Writer & director Martin McDonagh goes off on a tangent in his serio-comic thriller "Seven Psychopaths," about an alcohol screenwriter who has difficulties penning a screenplay about killers. Colin Farrell plays Marty, a scribe suffering from writer's block and Marty's best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell of "The Green Mile") pleads with him to help write his screenplay. Billy takes out an advertisement in the newspaper for psychopaths to visit Marty and relate their sordid stories. Meantime, Rockwell's best friend Hans (Oscar winner Christopher Walken of "The Deer Hunter") have been kidnapping dogs and returning them to their owners after a few days. Typically, the canine owners are so gratified that they pay Hans. This doesn't turn out to be the case with Charlie (Woody Harrelson of "Natural Born Killers") who threatens to kill anybody that abducts his dog. Basically, Charlie spends his entire time searching for the dog kidnappers, while Marty struggles to complete his screenplay. "Seven Psychopaths" goes off on tangents, some rewarding and others not so rewarding. The story about the Quaker father of a butchered daughter is unforgettable. A killer reforms himself, proves to prison officials that he has been rehabilitated, and gets released from prison. This doesn't stop the revenge hungry Quaker from stalking him. The killer has converted to Catholicism and plans to slice his throat open with a cutthroat razor. Much to his chagrin, the killer watches as the Quaker brandishes his own cutthroat razor and slashes his own throat. Clearly an art film with its many weird characters and confrontations, "Seven Psychopaths" won't be everybody's cup of tea, despite its distinguished cast.

A meta view of film writing and directing that is a bit precious, but the clever writing and wonderful cameo performances just pull you in. My rating of the film kept creeping up as the film went on.

8.5/10 for clarification.Seven Psychopaths is a gloriously dark, often uproariously laughable crime thriller/comedy that exceeds both the critical and public receptions by considerable margins.It is worth initially noting that Psychopaths is not a picture for the faint of heart, and serves as one of the most apologetically violent and gruesome films I have ever seen. However, the spouts of bloodshed (largely presented in a darkly comedic context)are accomplished and render Psychopaths such a remarkably enthralling experience.Other users of the site have commented glowing endorsements on the performances of the lead roles, and whilst I am (to some extent) inclined to agree with that feedback, I can't dilute my feeling that the performances were trivially lacking.For the vast majority of it's run time, Psychopaths consistently delivers a commendably high quality experience, riddled with enticingly dark humour and quotable dialogue. Despite this, the final chapter pertains to being a little more hollow than it's accompanying section and minutely diminishes the quality of the film as a whole.Without a shadow of a doubt; Psychopaths deserves praise for it's non linear structure which consists of a plethora of plot twists, flashbacks and deviations into the backstories of the numerous "Psychopaths".The picture has on numerous occasions been compared to the films of Quentin Tarantino, and accurately so as both revel in their extended sequences of dialogue, graphic depictions of violence and non linear storytelling elements. I believe it's appropriate to say that the quality of Psychopaths is equivalent to that of Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained (and edges towards Pulp Fiction), though it falls short of the impeccable bar raised by Reservoir Dogs.

Seven Psychopaths is one of the most misunderstood poorly marked brilliant films ever made. With a trailer that resembles more of an Ocean's 11 movie, it pulled the entirely wrong audience. This movie will resonate primarily with storytellers and writers but its a dark comedy full of meta humor and commentary on what Hollywood continues crapping out today. As a beginning screenwriter in college I found the plot based around the Seven Psychopaths screenplay to be hilariously relatable in an odd way. The script for the film itself is full of hilarious character moments and clever dialogue. I can only dream of writing something this good.The performances are all top notch with each actor clearly understanding the tone in which the director was going for. Sam Rockwell is the stand out though, this is my personal favorite role of his. He's like the part of us that just wants a film to be fun and demented while Colin Farrell's character struggles to make a thoughtful and meaningful story. The story is almost like the characters' struggle to figure out what kind of film they're in. An author meeting his own characters only to realize he's one of them as well. Its super meta and really fun if you're open to the careful pacing it takes. This is not an action movie. Its more of a dark comedy/drama. Do not, I repeat, do not watch the trailer for this film. Its a completely misleading attempt to market the film as an action comedy. This film spends time with its characters and completely earns every moment that have.Seven Psychopaths is one of my favorite films and should be viewed by more people who love everything about movies. This movie is a fun time and feels very inclusive to its audience. Its really the best written comedy just ahead of The Big Lebowski. Please give it a watch whenever you can.