This movie got a bit of flack because a lot of people were comparing it to last year’s hit chick flick Bridesmaids but if you can put that aside and just give it a go as a movie in its own right you just might like it.

The premise involves the four high school friends Regan (Dunst), Becky (Wilson), Gena (Caplan) and Katie (Fisher) who reunite for Becky’s wedding. The issues they had in school are still there making for some interesting and bitchy adventures.

While the plot has been done a million times before, the film definitely does deliver if you are in the mood for a gritty, grimly hilarious portrait of some very human women trying to overcome their own flaws and self-inflicted disasters. The girls are unlikable, even in the end. But they are supposed to be.

So don’t pay attention to the reviews… well, with the exception of mine as otherwise it will have been 15 minutes of my life wasted. While this won’t become a classic, most movies don’t (otherwise we’d have a lot more Foxtel classic movie channels!) – and it will be better than a heap of other potential plans that you may have made for this evening.

Marty (Farrell) is a screenwriter with a script title – “Seven Psychopaths” – but no script. His best friend Billy (Rockwell) is in ‘business’ with Hans (Walken), stealing dogs and then returning them for a reward. When they kidnap the beloved Shih Tzu of crazy gangster Charlie (Harrelson), all three suddenly find themselves involved in a violent world of insane criminals and Californian mayhem.

If you like your movies to be meta, then this is for you. A blend of Tarantino and Kaufman, this self-referential script was misunderstood by some critics upon release, but is actually quite clever in between all the laughs. Yes, Harrelson’s character is very much Cliché-Movie-Bad-Guy, but that’s the point. It wastes female acting talent like Gabourey Sidibe and Abbie Cornish in roles that are either one-scene-only or killed off prematurely, but then references that decision later in a one-liner to underline that very point.

Basically, you can get out of this whatever you want – it has a clever and witty script along with enough action and violence to entertain on a more basic level. Not to mention the legendary Christopher Walken, in his best role since Catch Me If You Can as the sage-like dog-napper, and various familiar faces playing some of the titular psychopaths.

Director McDonagh previously made In Bruges (Semester 1, 2009) and if you enjoyed that, you need to come along and see this (which is even better in my opinion).