Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decidedly different and good in parts, 8 Sep 2006
I find it hard to understand why this above average action thriller managed to upset quite so many people in quite so many ways. It is certainly a cut or two above the typical Hollywood formulaic bang-bang flick and has deliberately set out to be different ... so, if your idea of a buzz is Arnie, Sly or Bruce with no requirement to engage brain cells, this probably isn't your type of film; similarly, if you're expecting Keira Knightley to reprise any of her other, more typical, roles you're going to be disappointed.
The main beefs seem to be at Miss Knightley having to audacity to play a hard-bitten action role; in fact, she does so rather well. In part, this is because she is a good actress but there is a delightful incongruity between the extremely posh background from which she longs to escape and the brutal world into which she does. It would have been very easy to script the role as a hard-nosed, kick-ass, all-American, gun-tottin', apple-pie lovin', tough as nails but with a heart of gold, archetypal Hollywood female action role but Knightley's character is actually far more interesting and her attempts to fit in to the role to which she aspires deserve to have been better developed. As it is, her plummy tones and naivety contrast delightfully with Mickey Rourke's jaded cynical world-weariness and the rage flowing from Edgar Ramirez's emotionally dysfunctional psyche.
The cinematography and directorial style are also decidedly different. Whether you love or loathe the jump shot, stop motion, sample/mix effects is a matter of personal taste; personally, they grew on me: the style is somewhere between Tarantino and Baz Luhrmann (William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) and help fuel the otherwise rather uneven pace of the movie.
Having said that, whilst the film tries hard in all departments, it doesn't always succeed: the character development is hit and miss, the Knightley/Liu exchanges leave you feeling strangely unsatisfied, the plot is occasionally obscure and I still don't know how she got out of the lift ... but it's still worth the rental fee and will pass a pleasant enough evening when the TV channels draw a blank.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mad but true (well, almost...), 28 Feb 2006
The main thing to say here is this: Of COURSE it’s ludicrous to cast Kiera Knightly as a kick-ass bounty hunter! That is the WHOLE POINT! It’s not as if Tony Scott and all his producers and casting agents DIDN’T NOTICE that she’s got a cut-glass English accent and only weighs about four stone… This is a film you either “get” or you don’t. If the sight of Knightly on the cover, or her voice on the trailer saying “I am a bahnty hahnter” immediately fills you with contempt, this is not the film for you. If you think it’s funny then you may well find a lot to enjoy here. I didn’t know what to expect, but I went along to the cinema with a kind of optimistic curiosity and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m not a big Tony Scott fan – didn’t like Man on Fire, or even True Romance much - and I was never very keen on Kiera Knightly before, but this movie made me warm to both of them. It’s by no means perfect; it has a very, perhaps overcomplicated storyline and moves very quickly, so it’s occasionally incoherent. It’s bombastically edited and shot, has an utterly pointless cameo from Tom Waits, and goes a little too far over the top towards the end (I mean c’mon, it’s hyperkinetic and exaggerated, but Knightly firing a machine gun in each hand is just that little bit TOO stupid – the recoil would break her arms!), but it’s entertaining and fun, and oddly involving. In some ways, it’s a little bit reminiscent of Frank Miller’s later, stranger Elektra comics, and it’s closer to those in tone than the actual Elektra film was. Simultaneously gritty and silly and clever and stupid, this is the strangest mainstream Hollywood film for ages. If you approach it from the right angle you’ll find it’s a lot better than you might have heard or imagined.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This movie is dirty and shockly good, 3 Jul 2007
It's over the top; sure. This is a film in which arms are literally being thrown around, subtitles are correcting themselves, but I loved every minute of it. Kiera Knightley gives a fierce performance. She shows the right amount of anger and dedication in this performance. Mickey Rourke follows up his great performance in 'Sin City' with another tough-guy performance (Good to see him). Edgar Ramirez really doesn't do anything except speak Spanish every once in a while and stare at Kiera. Delroy Lindoi gives a good supporting performance. Mo'Nique was herself, although she did surprise me on one particular scene. Lucy Liu has great chemistry with Kiera Knightley in her scenes with her. Christopher Walken owns his roles as usual and an unusual assortment of actors including some Beverly Hills 90210 stars manage to squeeze themselves into this production.
The problem that I had with this movie is that it concentrates on the different things that they do, instead of the character of Domino. Some of the dialog in this film was also stupid {"The rich, the poor, and everyone in between."--uuuhh, that's not as clever as you think, filmmakers, no need to repeat it twice!) Plus the final action scene is all shaky so you can't really tell what's going on.
Overall, I thought `Domino' was a great deal of fun. Due to the over the top nature and the twitchy camera tricks, it's easy for me to see why the film was bashed by so many viewers, but I really didn't mind any of this in the least. For me, it was one the most entertaining films to watch. Though `Domino' wasn't the best film of 2005, it was one hell of a ride that is destined to reach cult status. Watch it before you judge it.
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