Domino

Audience Reviews

View More

Thomas L @PoodleBoy Jan 6 It's 2005, and a spoiled punk (Keira Knightley) with nunchuck skills, decides to leave high brow modeling to become a bounty hunter, sort of, leave the safety of her gold-digging mother (played by a fabulous Jaqueline Bisset), sort of, and based on a true story, sort of, to become a reality TV star, sort of. How much is true? Sort it out. Follow the rabbit down the hole of this gritty, strange, messy Alice in Wonderland & you will find a guilty pleasure filled with celebrity hostages, cartel kids, cultural cliches, white trash in RVs, vulnerable bounty hunters (Mickey Rourke, Edagar Ramirez) just getting by & enough oddballs to fill in the rest of the blanks. 20 yrs later & the movie has 3 leads still acting, eye-popping effects and humor still relevant to today, a stellar back-up cast that plays it to the hilt, adult humor that is almost tame compared to today's standards and the spirit of an american will, that struggles every day to survie, and the first ladies of america. See more thiago s @Thiagostone Nov 20 Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom See more Allan C @RT15713161 Jul 4 It pains me to give this film only 3 stars because it has so many good things about it, but it's also such a mess and a major disappointment given the talent involved. Keira Knightley, in easily her coolest role (not her best role, but her coolest role), plays real-life bored rich girl rebel Dominoi Harvey (daughter of Laurence Harvey, though in a highly fictionalized retelling) who turns her back on modeling and Hollywood to become a bounty hunter, teaming up with a wonderfully grizzled Mickey Rourke and Edgar Martinez. Keira kicking ass with dark eyeliner and a pixie cut, convincingly talking tough to assorted lowlifes with her upper crust British accent is just about the best thing ever! From a script by Richard Kelly (DONNIE DARKO, SOUTHLAND TALES) and directed by Tony Scott (TRUE ROMANCE, TOP GUN, ENEMY OF THE STATE), with an amazing cast that besides Knightley, Rourke, and Martinez includes Delroy Lindo, Mena Survari, Macy Gray, Jacqueline Bisset, Dabney Colman (which is a surprise because I didn't even realize he was still acting at this time), Lucy Liu, Christopher Walken, T. K. Carter (who I can't think of the last thing I'd seen him in since THE THING), and Brian Austin Green & Ian Ziering playing goofy versions of themselves. Knightley and Rouke are particularly fantastic. You cannot take your eyes off them onscreen! The start of DOMINO is a dynamite piece of filmmaking, telling Domino's origin story from a rich, troubled teen to becoming a bounty hunter. It's hilarious at times, badass at others, and completely outrageous. Knightley dominates every second of her origin story, whether she's practicing nunchucks by her luxury mansion pool, punching out a bitchy sorority sister, or taking a runway model to the ground by the hair who disrespects her. Where the film falls apart is after her origin story is over, and gets bogged down in a tired, clichéd story of stolen mob money and familiar double crosses and plot twists. The cast does their best to keep things lively, but it is so boring, and the wraparound story of Domino sharing the tale while in FBI custody seemed unnecessary for a film already committed to using extensive voice-over. But worst of all is director Tony Scott's disjointed action and overuse of blown-out photography. Scott was frequently criticized throughout his career for "over-direction" and "MTV-editing" which I usually dismissed and found energizing in his films, such as THE LAST BOY SCOUT, REVENGE, or THE HUNGER, but the editing in DOMINO seems just messy. It's disjointed, confusing, and worst of all, it's not at all suspenseful or exciting. It's just noise and fury to very little effect. Keira Knightley as a badass bounty hunter should have been a slam dunk for a wicked cool movie, but DOMINO ends up a very mixed bag.  See more kevenquinlan T @RT75276071 Jun 16 Someone commented about the editing= It's Dogshit. I don't think there is a single scene over 2 seconds- it's just ALL OVER THE PLACE. Tony Scott did a LITTLE of this in Man On Fire to great effect, used sparingly it's not bad- but the ENTIRE MOVIE is THIS. Blips, and bongs, and Bleeps, and out-of-focus/into focus- blur effect- It's like someone making a movie that has an effect's editor suite= and uses it all and through out the course of the movie. It's so distracting that it makes following the actual story of the movie impossible. Not a keeper and not worth watching. Though Tony has done some decent movies- this one is a great example of him not being a great director and not being anywhere in the ballpark to his brother Ridley. See more Matthew D @OceanSage 03/07/2025 Exhilarating action, bizarre story, and totally original style from Tony Scott in his craziest film! Director Tony Scott’s historical action crime thriller Domino (2005) is unspeakably strange and completely entertaining. I’m not even sure what to write about Domino. Tony Scott’s unhinged bold direction, the hyper frenetic editing, outlandish cinematography, stylish shadowy lighting, gritty story, tough characters, bizarre true story, outrageous jokes, and shocking twists all make Domino a classic worth revisiting. The back and forth storytelling about Domino’s forlorn upbringing into her wild youth and even wilder bounty hunter career is enthralling. Tony Scott’s emotional tribute to Domino in the end got me teary-eyed. I recall seeing this 20 years ago because it starred Keira Knightley, but I did not remember writer Richard Kelly’s script being this odd and engaging. Domino Harvey’s life was certainly odd, a rich English daughter of Manchurian Candidate actor Laurence Harvey, who became a fashion model, then a South Central Los Angeles bounty hunter is total insanity. Kelly adapts Sacha Gervasi’s original story about Domino Harvey’s crazy real life into something fresh and exciting. You certainly will not be bored. I appreciate seeing Domino’s fascinating life and only dedicating the film to Domino after her tragic overdose of fentanyl on June 27, 2005, just a few months prior to the release of Domino. Casting directors Denise Chamian and Scout Masterson cast every actor and actress under the Sun for Domino’s eclectic ensemble. Keira Knightley is cool, sexy, tough, sympathetic, funny, startling, moving, and enchanting as model turned bounty hunter starlet Domino Harvey. Knightley plays around as Domino demonstrating how people underestimated what Domino could do and how she could really defend herself. I found her completely enthralling and brings a mature intensity to Domino. This is honestly some of Keira’s finest acting for a fascinatingly strange and complex role to portray the fierce enigma who was Domino. Jacqueline Bisset is cunning and engaging as Domino’s judgmental mother Sophie Wynn. I forgot Lucy Liu is Taryn Mills, who is interviewing Domino to get her side of the story. She’s supremely gorgeous and charming here with funny insulting and otherwise mean comments towards Domino. Mickey Rourke is gritty and amusing as the upbeat bounty hunter expert Ed Moseby. Rourke provides suddenly funny one liners and real sage advice as the very likable Ed. He’s surprisingly hilarious, but also commanding as the ferocious and resourceful Ed. Édgar Ramírez is handsome and furious as the angry and infatuated professional bounty hunter Choco. He brings out a lot from Keira too. Delroy Lindo is delightful as the sincere bail bondsman and shrewd con artist Claremont Williams. Lindo is magnetic and highly entertaining as the big talker Claremont. Mo'Nique is interesting, hysterical, and sympathetic as Lateesha Rodriguez. Mena Suvari is beautiful and sweet as the long-suffering secretary Kimmie to Christopher Walken’s manic producer Mark Heiss. Walken goes full Harvey as the sleazy and angry producer. Walken looks like he’s having the time of his life doing comedic bits as this guy. Macy Gray is funny as Lashandra Davis like Shondrella Avery’s Lashindra Davis. They keep dressing them up like Missy Elliott. Dabney Coleman’s stern Drake Bishop and Peter Jacobson’s underhanded agent Burke Beckett are fun villains. Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering are good sports to spoof themselves so ridiculously. Stanley Kamel’s constantly upset mob boss Anthony Cigliutti is another fun villain. All the robbers of T. K. Carter’s Lester Kincaid, Kel O'Neill’s Frances Cigliutti, Lew Temple’s Locus Fender, Joe Nunez’s Raul Chavez, and Dale Dickey’s raging Edna Fender are very funny. Tom Waits shows up as The Wanderer with a surprisingly uplifting and supportive message towards Domino that sums up the movie’s sympathy for her life choices. Riz Abbasi’s explosives expert from Afghanistan named Alf is a riot. The real Domino Harvey’s cameo at the end as the girl standing in front of an exploding car got me tearful to see her. Editors William Goldenberg and Christian Wagner’s rapid fire cuts feel like a nonstop music video. It’s so awesome that we go from model catwalks, bounty hunter montages, to flashbacks, and everything in between. Cinematographer Dan Mindel goes for wild angles and perspectives like a 2000’s electronic or Goth rock music video. The shadowy and stylized lighting by Chris Weigand and Michael Off looks so cool. I wish films now looked half as cool as the shadows over the eyes lighting in Domino. Kiera Knightley’s Domino being interviewed by Lucy Liu’s Taryn scenes look incredible. Camera operator Andres L. Porras pulls off every visual camera movement trick you’ve ever heard of here. Composer Harry Gregson-Williams’s electrifying film score is amazing. All the rap songs from Xzibit are awesome and a fun time capsule of 2005. Costume designer B. Åkerlund is to be commended for all these iconic 2000s’ looks for Keira Knightley that are burned into my brain. Some of these are the best Keira has ever looked on the silver screen. Makeup artists Fiona Connon, Rob Hinderstein, Joel Harlow, and Luisa Abel do all these intense Goth and rebellious looks for Keira’s Domino. Hairstylists Martin Samuel, Lucia Mace, and Anthony Miner incredible haircuts for Keira look astounding. In all, Domino is Tony Scott at his most brazenly bizarre, but he pulls it off for a 127 minute long wild ride. See more Blu B @RT43513976 02/14/2025 The editing is a special kind of bad. It's horrifically bad. It's edited like a music video and it's so distracting with random fast editing, random slow motion, and some stuff I don't even know. It just straight gets incoherent. It's got 2 stories going on. The actual biopic about Domino Harvey and her upbringing, motivations, relationships and all. And a second one about the mafia, a kidnapping, the FBI, double crossing, informants, Monique selling fake IDs and I just don't even know what's happening when it comes together at the end. The ending just straight doesn't make sense. It's like a poorly done True romance type of ending that's so poorly done I can't tell what is happening. It never in the lsightest makes these two stories work together and it keeps jumping between the tw and on top of being out of order flashback style too it makes it so convuluted and more incoherent as it goes on. The pacing is terrible because of it. The music sin't good and just doesn't fit. It's like a Bad Boys/Fast & Furious type soundtrack that's trying to be hip and cool more than matching something for what is actually happening on screen. The cinematography isn't good either. Scott's direction is so distracting and doesn't add anything. The color saturation, gritty and raw cinematography, scenes that look like a MTV video don't add at all. Some of the action is cool and some interactions are interesting but it doesn't add to anything. The best thing is the acting which is just alright. Keira is good and the only good thing in this. The casting in general is pretty good but the lines their given and the unfocused script doesn't help things at all and weigh it down. This is trying to be like a Molly's Game type of biopic crossed with like a True Romance crime plot. It should've just focused on Domino Harvey and her interesting life and the colorful characters and get rid of that crazy crime plot. This should be remade honestly. I see potential here. Skip This until that happens. See more Read all reviews

Domino

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING

Most Popular at Home Now