Seven Psychopaths is about a struggling screenwriter played by Collin Farrell who gets caught between the Mob and his friend who steals dogs for a living.

Woody Harrelson plays the Mob boss who is desperately trying to get his dog back from Farrell’s friend–causing murder and mayhem along the way.

Other than the basic plot, Seven Psychopaths has some issues—there’s not a lot of depth to it. Some of the characters get left behind and never develop properly– like Ferrell’s girlfriend who is gone after the first thirty minutes of the movie never to be heard from again. It leaves you asking a few questions at the end that are never explained.

On the plus side, the movie does a lot right–like casting Christopher Walken in what may be one of my favorite performances of the year. Every time he is on screen the movie immediately gets better. He basically saved this movie. Walken has such a presence on the screen that’s hard to deny. He is stone cold serious one minute and the next he is making you laugh because of his dialogue.

The rest of the cast does an admirable job, but the bottom line is there are too many characters with not enough to do.

The writing has some nice twists throughout that you may see coming, but are nonetheless good.  The movie also has some very memorable moments that don’t have much to do with the plot but are still worthy

I can’t tell you that going to see this movie will be worth your time or money, especially with Cloud Atlas coming out on Friday. So I will say this: if you are looking for a dark comedy that works well most of the time, despite its faults, this may be the movie for you. But to everyone else, look it up when it hits red box in the next few months.  It’s worth a watch– just not full price at the theater.

3/5 stars