SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS

What happens when a movie becomes self-aware of itself?  This can lead to original ideas and takes on familiar material -- or a glaring self-indulgent mess.  Both of these happen in Seven Psychopaths, a violent comedy from writer-director Martin McDonagh.

Marty (Colin Farrell) is a Hollywood writer under pressure to finish his latest screenplay: "Seven Psychopaths."  He's distracted by problems with his girlfriend Kaya (Abbie Cornish), his possible alcoholism, and his friend Billy (Sam Rockwell).  Billy is an out-of-work actor who's a bit hyperactive and wants to help with the screenplay.  He and his friend Hans (Christopher Walken) also make money with their "dog borrowing" scheme: They look for rich-looking people walking their dogs, grab up the dog, wait for the owner to offer a reward for their missing dog, then return the dog and collect the reward.

Unfortunately, Billy and Hans grabbed a Shih Tzu belonging to Charlie (Woody Harrelson), a mobster willing to kill anyone at all to get his dog back.  There's also a mysterious vigilante who kills mobsters and leaves a Jack of Diamonds card behind as his calling card.  There's Myra (Linda Bright Clay), Hans' wife who wants him to get an honest job -- and awaits the results of her cancer tests.  And there's Zachariah (Tom Waits, in a terrific cameo), a man who answered Billy's ad for psychopaths to tell their stories for Marty's screenplay.

Seven Psychopaths combines some good acting with an excess of showy cleverness.  Rockwell is very funny as the friend who never seems to stop talking or interfering, and Harrelson does well in the one-dimensional role of the gangster whose only traits are loving his dog and not caring about violence.  Unfortunately, the screenplay-within-the-movie soon becomes a metafictional device for everything from staging action scenes in movies like this, to critiquing the lack of good roles for women.

Seven Psychopaths is often original and provides more than the standard "simple crime gone awry" formula, but McDonagh lets himself fall into the trap of the screenwriter who writes himself into the story.

Overall grade: C+
Reviewed by James Lynch

TOTAL RECALL

If memories can be manufactured and bought, then how can we ever know what is truly real? This theme of the Philip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" was virtually ignored in the first movie Total Recall -- and also given short shrift in the the new Total Recall. While the remake skips some of the cheesiness that comes with being an Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie, like its predecessor the new movie skips thoughtfulness for action.

It's the end of the 21st century, and the world is in bad shape. After massive chemical wars, there are only two main populated areas on Earth: the technologically advanced United Federation of Britain, led by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), and the slumlike Colony. Workers travel from the Colony to the UFB through the Fall, a transport device that travels through the Earth. Rebel leader Matthias (Bill Nighy) believes the UFB takes advantage of the citizens of the Colony ("The Fall enslaves us all"), while Cohaagen blames the rebellion for terrorist attacks in the UFB. There are robotic policemen and massive overcrowding. Welcome ot the future, folks!

Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell) is a simple factory worker who travels from the Colony to the UFB to work at a mindless, dead-end job. His wife Lori (Kate Beckinsale) tries to reassure him life is good for them, but Doug feels unsatisfied. He also has a recurring dream of being captured after rescuing a beautiful woman. Not sleeping and not happy, Doug goes to Rekall, a company that can implant memories in people. And Doug decides to get the memory of being a secret agent.

Unfortunately, before the process can be completed, Rekall says he already has memories of being a spy, and government troops come in guns blazing -- and Doug kills them all. Doug returns home -- where Lori now tries to kill him with martial arts and lots of bullets. Doug finds clues from himself saying that he was a resistance agent who was given a false identity by the government. And Melina (Jessica Biel), the woman Doug dreamed of, turns up as a fellow resistance agent who used to have a relationship with Doug.

This Total Recall scales back much of the original movie (no Mars, yes three-breasted hooker) but still skips most of the intriguing questions of identity and memory ("If I'm not me, than who the hell am I?") to focus instead on gunfights, (future) car chases, and fist fights. The cast have all done better work elsewhere, but here they seem very superficial, whether it's Farrell's continually-confused everyman-turned-action-hero or Cranston's evil politician. (The fun exception is Kate Beckinsale, who takes the "vindictive wife" to a whole new level as she pursues Doug like a bat out of hell.) Anyone who saw the first film knows 95% of what will happen in this one; anyone who didn't will get a few good ideas and a whole lot of noise and action. Total Recall is a total rehash -- and substantially less than entertaining.

Overall grade: D+
Reviewed by James Lynch