I think it’s hilarious that the “memorable quotes” page seems like it includes half the screenplay. I loved all of the quotes, but some of them made me giggle more than others. For example:
I know! There’s no line that doesn’t work in context, even when the lines are profane or potentially offensive. Well, potentially, hell. There’s a LOT in the movie that would be offensive to so many different groups. Luckily none of them have discovered the movie yet, or they have a sense of humor and can judge within context.
Another fun one.
What a great movie!
Re: the hitting a woman part - I love how perfect the setup was going into that. So perfect that when he yells “A bottle!” and slugs the woman everyone is in stitches.
Personal note - I had never heard of the movie until I was in Europe last summer and happened to spend a few days in Bruges (gotta love the Eurail pass!) When I got home I made it a point to seek out the movie.
I had missed it in the theaters but I bought it as soon as it came out on DVD.
Now, remember that I had visited Bruges BEFORE the DVD came out. So I’m strolling through Fry’s on release day and ask the DVD guy about it. He’s ecstatic - he loves the movie and can’t believe someone is asking for it on release day. Great, I think - it should be a good movie!
He steers me toward it and I pick up the DVD. Cool!
Then I look at the DVD cover a little closer. Hmmmm…something about that seems familiar.
For those who haven’t seen it (or those outside the US who got a different one), this is the DVD cover I am talking about.
I know that I have seen those buildings somewhere - they are so unique that it is hard to miss them.
Oh, here it is - a picture of that row of buildings in Bruges.
But wait - isn’t there something up there in that middle building - the hotel?
Yep! There’s ME, waving from my hotel room when I stayed there.
Stupid Colin Farrell blocked my face with his shoulder in the DVD cover shot. I’ll never catch a break!
I too loved this movie.
Sorry, pilot…just your luck!
In case Pilot’s link to the cover isn’t working for you (I was getting a “no hotlinking” style placeholder image), I think this is it.
Yeah I was afraid something like that might happen with the link. Thanks Leiko, that is the DVD cover I’m talking about.
Funniest film I’ve seen this year*. Definitely sets the bar for any other black comedies I’ll see in 2009. Loved the cocaine-induced racist midget rant.
- And probably last year, when it was released.
Bought the DVD after the movie was recommended in another thread. The deleted scenes explained one thing (the reason for the hit on the priest) Ken says the church was sitting in the middle of property Harry owned and wanted to develop – the priest wasn’t a pedophile, which made Ray feel even worse) but raised a question. In one deleted scene we see Harry as a young boy – presumably at the age of seven during that wonderful trip he told Ken about – and it’s implied that he’s being molested by his father (or another adult male) up in the bell tower.
I wish that directors would just put the deleted scenes back in the movie when the DVD comes out. There was a lot of good stuff – some more humor, another scene with the headless teddy bear, and some good background on why Ken felt the way he did about Harry, about his “integrity” and his loyalty.
Great movie. I’m looking forward to watching it again. Many thanks to whomever recommended it (I think it was several people).
Oh, and my favorite part is at the very end, when Ray tries to tell Harry that the “little boy” Harry shot wasn’t really a little boy – what kind of guy tries to keep the man who tried to kill him from killing himself?.
I disagree. I think the ambiguity added to the, uh, texture of the film.
Well I guess I’m alone here. My friend was raving about it so I watched and was thoroughly bored. The only scene I liked was
when the dude was about to shoot farrell and then farrell tried to commit suicide and dude stopped him.
Other than that it was snooze city for me. The city looked very nice tho. Good cinametography.
I saw the trailer for this film when I was seeing the Savages. The trailer made it look like a dumb buddy comedy. But I heard good things about it later and rented it when it came out. Loved it. Right up my alley. And I normally think Colin Farrell is ugh but he was also quite sexy in this movie, and that’s always a wonderful plus in an already great film 
I saw this for the first time last night and thought it was great. It was a lot funnier than I thought. Although I thought it took Farrell ages to settle down. It was like he didn’t know how to do comedy without going slightly over the top.
[spoiler]My favourite bit was when the Canadian woman came at him with a bottle and he just punched her. It was so unexpected. I also loved all his interactions with the racist dwarf “You don’t know karate.” chop.
I really liked that Ray tried to stop Harry from killing himself. In any other film he wouldn’t have bothered. I mean this is the man that has just shot him several times. But he still tries to tell him that the ‘child’ wasn’t really a child. In fact there were several moments like that where I was taken by surprise. That doesn’t happen very often with films these days so that’s another plus point for this film.[/spoiler]
For those who didn’t watch the Golden Globes and haven’t read that thread, Colin Farrell won Best Actor-Musical or Comedy for this. Cool that it’s won something! It was a huge surprise. For a minute there I thought In Bruge would win for Best Picture-Musical or Comedy, but that went to Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which is a good movie too.
Nope, I’m with you. I didn’t find it funny at all. The whole deal with the Little Person was totally superfluous, Colin Farrell’s character wasn’t believable at all (except for his annoyingness, which I totally bought). Ralph Fiennes should have stayed off screen, and what he did at the end totally came out of nowhere and was a “WTF?” moment instead of a “Wow, that totally works and blew me away” moment.
I did like Brendan Gleeson’s work in this film, and the city was beautiful, but that’s all the good that can be said about this mess of a movie. In my obviously minority opinion, of course.
See, Equipoise, we agree about how wonderful this movie is, even if we don’t agree about Slumdog.
Yep!
Well, you’re in good company, because I agree with you as well. Not funny, not “Clever”, just a mess. There was a good film in there somewhere, but frankly I think it ducked out for a pint after the opening credits and hoped no-one would notice.
The film was definitely mis-marketed; the promos made it out to be some kind of “Humorously odd hit-men in cultural misunderstanding hi-jinks” comedy with a slightly dark edge. It wasn’t.
And let’s face it, you could have set the film in Dunedin and it wouldn’t have made any difference whatsoever. I really don’t know why people say it’s such a great film. Fargo is a great film. In Bruges isn’t.
Each to their own. I for one am glad it’s nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It doesn’t have a chance at winning (other nominees are Wall-E, Milk, Happy-Go-Lucky and Frozen River, and I expect either Milk or Wall-E to win) but at least it wasn’t totally forgotten.
Martin McDonagh is a hack. He’s written one, maybe two lines in his entire life worth a fraction of the acclaim some critics lavish on him.
None of those lines were in In Bruges.