1 out of 5

Director: Guy Ritchie
When I first saw Revolver, I loathed it.  After some time between viewings, …nah, it’s still horrible.  There are glimmers of interesting things in here, some of them expected of Ritchie – stylistic shot setups, good music juxtaposition – and some of them plotting concepts beyond his normal range of toughs and ne’er do wells – but the film is about nothing, and tries so, so hard to BE about something – and I’m sure Ritchie felt passionate about it and had a 3x the length of the script description of what each line and action “represented” – that it just shoots itself in the foot again, and again, and again.  Every moment that has potential (and we’re not talking about great potential, but at least *something*) is bungled moments later when Guy rips back the curtain and jams more repetitive nonsense down our throats.  Let’s front-load the flick with quotes, let’s end it on a completely unsurprising, un-evolved moment and then include clips of psychologists
totally talking about high-falutin’ stuff ’cause I play chess and read about quantum mechanics.  Christmas.  At least Guy knew what he wanted, because he directs the spit outta Statham – it’d be nice to see Jason in more somewhat straight acting roles to see what’s what – and Liotta does a lot more with the character than I believe was on the page, since all the non-Statham characters are fairly (purposefully) one-dimensional.  I dig movies that open up when you think about them; I don’t dig movies that only work if you’ve read the accompanying handbook.  Revolver starts slick as hell, with ‘Mr. Green’ released from a 7-year prison stint, seeking some type of revenge on Mr. Liotta for stickin’ him in a cell, and it sets a good precedent – Guy seems more serious, more patient.  But there start to be hints of nonsense early on, poorly worked in voice-overs and a pointless delay of two years tacked on to the tale… it just sinks.  Cluttered, wordy, crude,
boring, stupid.  Ditch the numerology and symbolism, stick with the self-as-enemy, and remake the movie with an audience in mind, and this might be something more effective than a dour passion project.