DOMINO

cast :: keira knightley, mickey rouke, edgar ramirez...
writer :: richard kelly
director :: tony scott



review date :: 10/15/05
written by :: suj
rating :: 8/10

THE PLOT_________________

A recounting of Domino Harvey's life story. The daughter of actor Laurence Harvey turned away from her career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter.

THE REVIEW_________________

Domino is all about the razzle dazzle. It’s all about the give me more give me more. It’s all about the short attention span. Tony Scott has crafted one well oiled machine filled with sporadic storytelling that steers and boggles down the mind into a pure adrenaline induced coma of entertainment. People get shot, things are blown up, smashed up, everything is loud and jumpy, all of which is shot and told in such a bombastic way with such a surreal story that the only expression that I could muster when exiting the theater was one enthusiastic looking smile and a huge hard on.

This movie is a skewed re-telling of the life of ex-model turned bounty hunter Domino Harvey, written with such a feverish imaginative spin by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko). And because of that skewed re-telling and feverish imagination it's really hard to describe what goes on in this film. It involves bounty hunters, the mob, the FBI, a heist, a reality television show, and a whole slew of other subplots that just makes my head spin around and around forty thousand times. I know from the offset that the general audience at large will absolutely hate this movie because of all the surreal shit that goes on and because of the way the film is sporadically told, but it’s those two points that just makes this movie worthwhile. It’s like one hundred orgasms for the eyes and ears.

Perhaps the finest aspect of this flick is the delightful presence of the delectable Keira Knightley. Yes, we all know that she is ridiculously hot, wickedly hot, outrageously hot, and all the other pleasing adjectives followed by the word hot, but she is also a damn fine good actress. She plays Domino with the right amount of bravado and emotion so that the character doesn’t walk the line of being a super stylized cartoon cutout (which she somewhat is). Did I already say that Knightley is incredibly beautiful? Because if I didn't I just did. Theirs just something about her eyes that just gives me chills and I can't help but to gravitate towards her whenever she is on the screen (especially in the lap dance sequence). Also to note is Mickey Rouke and Edgar Ramirez who both shine as Domino’s bounty hunter mentor and love interest, respectively.

Everything in this movie is exciting and amusing to the extent that the film just throws anything and everything at you. You get the gun fights, the explosions, the aforementioned 'awesome' lap dance sequence, but you also get 90210'ers Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green making fun of the their pathetic careers to utter amusement. Christopher Walken being Christopher Walken. Tom Waits as mysterious preacher who shows up out the blue to provide guidance. And a whole slew of others. It’s all just too much, yet not enough.

Domino is fun thrill ride, that is chaotic and psychotically photographed to invoke eyesores and headaches, but you must give thanks to the film makers for creating such an insane movie that just knocks you around in your seat until your a bloody mess desperately asking for seconds.