Revolver (2005) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Revolver is populated with Guy Ritchie's (Snatch; Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) classic breed of fast-talking, sharp-suited gangsters but with a psychological twist that your mind may not be able to handle. Jason Statham (The Transporter and Transporter 2) is Jake Green, a grifter who vows revenge against Macha (Ray Liotta, Goodfella), the ferocious crime boss who sent him to prison. After taking Macha down in a game of chance, Macha puts out a hit on Jake. Now, caught between a gun and a hard place, Jake finds himself protected by two vicious loan sharks (Vincent Pastore and Andre Benjamin) who make him an offer he can't refuse.

User Comment: Phil Brown from United Kingdom, 23 September 2005 • OK... this movie so far has been slated by critics and board-posters alike (although playing devil's advocate you could suggest that critics are often people who didn't make it for themselves as film-makers, and board posters are often people who didn't make it for themselves as critics) so I wanted to sit in Guy's corner with the magic sponge to perhaps reach maybe a couple of the people who've decided not to see the film based on how everybody seems to be looking down their collective nose of approval at it.

The film's biggest flaw in earning wide support is how unexpectedly complex it is. This has been described many times as as making the film "inaccessible" to the viewer. The film's chronology is relatively non-linear and the characters are used as not only a means of storytelling but as a device for showing us the subtle (or not so subtle) hints of bias we give things as we commit them to memory, IE. Ray Liotta's character brandishing a gun saying the words "fear me" is portrayed as both tragically pathetic (from Statham's POV) or interrogating and bold (from Liotta's POV). This is but one example of Ritchie's far more mature approach he has taken to film-making with Revolver, we have a storyline which is pretty archetypal (the strong but silent gritty anti-hero gets released from jail with a score to settle but gets drawn inadvertently into a world of corruption... I mean it's paint by numbers film noir here guys, all the way down to the vague poetic choice of diction and the gritty voice-overs) but then Guy has taken this framework to make a number of extremely philosophical and complex points.

Take the scene where Jason Statham's character runs afoul of a car. This throwaway sequence could have been emitted from the film and made no difference to the story whatsoever... but Ritchie is making point about how such little chance happenings such as receiving a phone call can make the difference between life and death.

So the final act of the movie is pretty mind boggling, I'd be taking the p*ss if I said I didn't spend the last 20 minutes or so of the film turning to my date going "uh... wtf?"... but that is the shoddiest reason to disregard a piece of art. It is far too easy to dislike something because you find it hard to understand. And even easier to say "well nobody else seemed to understand it so it must be a real turd of a film!". In my humble opinion, Revolver is a stylish, complex and mature piece of modern art which should be greeted with the same manner we would give the work of the Saatchi Brothers. If we choose this opportunity to collectively say "Ah sh*t, I wanted a film about a load of bleeding' cockney gangsters in-nit loll... Guy Ritchie is a tit!" then the day will come when film-makers are allowed only to make that which is expected of them by shallow, crappy people. Just because Guy made a name for himself with funny, cheeky cockney romps, doesn't mean he can't be deep without being "pretentious". Funny people can be thoughtful too.

Summary: This film is good.

User Comment: gudelj_b from Canada, 23 February 2006 • First of all, when people hear 'GUY RITCHIE', they immediately think of SNATCH. Yes, Snatch was a good movie, but the problem is that everyone associates Guy Ritchie to Snatch. They don't expect him to explore new frontiers. This movie REVOLVER is different than snatch; it's much darker and is very complex. The reason I gave a rating of 10 is because I've had to watch Revolver 3 times to understand everything. So this movie toys with your head. It's very cleverly written.

This movie is different than Snatch. It was done wonderfully, the cinematography is beautiful, and you can recognize Guy Ritchie's personal touch (style of directing) in it.

What won me over was the complexity of the protagonist and how we are left with more questions than answers.

Summary: Why this movie wasn't hugely successful.

[CSW] -3.6- The very complexity of this movie won me over. It does tend to leave you with more questions than answers but that too was one of the reasons that I liked it. It's more like Usual Suspects or perhaps Fight Club with the real action taking place in the characters minds. This was one of Jason Statham's best performances. It was meant to make you think and I believe everyone will have a different idea of what it is about. I really like one reviewers take on the movie but as he said you should "**** Read the rest after the movie this may help the head ache! **** The mind according to the movie is only a "tool" that we use to help us deal with the world around us. It is a tool like our hands and feet are our tools. The problem arises when we think of the "mind as more than a tool"; and in fact identify with it! This identity which is just an illusion is what is called the "ego" [and which according to the movie is: "Mr. Gold"]. The main character of the movie faced his ego in the elevator where the realization of the fact that his "own identity" was different from his "ego" hit a threshold and thus he became "free" or "enlightened". When we realize and can identify our "ego" is when we begin to take the role of the opponent in the "game of con" [vs. the role of the victim]."
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 3.5/10.

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