Customer Reviews

Domino [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie is far from perfect, as most of it's fans are surely aware, but if you like off-beat action movies with great hyper-kinetic visuals and cool music combined with solid performances and an entertaining storyline then this is a blast of pure cinema bliss. It is an excellent example of exhilarating film-making and escapism at its finest. I also happen to love it's visual style and I think that this is a film worthy of it's superior Blu-ray release. This is well worth owning.

"Domino" works in overdrive to be all things to all people, and as a result--it fails to be successful in almost every regard. There's great potential, to be sure, but the resultant film is a loud and convoluted mess. The movie wants to be a slick action picture AND a hip and ironic satire about Hollywood AND a procedural about bounty hunting AND a loose biopic treatment of Domino Harvey AND an edgy Tarantino type comedy. What it ultimately and unfortunately succeeds in is pointlessness. Most sadly, it is absolutely not an homage to the real, recently deceased Domino Harvey--who, by all accounts, had a fascinating story to tell. I wish this had been that movie.

While I know many people enjoy this film and its excesses, I just react very negatively to it. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one. To me, it represents everything that is wrong with movies today--which is especially ironic when it thinks it's poking fun at the Hollywood machine. It's addle-brained entertainment for those who expect no amount of logic or common sense in their storytelling. The actors are fine, I suppose. I can see why the role appealed to Keira Knightly and her diehard fans may want to check this out as a curiosity. There is non-stop action to appeal to the eye, and if that's all you need--it's here. But the editing, effects and music are so amped up in an attempt to make you ignore that things really never make sense.

A prime example of this is the entire movie's premise! There is one crooked armored car robbery. It's an inside job, a nefarious scheme which involves Domino's direct supervisor. He is trying to illegally (and secretly) fleece a major Vegas billionaire. However, he puts Domino and her team on the case. That's fine, he'd have to act like it was business as usual. But the real kicker is that he is aware that a television reality show is filming their every movement. So, in fact, the "secret plan" and Domino apprehending and turning some kids over to the billionaire is all being filmed. Don't worry, though, later on our heroes will just blow up the TV van to erase the footage. Huh? Maybe they should have hired someone else. I don't know--I guess I'll never be a criminal mastermind. By the time the end rolls around, there is the requisite shoot-out with dozens of people representing four different groups. I couldn't help thinking I'd already seen this done much better in a thoroughly more entertaining film by the same director--"True Romance." Oh, and one more thing--spare me the dead goldfish symbolism. Absolutely painful. Take a pass on this one. KGHarris, 10/06.

The film is loosely based on the true story of Domino Harvey, the rich socialite and part-time model born to famous parents, who became a bounty hunter and ended up dead of a drug overdose at age 36 (though the film mercifully ends before the Domino's untimely demise).

Keira Knightly absolutely kicks butt and takes names in the title role, and Mickey Rourke does a similarly amazing job as her boss and mentor.

Domino works as an action flick, as a caper flick, and as a character study of Domino, her boss and to a lesser degree the whole team.

Great bluray too, which I bought full-price when it came out, because I like the movie so much. For $10? No-brainer!

Domino Harvey was a real bounty hunter ,but this movie is a fantasy movie.
She was the daughter of actor Laurence Harvey (October 1, 1928 - November 25, 1973 who died tragically early of stomach cancer (aged 45). He was once top draw in hollywood , but at that time his career was in decline. He just kept plugging away though till his death; the best he could. His early death meant that Domino would grow up without a father figure, and this was not a good omen for her life. This movie makes her a action hero and skips the true story because in the end it's a horrible waste and tragedy. Too many hollywood movies skip reality and make whatever they please for instance; the gay Noel coward is played by Cary grant as a straight guy. OR even gladiator which is a fantastic movie has the Emporer Commodus last a year as emporer, when he was unfortunately around much longer. That is bad
enough in a good movie but this isn't a good movie in spite of the ultra talented Kiera Knightley being in it. It's like a bad action movie which I would rate higher on the scale of bad action movies if it wasn't about a real person. A person who became a herion addict; and died in her thirties. Why not make a movie about the real woman? She did some great brave things as a bounty hunter but once she joined the drug culture she became the thing that she was hunting: "a problem ,a self destructive person addicted to a fools drug" (by the 00's was anyone deluded about heroin?,as in suicidal eventually, anyone think meth is cool by now either? so why did she fall into that? ) by the time of the movies making she was not a bounty hunter , how was she getting her money for her heroin? was she stealing? or even worse? We don't find out in this movie. Her story is a sad one really.
She died a skeletal shell alone, while she was only in her thirties. If this were a fictional character I would not have written this off as badly because on one level it's just a bad action flick , with not the best script and it's way over the top, with bizaare film techniques. Which is ok on that level but because it's supposed to be about the real woman I can't say I would recommend this one.

The director felt that to make a good movie you tint it yellow and green, sometimes make the shots dimly lit with a sort of strob like effect, don't stay on a single shot for more than 3.5 nano-seconds, and use a clever dialog consisting mostly of the same four letter word over and over again. It just did not work for me. I never made it to the end.