Countdown! Best Movies of the Past Few Years: "In Bruges" and "War Dogs"

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As I mentioned in the first installment of Late-Night Boredom's "Best of the Past Few Years," these are films I've seen for the first time in the past few years; they didn't necessarily come out during that time period. That distinction is relevant to this edition because In Bruges was released a decade ago. 

As always, watch out for SPOILERS in my reviews...

9. IN BRUGES (2008) 

Nowadays, my movie standards are crystal clear: It needs to be well-acted, original, fast-paced, thought-provoking or all of the above. Martin McDonagh's In Bruges nearly connects on all four. It's a dark, funny, offbeat, twisted little film. 

Ray (a vulnerable Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson, at his best) are sent to "fucking Bruges" by their ruthless boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes on hyper-drive) to carry out a hit. Ray is none too pleased by this quaint, picturesque little city. Ken, on the other hand, is enchanted. As the killers await further instructions from their handler, they begin to explore Bruges, getting to know some quirky supporting characters along the way. 

In Bruges is a tricky movie to pin down. How, exactly, do we characterize it? It's a film about two professional hitmen waiting to kill someone in a foreign land. It's certainly a dark premise, but Farrell and Gleeson have a consistently amusing rapport, and Fiennes, while dangerous and (perhaps) deadly, is bursting with manic comedy. I don't really want to get too deep into the plot because it will ruin McDonagh's subtle surprises, but this is a movie that peels open rather pleasantly. 

Farrell seems at home here. Sometimes lost in stupid roles in stupid movies like Winter's Tale, Total Recall and American Outlaws, Farrell seems to tap into his true potential with better material like Crazy Heart, The Lobster and In Bruges. In this one, he mixes humor with vulnerability, bravado, bewilderment and despair. Gleeson's more grounded performance -- playing somewhere between a brother and father figure -- complements Farrell's indecisiveness and aimless search for meaning.

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I started writing this review awhile ago -- then got distracted by the NFL Playoffs (Conference Finals and Super Bowl) -- and since then I've been hearing an awful lot of hype about Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. That "little" film took home the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama, and now it's picked up seven Academy Award nominations.

When I started writing this review I was thinking, Martin McDonagh seems like a uniquely talented writer/director...why hasn't his name popped up more often over the years?

Lo and behold, McDonagh is the man behind Three Billboards, the second standout film of his career. It's nice to see his talent getting some attention.

It's difficult to mix humor with high-stakes, life-and-death crime, and McDonagh somehow finds the right balance in In Bruges. It starts and ends strong, despite stumbling at times through the body of the story. Overall, it's an interesting film that showcases the talents of its director and his actors.

** JOHNNY FRO'S RATING: 8.5 out of 10 **

T-9. WAR DOGS (2016)

When War Dogs first reached HBO, there was a local buzz. Sam Ytuarte had mentioned it to me. "Have you seen War Dogs yet?" Frank Valeriano did the same. I think I heard Billy Valeriano and Doug Muhlbauer talking about it as well. 

I also remembered an interesting piece about it on The Ringer. I'm already a big Jonah Hill fan, and I like Miles Teller sometimes too, so it wasn't long before I sat down to find out what the mild buzz was about. 

And I REALLY enjoyed War Dogs that first time. I saw elements of a number of popular films in it -- Goodfellas, Scarface, The Wolf of Wall Street, Boiler Room and even Rounders -- and Hill's performance is really edgy and offbeat. 

Also, and perhaps most importantly, I like when a movie takes me inside a niche market or subculture. Boiler Room did that with pump-and-dump chopshops. Rounders did that for newcomers at the height of the poker boom. Wedding Crashers...do people actually do that? And on a more elevated level, there's All the President's Men for the world of nitty gritty investigative journalism. 

I mean, really, who the hell knew that tiny, two-man operations could sell guns and ammunition to the American government? 

I had no idea stuff like that was ever going on. Maybe I'm just ignorant. I don't really watch the news. 

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So Hill and Teller make for the classic "double act" -- one guy's over-the-top and the other plays it straight -- and the former has a lot of fun with his role. Efraim Diveroli is a slimy, dangerous douchebag, but Hill supplies him with undeniable charisma. We feel bad when he dupes David Packouz time and time again, but we're also like dude, why are you so gullible? Efraim clearly isn't a good guy, so why are you expecting him to behave as such?

The overall plot seems thin in hindsight, but Hill is a magnetic performer and Todd Phillips has become a really good storyteller behind the camera. I still love the original Hangover (and maybe I'm one of the only people who likes Hangover II), but the material of War Dogs is a bit of a departure -- perhaps even an ascension -- from those two comedies. It's even further from Road Trip, Old School and Starsky & Hutch. 

If you look closely at the canon of Phillips' career, you can see the evolution. It doesn't scream at you; but to me, The Hangover displayed far more skill than Old School, and Road Trip before that. He's refining his skills, and War Dogs is a little more serious than his predecessors. It's weightier, but subtly so. Apparently he's lined up to direct The Joker origin movie, and I'm certain that'll be heavier than War Dogs. Phillips is slowly opening up his range, giving himself opportunities for projects that would have been unfathomable in the past. 

So, all aspects considered, War Dogs is a stepping stone. It's a good movie. It's a fun movie. But it isn't great. We'll see if greatness is next on the menu. 

** JOHNNY FRO'S RATING: 8.5 out of 10 **

Before I wrap it up for this segment, a bit of housekeeping...

Rather than review every movie I've seen in recent years, I'll have to occasionally add to the Late-Night Boredom Rankings without a full-length piece. The Boy and Shut In are two horror/suspense films that Jen wanted to watch, and not surprisingly -- like many films in that genre -- they shared a number of similarities. The Boy was clearly the better of the two films, but there's no need to flesh out the reasons why. I'm tossing them into the rankings, along with Bryan Cranston and James Franco's shitty Why Him?

LNB's Updated Rankings:

1. Up in the Air (9.5/10) Archived here
2. Steve Jobs (9.5/10)
3. Stay (9/10) Archived here
4. Gone Girl (9/10) Archived here
5. Tape (9/10) Archived here

6. A Perfect Murder (9/10)
7. War Dogs (8.5/10)
8. In Bruges (8.5/10)

9. Split (8.5/10)

10. Bad Moms (8.5/10)

11. Basquiat (8.5/10)

12. Moonlight (8/10)

13. The Revenant (8/10)

14. The Shallows (7.5/10)
15. Focus (7.5/10) Archived here

16. The Night Before (7.5/10)
17. The Walk (7/10)

18. 10 Cloverfield Lane (7/10)
19. The Boy (6/10) - No review available

20. Joy (5.5/10)

21. La La Land (5/10)
22. Why Him? (3.5/10) - No review available
23. The Program (3/10)
24. Shut In (2/10)

25. Rings (1.5/10)
26. Mother's Day (1.5/10)

Reviews to Come...

Hell or High Water

Sunshine Cleaning

Zero Dark Thirty
The Box
Annabelle: Creation
The Conjuring 2
Baby Driver
Body of Lies

Untraceable

The Wonder Boys

Jackie Brown

Mean Streets

Nerve

The Hateful Eight

The Seven Five

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

How to Be Single

Deadpool

Ratatouille

The Spectacular Now
The Visit
Loving
Nocturnal Animals
The Purge: Election Year
And more...