Kopfgeld - Perrier's Bounty

This film is about a man who owes gangster money. He causes the death of a debt collector, therefore the gangsters issue a bounty on him.

"Perrier's Bounty" may sound like a good idea, but it is poorly executed. The characters are cardboard cut-outs that have no chemistry with each other. I frankly do not care about any of the characters at all, so watching them run around for 80 minutes is not so much fun.

The plot is plainly told in a mundane way. Imagine the dullest speaker telling a story with a hypnotic voice, that's how "Perrier's Bounty" tells a story. There are desperate attempts at humour, but they fall completely flat. The frequent use of 'man' is so unnecessary and is so irritating. The filmmakers try to make the film artistic and atmospheric. I admit the cinematography and scene composition is often good, but that does not enhance the enjoyment factor of a crime thriller. "Perrier's Bounty" is so dull and irritating, please do not watch it.

Rented this on a recommendation from the video store owner, who like myself, is into just about every genre. We certainly don't shy away from foreign films, and this gangster/father-son story looked to be right up my alley.

Like I mentioned in the title - there is quite a bit of humor here that can be hard to pick up because of its' dry nature, and because of the thick accents. It can really make the difference between this being a completely average film, and this being a truly enjoyable, albeit lesser-known, humorous, and darkly adventurous tale.

The cast is strong and the story moves at a brisk pace. It's in the storyline vein of Tarantino or Ritchie, but lacks a bit of the panache of those directors' work.

Perrier's Bounty has good performances throughout, and there is little doubt that those fans of the afore mentioned directors will find this to be an exciting film. It's rated R for brief nudity, drug use, and violence.

The only stand-out negative would be the music. The music selections were great, but the volume of the music was WAY too loud compared to the dialog and the rest of the movie. Maybe the music director was a bit too proud of his/her selections. I had to turn the TV down every time a song came on, and then turn it back up when the dialog resumed. The only other negative would be a slightly rushed and under-developed love story that could have really put this over-the-top.

Recommended. THose who liked pulp fiction and lock stock will find this to be a good(not great) film along the same lines. LIsten carefully as many of the hilarious lines can pass you by. The strongest characteristic of this film is the relationship between Cillian Murphy and the actor(who's name escapes me as I'm writing this) who plays Cillian's father. Also, having two fantastic actors playing in the two lead Gangster roles helps immensely.

71/100

You'll like it if you liked: Layer Cake, State of Grace, or Harry Brown.

An Irish gangster crime comedy. Well, Irish, gangster and crime are all accurate but whether it's a comedy, drama or thriller that's up to you to decide. Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) has a bounty for the head of Michael (Cillian Murphy). Poor lad, he owes money to some local thugs.

With the help of his beautiful, slightly crazy and suicidal neighbour Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), they accidentally kill a thug, and then with the encouragement of his might-be-dying father (Jim Broadbent), they go on a crime spree.

It's a comedy of errors where the errors lead to many murders, some accidental but some because there's nothing better to do. It's violent for the sake of being violent with a few uneasy laughs. Add Gabriel Byrne as the voice of the narrator/The Reaper expounding on the philosophical virtues of life, death and the ocean, just to make the film more well-rounded. I'm assuming that's the purpose, and also that the contradiction between philosophy and gangster crime is supposed to be hilarious.

"Perrier's Bounty" could be a brilliant fusion of all genres into a gangster crime film. But it's missing some vital cohesiveness and substance to make this more than a weirdly funny, violent crime spree through an Irish night. Which isn't all that bad, but it's no "In Bruges".

Perrier's Bounty is an average, enjoyable comedy thriller. It features a terrific cast, including Cillian Murphy, Jodie Whittaker and Brendan Gleeson, all of whom are decent in their respective roles. Unfortunately, the weak link of the cast is Jim Broadbent, who delivers an excruciatingly bad Irish accent, which almost sounds like a parody. Composer David Holmes produces another entertaining and exciting score for this movie.

While it is fun, this film is pretty unremarkable. Although the characters are enjoyable to watch, mainly due to the actors inhabiting them, there is nothing particularly captivating about them, nor the movie as a whole. What keeps this movie relatively engaging is the excellent supporting cast of wonderful Irish actors that weave in and out of the story, such as Domhnall Gleeson, Liam Cunningham and Conleth Hill.

Apart from a very strong cast, this also has some very fine moments throughout. Like a french phrase that gets repeated. Offbeat things like that make this movie stand out from some other movies who try hard to be distinguishable. But in the end, there are quite a few things, that don't quite work in it's favor.

While the story as it is, is told pretty fast (so that you can't think too much about some logical errors/plot holes I guess), sometimes you'd want some time for the characters to breathe. Especially the things the female lead goes through in a short amount of time, are very improbable, not to mention her emotional journey, which is just a bit too rushed. Still lovable, but with an ending, that though planted, feels a bit off in a wrong way.