Movie DVD Store (UK) - In Bruges [2008]
![In Bruges [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XHTgM-zAL._SL160_.jpg)
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List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £6.98
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
Starring: Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson
Directed By: Martin McDonagh
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5050582554892
Format: PAL
Label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Pictures UK
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2008-08-11
Running Time: 103
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
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Editorial Reviews:
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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
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: best film of 2008
Comment: In a year or hype and tripe at the cinema when all the sequels failed to sparkle and originality seemed dead 'In Bruge' slipped into the multiplexes, under the radar, with very little fanfare and a trailer that did it little favours. By pure accident, with nothing else on at the time I wanted, I grudgingly handed over my cash and plodded to the smallest screen Odeon had to offer. I emerged elated. Not since taking a risk on Withnail and I had I had such fun at the cinema. This was a great discovery and I vowed to spread the word. In Bruges is indeed a rare beast. Honestly I had resigned myself to never laughing throughout a film ever again until this. As horrible as the two lead characters are (two charming foul mouthed, racist, homophobic, killers) you actually grow to love them as they grow to understand themselves. This is films magic. It is so well written, acted and directed. It doesn't rush, it plods along quite happily. If Tarantino was Irish and a better Director and writer this would be the result.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Funny Black Comedy
Comment: Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) play a couple of Irish hitmen hiding out in the Belgian medieval town of Bruges after a bungled contract killing in London. They are given strict instructions to wait at their hotel for angry boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to call with further instructions.
Although In Bruges is a 'british gangster flick' of sorts, don't let that put you off. It's certainly not just another 'Lock Stock' clone with flash camera tricks and cockney geezers, this is an original and very funny film. The dialogue is fantastic and the two leads do an excellent job as the bickering pair. Colin Farrell is suprisingly funny outside of his usual macho roles and delivers his lines brilliantly. The setting of Bruges is beautiful too and filming takes in some stunning locations. Things turn nasty when Harry turns up and there are some violent scenes but In Bruges is essentially a black comedy with some very dark, very un-PC humour (racist dwarves, prostitutes and fat tourists).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Funny
Comment: I didn't like "In Bruges". It is an amoral film full of nasty,unpleasant characters who spend most of their time swearing and shooting each other . The film attempts to generate black humour out of such "hilarious" events as the murder of a small boy by an Irish hitman ,the blinding of a Belgian skinhead by the same character and making repeated jokes about midgets. There were quite a few unnecessarily bloody scenes as well. The makers of the film must have thought that all of this garbage would be rendered palatable by portraying the main characters ,played by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, as a sort of psychotic Father Ted and Dougal and shooting the film in the attractive medieval Belgian town of Bruges.Not for me it wasn't.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bah .... a movie or a tourist's spot ???
Comment: Bah. A dark comedy ? Perhaps a boring story with a underemployed Farrell, but a decent cast, especially Fiennes.
In my opinion, more than a film, is a tourist's spot for a little, "insignificant" city in Belgium. In Italy there is a prize (a weekend in Bruges - ohh mygosh) linked with this DVD .... What else ?
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a pleasant surprise
Comment: This is the second film I've been talked into seeing against my wishes (the other being Mama Mia), and what a different reaction I had. I'd seen the ads when it hit the cinema, and, quite frankly, had this down as one to miss. However, a chance trip to the shops with my boyfriend to find something to watch (with this being the best of a bad bunch) saw me unhappily trotting to the tills to part with £13 for it.
I am so glad to have been wrong.
What we have here is a pretty engrossing tale of two hit men sent to Bruges to lay low after a messy hit. The interplay between the veteran (Gleeson) and the rookie hot-head Farrell is fantastic. Farrell really does a splendid job; half tortured possible suicide attemptee, half comedy turn... and excelling in both roles. I can't really give a better explanation as I don't want to ruin the film, but do keep an eye out for his scrape with an American family, and an incident at a dinner date. Fantastic.
I can imagine the cast read through the script cracking up. I can't remember the last film that had me laughing so much at such clearly dark humour, and when was the last time you heard a line such as "you can't give a midget horse tranquillisers!" in a movie??
The storyline starts off pretty basic, and builds, twists and unfolds as the film progresses, sucking you into the plight of the two main characters.
A word about Mr Fiennes, one of the other reviewers mentioned his character being very similar to Ben Kingsley's scene-stealing "Don" in Sexy Beast. This is exactly what I thought watching it, and it is no bad thing.
So, if you like a film with a liberal sprinkling of violence, and darkly humourous, this is one for you. If you like things a little safer, stick to dross like Mama Mia.
"You've got to stick to your principles".
Indeed.
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