Revolver (2005)

Absolutely Fantastic

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I don't even know where to start. The premise is a very interesting one, but the script is full of useless characters and stylistic flourishes that confuse and bewilder. At one point in the middle, I even thought I had perhaps taken acid by mistake. The sudden dive into flashes of hand-drawn animation are never explained or even justified. We are treated to endless, mind-numbing flashbacks, unexpectedly lacklustre acting by Andre 3000, the dialog (or voice over) is ofttimes cliche and tacked together, there are characters and plot lines that make no sense (though some are quite charming)... Basically, the script is terrible. There is no getting around it- despite valiant efforts from Liotta and Stratham.Visually it is VERY interesting, however. The decors are off the hook. The koreans are pretty amazing and every scene their boss is in- well freaking electric. There is this killer played by Mark Strong (I always have a soft spot for him) and this little girl who deserve a story all their own. This cannot save the weak ending, however, (par for the course) and the vague moral lacks punch and does the message a terrible disservice.

Revolver is a Guy Ritchie movie, so I figured there'd be a lot of mayhem, with blazing gunfire, mumbled British dialog, and car chases. And Jason Statham is in it! But that's not really what I got. Instead, this is more of a psychological thriller, and that's not Ritchie's forte. There are more minds being blown than there are heads being blown off, that much I can tell you. Which made this movie a bit of a disappointment to me.Statham plays Jake Green, a gambler just out of jail after seven years. Soon after his release, he's winning games of chance left and right. Which doesn't sit will with his nemesis, one Dorothy (!) Macha (Ray Liotta), who owns the casino where Jake's winning his winnings. When Macha's goons go after Jake, he receives some unexpected help from a couple of strangers – the suave Avi (Andre Benjamin) and the burly Zach (Vincent Pastore). They'll keep Macha's hounds at bay, for a price – all of Jake's money and his willing participation in their own loan-sharking racket.This still sounds like a fun movie. And let's not forget, "revolver" is right there in the title, too. But as the story progresses, it becomes less and less about feuding and fussing and fighting than about mind games. Who are Zach and Avi? Is Macha insane? Why won't these people just shoot each other? The body count is way too low for this sort of genre thriller. Heck, after a while I began questioning my own eyes. Was Jake actually hallucinating the whole thing? Maybe Jake wasn't real, either. Maybe I was the one hallucinating! Maybe I'm in Purgatory, endlessly watching the same boring Guy Ritchie movie. It's not quite Hell – that'd be watching any Uwe Boll movie on a loop – but it feels just as tedious.Revolver seems like a baffling foray into a theater of the absurd for a director who's not known for overly cerebral flourishes in his work. That's not to say that Ritchie's earlier films are for dummies only – they're fun, visceral treats, for the most part, and a lot of fun. But this one? This one was dull and inscrutable. The novelty of seeing Jason Statham with hair wore off rather quickly, although he's just as good in this movie as he is in almost any other movie (except maybe Spy, where he was hilariously good). Liotta is an unhinged menace, as he typically is. It was nice to see Vincent Pastore playing someone who's not a low-level organized-crime fall guy, though. And Andre Benjamin is smooth. But no, and I fully intend this pun, Revolver is a misfire.

Surely those reviewers telling us to watch this movie at least three times before writing a review realize that this means the movie isn't getting its message across? It is not a case of the viewer being 'lazy', but that this movie is confusing. This movie sounded interesting, and initially looked interesting, but then when I started watching it, small cracks started appearing, growing larger and larger, until finally the whole movie just collapsed into a heap. That was around the 30 minute stage, when suddenly I realized that this movie must have been written by the same person that directed it.Looking up Revolver on IMDb quickly revealed that I was correct. Once again, the failure to have someone else carry out the checks and balances ensured that the movie would lack consistency and at times be confusing.Like when our domineering bad guy suddenly appears in a church like scene and acts subserviently to an older lady who is surrounded by a lot of younger ladies. Does that sound confusing? Well it certainly was. I'm sure the writer had a clear idea in his head, but it needed a (different person) director to point out that at times there wasn't enough information provided to the audience. Like when our hero suddenly falls down after reading a business card. Was the card coated in poison? Was he having a type of epileptic fit?Such a shame that once again all that money and acting talent was wasted by a bad script, and worse directing.

I've always liked the pace and cinematography of Guy Ritchie's movies, but did not expect the bigger work presented in Revolver.Really an all-star cast and a welcome interpretation of, I suspect, core personal work that has been explored for centuries.The representations and trickiness of ego, vice, "Gold" are compelling and helpful.I can understand why Ritchie's core viewership would rebel against the movie, and see it as not having a typically expected storyline, and resulting anger and disappointment. However, for those who are interested, this could be a compelling work that will be watched over and over again, and, may be of help in one's work to face and engage with the ego, and other human foibles.Thankful to have stumbled upon the film and hopeful that he produces another one of similar subject matter.