I liked Seven Psychopaths a lot more than I thought I was going to. It actually caught me by surprise in it’s creativity and execution. What I thought was going to be a straight forward “crossed the gangster” cat and mouse movie was much more than that.

Here’s the gist of it: Marty is a struggling screenwriter in LA whose friend, Billy, kidnaps dogs and returns them to their owner for the reward a few days later. One day Billy steals a dog that belongs to a lunatic gangster. Marty gets pulled into a world that he wanted no first hand experience in…but it turns out to be just the right inspiration for him.

The movie starts in a standard way. Billy is trying to come up with ideas for his movie script, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ and is having a really hard time going anywhere with it. He only has two characters and that’s about it. Now, here’s where it gets different. The movie you are watching, forms the script that Billy writes, which is the movie you just watched. The events you see happen turn into the inspiration that Billy uses for his script. You watch as Billy comes up with the ideas for his script as things unfold around him. He comes up with characters, gets advise and ideas from his friends and it all rolls in and over itself as you watch. It’s a really creative angle for a movie.

The topper is a great cast. Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and my absolute favorite, Christopher Walken. Hans is the best character Walken has done in quite sometime. Props to Martin McDonagh for coming up with a role that really shows off Walken’s great acting ability without making him a walking cartoon.

I think this movie was really overlooked when it came out, highly recommended. And watch In Bruges if you haven’t, which Martin McDonagh also wrote and directed. Side note: No animals get hurt in this movie. Just people.