Guy Ritchie's Revolver - almost a bullseye.

I saw the movie 2005 Revolver recently and it took me quite by surprise. In fact (to fire off an obvious pun) ... it blew me away. And not just because I like chess, either.

Sure it's directed by Guy Ritchie, a man crazy enough to marry Madonna. Sure, the movie is violent, vulgar, generally pretentious and contains a few flaws - but it also tries to fry the biggest fish of them all - and that's what surprised me: I think it actually does.

Now, I'm not necessarily recommending you go out and rent it. The violence, language and nudity is somewhere in the vicinity of Goodfellas, so it requires some thick skin and maturity to view. It's your typical modern gangster film, and all that that implies.

However, I think the movie is a powerful piece of art which, when understood, offers an amazing and startling insight. The crucial phrase is of course "when understood", and a quick look at the reviews the movie has received would suggest that the movie's message was almost completely missed by the critics. No surprise there. As a gangster movie it's merely decent, but as a moral tale - nay, even a modern mystery play with a bit of psychological flavor - it's quite good.

I'm keeping mum about the point of the movie because doing otherwise would ruin the experience of letting the movie unfold itself. Perhaps this post will prompt a little combox discussion that determines if anyone else thinks this is a sleeper film, and maybe a few brave souls will go out and rent it. You could do alot worse nowadays.