Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Filmbufftwerp The lead actors delivered very cavalier, and at times self-satisfied performances of material that begged to be delivered with a dry and dark British sensibility (and in the interest of fairness I thought Theo James was bas too. Totally miscast as the tough baddie). Getting the performances he needed from his stars was the Writer/Director John Michael McDonough's job, so he shoulders the blame for this poor movie right alongside it's stars Michael Pena and Alexander Skarsgard. It's a shame too, because the elements were there on paper and to be honest, the films not poorly written or shot (Though some of the humor crossed the line into bad taste).The one bright spot in this movie was Caleb Landry Jones, who delivered a really fun performance as a foppish strip club owner (I believe) who I think was connected to Theo James' bad guy.So unless you're a John Michael McDonough fan I think this is a film you can skip.

dandbone I enjoyed this movie, even if it wasn't meant to be the second coming of the Lethal Weapon. This was supposed to be a philosophical movie, but since such movies get Oscar and then end up with no one watching them, they thought to make the heroes cops. There is a lot of subtext to the movie. One of the cops is a family man, while the other is a drunkard who never goes to bed sober. The first seems to live a happy family life, while the second drinks out of despair. They seem to be completely amoral, robbing robbers, beating up suspects, and... completely neglecting the paperwork. Or, that's one way to see it. The other way is that they only care about what matters, their own lives, freedom, their families and friends. They appear not to give a damn about their assigned role in society, and the movie send the message that neither should we. And if we have second thoughts, we should know that those above us, that we protect by doing our duty, don't care either. That, I think was the metaphor with the English lord. Apart from the subtext, the movie has many cool moments, and great music. It also has the feeling of a seventies movie. Since it's a movie about freedom, I guess it has to feel like that.

grantss Bob Bolano and Terry Monroe are two crooked Albuquerque PD detectives. They tend to hustle criminals but their methods have landed them in hot water with their boss, and they are on their last warning. They get wind of a heist and decide to muscle in on the action, robbing the perpetrators. Unfortunately for them, the mastermind of the heist is someone out of their league, someone they would do well to fear.Hilariously funny in an offbeat, anarchic, sort of way. Plot is fairly random and, if you viewed the movie as a drama, not entirely watertight. But then, who would watch this as a drama? Great script and dialogue that is part-Tarantino, part-Big Lebowski. Throw in some spot-on performances from Michael Pena and Alexander Skarsgard, a director that seems to have a short concentration span and you have a wildly funny roller-coaster of a movie.As an added bonus, more than enough to offend the average SJW (not that this takes much).

eddie_baggins Back in 2014, U.K based director John Michael McDonagh gave us Calvary.A follow-up to his well-regarded, if little seen dark comedy The Guard, Calvary saw McDonagh reteaming with his leading man Brendan Gleeson to deliver a refreshingly unique and utterly captivating experience that had many justifiably excited for what the promising director would dish up next.Taking his time before treating us to his next feature length experience, it's with great disappointment that McDonagh's Calvary follow-up is War on Everyone, a film that wants you to desperately like its politically incorrect and unashamedly seedy "comedic" look at Michael Pena's and Alexander Skarsgard's loose unit police officers Bob Balano and Terry Monroe as they traverse a barely their story of criminals and corrupt cops, filled with Glen Campbell classics, sprinklings of hard-core violence and a script that wishes it was written by Quintin Tarantino.Both The Guard and Calvary found a great balance between dramatic ticks, storyline and comedic moments (most darkly morbid and totally politically incorrect) but War on Everyone never once nails it's convoluted components and it really feels as though McDonagh is clutching at straws in his first Hollywood picture, rather than walking his own beat like he did with his impressive one-two debut films.There are moments within the film where characters ramble about the importance of scripts in films and how they're the making or breaking of what makes a great film so it's clear McDonagh knows the importance of a good script (although he is responsible for writing the 2003 misfire Ned Kelly) and it's something we know his capable of but the failings of War on Everyone are never more evident in how experienced and well regarded actors like Pena and Skarsgard deliver their lines without energy or life as they meander about McDonagh's shady story.Both these characters are neither likable, nor are they interesting enough to make us dislike them, they're just not appealing in general. Perhaps had the film included a story with any form of mystery or villains that steal the show we might've cared more but trying to enliven the film with misguided romantic sub-plots or bizarrely towards the end of proceedings a child exploitation plot device, McDonagh doesn't seem comfortable in his world, a facet that was certainly not the case in his early works.Final Say – If you've ever thought that the idea of two deadbeat cops running down a mime in their patrol car, taking drugs with informants or talking about cinematic auteur Steven Soderbergh is the stuff of movie magic then the War on Everyone might just be your new favourite comedy but for the rest of us, McDonagh's extremely disappointing and criminally unfunny film is cause for concern for a filmmaker that has the talent to be anything, both great or bad.1 Icelandic getaway out of 5