Domino

Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) is a tough bounty hunter being interrogated by FBI criminal psychologist Taryn Mills (Lucy Liu). Domino is trying to recover $10 million of casino boss Drake Bishop (Dabney Coleman)'s money stolen from an armored truck. She lost her beloved actor father as a child and stuck with her gold-digging mother (Jacqueline Bisset). She got tired of her life and joins bail bondsman Claremont Williams III (Delroy Lindo), her tough boss Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke), Choco (Edgar Ramirez) and their Afghan driver Alf (Riz Abbasi). Claremont runs the armored truck company. Lateesha Rodriguez (Mo'Nique) is one of his mistresses who is his inside girl in the DMV. Also the group is being filmed by reality TV producer Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken).

The movie starts off as an edgy heist story. I like the crazy visual style from director Tony Scott. Things are working more or less. It's overly complicated but I'm willing to follow. Then they pile on too much. The reality TV bit is the straw that broke the camel's back. Mo'Nique has a funny scene on Jerry Springer's show. Overall, there are just too many crazy things going on. I get tired of the random outlandish turns this movie makes.

My name is Domino Harvery. {EDIT *dizzying* CHOP} My--my--my name is Domino Harvey. {CUT, CHOP} My name is Domino Harvey. {EDIT. CUT. Playback}

Never have I seen a director take so much flack for his style before. By now it is evident that most people do not appreciate Tony Scott's choppy, flashy, dizzying editing technique. If I have to choose between loving it and hating it, I'd say I love it. It was borderline distracting at times, but the end result was pretty good and it's nice to see a director with a creative edge to his style and some originality (even if it borrows heavily from MTV videos).

This stylistic edge manifests itself as Keira Knightley plays the role of cocky badass bounty hunter Domino Harvey and even her dialogue seems strangely choppy. Otherwise she plays her poorly because I pretty much hated her character and did not sympathize one bit with her, no matter how much she suffered. We follow Domino through her life as she joins up with fellow bounty hunters Mickey Rourke, Rizwan Abbasi and Edgar Ramirez. The crew become tangled up in the FBI and suddenly has a reality show contract under Christopher Walken's TV production company (what is Christopher Walken doing in every film, by the way?). I guess that is a clever film technique, because now Tony Scott is free to use as much flashy MTV/Reality Show editing footage as he likes. It becomes a pastiche of MTV culture at this point.

It followes then that the story is told at an amazingly rapid-fire pace, with lots of raunchy strong language and gun violence. There are some funny jokes; it's all very modern and surreal at the same time. It's a mess, but it's a rather enjoyable mess. It is ultimately flawed in so many ways (the actors try too hard to make their characters "cool", for one) but it works. I give it a weak 7/10 which may seem generous when compared to the general consensus of movie-goers who graded this film — but I feel it had some good ideas and executed them well.

7 out of 10

I liked 'Domino' even though the movie felt like a total mess. Describing the plot would be as much help to you as saying there was a beginning and an end, so I might as well just do that. I could tell you that Domino Harvey (Keire Knightley), once a model, has turned into a bounty hunter under the leadership of Ed Mosbey (Mickey Rourke). Also part of their team is Choco (Edgar Ramirez), who looks like a Latino version of Val Kilmer. The movie also involves mafia, stolen money, a man with an arm detached from his body, Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green from 'Beverly Hills 90210' as themselves, sisters named Lashandra and Lashindra, and a Jerry Springer-sequence that could have been a comedy short on its own.

I liked all of it for multiple reasons, its energy being one of them. The movie feels like one long music video, even more than films like 'Trainspotting', 'Go' and 'The Rules of Attraction' (funny how they all deal with drugs in one way or another), but it never becomes exhausting. It is one of those films where style over substance succeeds, maybe not in great way, but simply in a way. I also liked it for the actors. Keira Knightley is convincing as a tough girl, even more admirable after just seeing her as a naughty but delicate girl in 'Pride & Prejudice'. Mickey Rourke is back with extraordinary performance in films such as 'Spun', 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico', 'Sin City', and now 'Domino'. Not only them, but also Ramirez, Delroy Lindo, Tom Waits and especially Christopher Walken (as the producer of a reality show the team is doing) give the movie something extra to enjoy. It is exactly what this movie is, enjoyable.

DOMINO

Tony Scott has a very unique style, either you love it or you hate it. Personally I love it - you can freeze his work at any time, print out the image and sell it as art. It is beautifully shot. Domino is no exception.

Keira Knightley plays Domino Harvey - a beautiful, talented and deadly bounty hunter. She is perfect for the role, and shows us how far she can pull away from all her other roles (examples Bend it like Beckham and Pride and Prejudice). She truly proves that she can play one tough bitch, and I love it. The supporting cast works perfectly, Mickey Rourke and Edgar Ramirez have amazing chemistry as the lovably tough-ass bounty hunters and as always Christopher Walken shines.

The character development in the film is enough to really care for Domino in particular, as well as her team later on down the line. There is enough narration and flashbacks to know where she comes from and genuinely care whether she lives or dies. This connection with Domino definitely helps the story in its tense moments.

The movie is extremely fast paced, with not much time to absorb it all in the first sitting. Watch it two or three more times and you will appreciate it more and more. Playing at 123 minutes, it is the perfect length, not too long and not too short. The story needs as much time as it can get however to tell the lengthy true story, however Tony Scott manages to find a way to fit it perfectly in.

The soundtrack is extremely unique, with extremely cartoonish sound effects, but somehow it works. I don't think the soundtrack could have worked with any other film, there are hundreds of different tracks, but all fit the mood amazingly.

Why is this movie receiving so much bad publicity? Wouldn't have a clue, like I said before - it seems you either you love it or you hate it. This film has taken an amazing story, thrown in a whole group of amazing actors and then presented itself beautifully.

Go see this film for yourself, give it a chance - don't believe all the bad publicity. This film will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

I give this film a 9/10 - I am in love with it. The only thing holding it back is the Jerry Springer scene, just doesn't seem right in a movie.

This was a pretty good action movie which I believe could have been better if the director (Tony Scott) hadn't kept cutting away to one scene after another. In my opinion this technique didn't help to enhance the film at all. If anything it gave it a choppy feel. Other than that though I thought the acting was really good. I enjoyed seeing Jacqueline Bisset (as "Sophie Wynn") who still looks like dynamite. Mickey Rourke ("Ed Moseby"), Edgar Ramirez ("Choco") and Delroy Lindo ("Claremont Williams") also performed quite well. Additionally, Keira Knightley (as "Domino Harvey") was excellent but it was Christopher Walken who was nothing less than sensational as the television producer named "Mark Heiss". He definitely gave this film an extra edge. At any rate, if you're wanting a good movie with plenty of action and humor then this is one you should definitely want to check out. I honestly think you'll like it.