many amusing one liners with aplomb, as are the supporting cast, with Ralph Fiennes putting in a performance that will recall Sir Ben Kinsley chewing up the scenery in "Sexy Beast", and the midget (the character Ray's term, not mine!!! I can't seem to see his name on imdb) sending himself up in a manner that you will never forget.

Bruges itself is also a character in the film of course, and despite Ray's constant funny put downs of the place, it looks beautiful. So much so in fact that I now plan to go sometime...I just hope there's no Irish hitmen seeking refuge there when I do!

Great film, recommended.

Awesome movie , ignore negative reviews
I was not sure what to expect after reading a few negative reviews and thinking about the movies Farrell has ruined in the past but I gave it a go.

I was very greatly surprised to find the movie , acting , direction and plot are actually very good and the plot in particular is very enjoyable. The script is very funny and suits the 3 main characters very well ,there are several injokes ( the paintings ) that are very cleaverly done.

The movie is wrapped up in a slight subreal athmosphere that has a fantastic finale in the last sequence. The 3 main actors are flawless and the only reason I do not give it 5 stars is becasuse of the blood at the end.

If you liked Sexy beast and Layer cake you will not be diasspointed by this.

DVD Extras , directors comment is the best , worth watching the movie twice . Best to set extra scenes on before the movie as well.

In Bad Taste - but hilarious!
I can't remember laughing out loud to a DVD as many times as I did watching IN BRUGES. It's extremely crude, very violent, and the filthy language is probably upstaged by the very politically incorrect script. But for at least the first half of the film it is absolutely hilarious, even Colin Farrell's eyebrows deserve a mention because they played a part too.

The secret of its success is in the writing and directing, both of which were the creation of Martin McDonagh in his first full-length film production - his first being an Oscar-winning short film called Six Shooter, which also featured Brendan Gleeson in a leading role. The story is original for once, although its left-fieldedness reminded me of the odd Coen Brothers comedy. Of course it is chock-full of the most extreme expletives from start to finish, probably greater in number than in any other film, but it wouldn't have been as good without them. In my case I sat down to watch it having no idea what it was about at all, and I think on reflection that it's better to know as little as possible in advance, because there are a lot of surprises to be enjoyed and I am glad I didn't read any of the plot summaries anywhere. It's the blackest of black comedies but one which is rich in drama and even romance, not to mention a lot of graphic violence. In some ways it's old fashioned because, refreshingly, it doesn't follow any contemporary 'rules' about racism or prejudice - perhaps what might be seen as highly offensive doesn't actually turn out that way because everybody is in the firing line, and nobody is excluded, be they priests, spastics, black people, midgets, retards, prostitutes, homosexuals, Belgium (and what it is allegedly notorious for) and countless other objects of derision or exploitation. There is never any hint of an underlying racist or abusive message underneath it all, instead what we are left to wonder about - in a vaguely similar way to Vincent and Jules in PULP FICTION - is that hitmen are human and have real lives and conventional frailties. It's utterly immoral in every sense of the word but it's great fun and I am very pleased I bought this DVD, which incidentally has some entertaining extras on it including deleted scenes, goofs and a shockingly funny compression of all the F & C words in the whole film, all back-to-back.

A must for lovers of black, non-PC humour.