When Barney looks to his devious mum to help cover his tracks, she leaps to the challenge. When the most exciting thing you’ve got going for you is a slowly mounting tally of accidental corpses at your feet, you know fate has dealt you a shit hand. Barney Thomson is a barber who has fallen from grace in his meagre barbering life. But Carlyle is an adept filmmaker, and his cast is pretty well stacked, which makes the whole affair even more frustrating. Fitting right in with that are some stellar supporting turns, from Tom Courtenay as Holdall’s rude boss to Ashley Jensen as his rival, the overly macho DI Robertson. Shows on ITV Hub And that’s what sinks the film: It’s almost insultingly obvious, even right down to the identity of that mysterious, postally focused maniac, and of course we meet this person, because The Legend of Barney Thomson feels more like a checklist of expectations than a story. On the one hand, that’s The Legend of Barney Thomson’s greatest strength. He also writes for Screen Rant, Movie Mezzanine, and Birth.Movies.Death. A barber's life is turned upside down as he accidentally enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of a serial killer. Netflix . We could toss it on the pile of movies not worth one’s time and move on with our lives. Certificate: 15 VOD film review: The Legend of Barney Thomson. Barney (Carlyle) is a miserable sort in a town full of miserable people. If you like what you see please remember to share Netflix New Releases on Facebook, Twitter or wherever you guys want it’s all appreciated. The film starts off by nearly presenting itself as an alternative to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, coupling images of Barney (played by Carlyle himself) going about his day cutting hair with more grisly shots of dismembered human appendages—feet, hands and, just to make it clear what kind of movie we’re dealing with, a penis. Barney Thomson (Robert Carlyle), awkward, diffident, Glasgow, Scotland barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of the serial killer. Director: Robert Carlyle Writers: Richard Cowan, Colin McLaren, Douglas Lindsay Starring: Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson, Ray Winstone, Ashley Jensen, Tom Courtenay, Brian Pettifer Release Date: March 11, 2016. The cop’s not even after him for that death – there’s a serial killer on the loose and Holdall reckons Barney’s to blame. However, this is an independent publication: we take care not to let commercial relationships dictate the editorial stance of content or the writing staff. The problem with The Legend of Barney Thomson, though, is not Barney Thomson himself. My5 The words “legend” and “Barney Thomson” couldn’t seem more at odds with each other: outlandish and epic on the one hand; dour and plain on the other. You can follow him on Twitter and find his collected writing at his personal blog. Taking the biscuit, though, is Emma Thompson, who transforms herself as Barney’s hilariously repulsive mum – a turn that recalls Mia Farrow in Broadway Danny Rose, if Mia Farrow’s character slipped in an ashtray while doing an impression of Vera Duckworth. Together, they’re all good fun, but only in service to a film that’s too tame and too formulaic to suit them. The Legend of Barney Thomson Robert Carlyle (2015) 96min. . Director: Robert Carlyle Holdall may have the wrong suspect, but he can sense something’s off about the whole story. Director: Robert Carlyle Cast: Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson, Ray Winstone, Ashley Jensen Certificate: 15 Watch The Legend of Barney Thomson online in the UK: iTunes / TalkTalk TV / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / Google Play Robert Carlyle makes his directorial debut with The Legend of Barney Thomson… Like Barney himself, The Legend of Barney Thomson is trite in its very DNA, and no amount of tinkering or talent can change that. © 2020 Netflix New Releases is not endorsed, moderated, owned by or affiliated with Netflix or any of its partners in any capacity. All promotional material including but not limited to trailers, images and videos are all copyright to their respective owners. Best TV shows. Barney Thomson movie reviews & Metacritic score: Barney Thomson (Robert Carlyle), awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity. © 2020 Paste Media Group. Carlyle reins in his wild-eyed, jittery energy and portrays Barney as a quiet sort of basket case, Winstone upends his tough guy persona by making fun of it, and Emma Thompson and Tom Courtenay—playing, respectively, Barney’s mother and Holdall’s superior—sit on the film’s edges, cussing up storms as the picture demands. Glaswegian barber Barney Thomson is leading a humdrum existence until the moment he accidentally offs his boss and plunges into the world of a serial killer. Images on VODzilla.co are authorised and subject to restrictions. Netflix View all Netflix Best movies. Netflix New Releases is a unofficial fansite for Netflix and DVD.com. UKTV Play. That turns out to be a problem for his boss, who wants rid of him so he can hire someone with friendlier banter. The Legend of Barney Thomson, known in the United States as Barney Thomson, is a 2015 British comedy thriller based on the novel The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson by Douglas Lindsay. You may suspect right off that Barney’s voiceover about his all-defining dullness is a smokescreen for a love of serial killing. It’s not long before (the brilliantly named) Detective Inspector Holdall (Ray Winstone going full Ray Winstone) is sniffing around. The film revels in that clash of tone. Cast: Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson, Ray Winstone, Ashley Jensen He has his graces for certain—he appreciates decorum, for one thing—but he’s such a bummer by nature that we kind of wish he did butcher people in his spare time. Holdall (Ray Winstone), the inspector sent to question Barney, immediately assumes the poor sap’s guilt in both the slaying of his manager and the multiple slayings of various young men, and, well, you can probably guess where this black comedy of errors goes from there. All Rights Reserved. The Legend of Barney Thomson, actor Robert Carlyle's directorial debut, is mostly held back by its predictability. From the opening voice over accompanied by shots of dismembered body parts, this is pulp fiction in the messiest sense of the word; you can almost see the lumps of the original novel after it’s been chopped, blended and mashed for the screen. Carlyle gives his actors oodles of space to be as awkward as possible, but while the cast benefit, the rest of the production suffers: the script, which is balanced on a knife edge between rib-tickling and nerve-jangling, feels too uneven to be fully either. A swift accidental murder later and Barney’s in even worse trouble. He’s a like a cooler for human life. The result is eccentric and odd, in a way that only real life can be. Think of the last cheapo slasher flick you watched, and think of how many times that flick ticked off boxes of genre tropes. The twist? You couldn’t imagine the barber being a legend of any sort – he can barely even hold a conversation with a customer. The Glaswegian locations are wonderfully drab and the cast amusingly colourful, always out of step with each other. Remote control icon created by Bjoin Andersson from Noun Project. Watch The Legend of Barney Thomson online in the UK: iTunes / TalkTalk TV / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / Google Play. You can put the title character in Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut, The Legend of Barney Thomson, in the same category, except that when he gets close to people they tend to end up dead. (Also worth noting: Ashley Jensen, playing Holdall’s professional rival with amped-up swagger.) For Carlyle’s purposes, The Legend of Barney Thomson is an exploration of its protagonist and of how childhood neglect gives way to adult ennui. Ever seen Wayne Kramer’s The Cooler? Permission is required for any further use beyond viewing on this site. 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