Director: Martin McDonagh

Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jordan Prentice, Clémence Poésy, Jérémie Renier

Plot Outline (courtesy of IMDb): Holed up in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job, two hit men (Farrell and Gleeson) begin to differ on their views of life and death as they become used to local customs.

Runtime: 107 minutes

MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong bloody violence, pervasive language and some drug use.


This movie joins the likes of Snatch; Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake in that it's a fun British action-comedy with a great story, fun characters, and plenty of cursing with British or Irish accents. In Bruges follows two hitmen as they're laying low in a small Belgian town.

Collin Farrell and Brendan Gleason star as the two assassins and they share great chemistry as one is enjoying himself in the touristy town, while the other is bored as hell. The banter between the two is great, funny as hell, and says a lot about the two. We learn what brought the two to Bruges and that event and its repercussions are what drive the story; the two characters, later joined by Ralph Fiennes, help drive the story and the humor.

There are some great scenes involving the two characters, either alone or together, including Farrell dealing with some overweight tourists, him getting into a fight with a Canadian. There's also a subplot involving a dwarf who's in a movie shooting in the town and one involving Farrell finding a girlfriend. Both subplots come into play more at movie's end, but until then they enable the movie to offer more laughs. But while the movie comes off as an action-comedy, there are some character-driven moments that give the movie more depth and make the movie, particularly the ending, that much better.

In Bruges is a lot of fun; there's plenty to offer including great characters, performances to go with them, plenty of laughs, and all of it goes along with a great story with depth. Any fan of Guy Ritchie's movies should have no trouble enjoying this flick.

8/10