Review of Domino (1982) by James H — 27 Aug 2009

At just 127 mins long, this film seems to take up an entire lifetime to tell its story. Loosely based on the life of bounty hunter Domino Harvey, this should have been an interesting, action-filled, edge-of-the-seat kind of film. How on Earth Tony Scott managed to mash it into a long, weary, completely dull affair is beyond me.

I'm not saying it's short of action- far from it. But it is overshadowed by the over-complicated story, and the fact that the characters themselves have to virtually stop the film about 4 or 5 times for an "explain-what's-happening-to-each-other-so-the-viewers-can-understand-the-plot monologue".

Another error was having the 1st few scenes taken from the last 1/3 of the plot. Meaning the next hour and a half (or day and a half, I wasn't quite sure) had to be spent weaving the convoluted back-story.

There were one or two highlights though, including "remove the right arm", a very good performance from Keira Knightley, and the relief of the end credits. Always good to see Christopher Walken, as well.

Normally I would say don't bother watching this. But I actually urge people to go and rent it- if only so that people learn from Scott's mistakes & nothing like this ever gets made again.