Drive, the previous movie from director Nicholas Winding Refn and actor Ryan Gosling, utilised a deliberate and rather stilted style that not only resulted in a unique air of cool but which also had the effect of making the movie's explosive scenes of violence more impactful. In Only God Forgives, Refn and Gosling repeat this sparing, slow-burn technique, but take it to the nth degree; this time around the effect is to completely bore the crap out of the viewer.

Quite simply, Only God forgives has got to be one of the most excruciating exercises in cinema it has ever been my misfortune to witness. Every pan, track or zoom is agonisingly drawn out, the camera movement often being almost imperceptible. A good percentage of scenes comprise of corridors, or people not moving, or people moving very slowly, or karaoke performances (slow songs, of course). Virtually every scene is lit in either red or blue, which gets extremely irritating. Gosling's brooding expression remains the same throughout the entire film. Conversations take an age to unfold. Minutes seem like hours. Hours seem like days. Time eventually loses all meaning.

Even the film's few scenes of brutal violence are shot in such a way as to render them totally boring.

Art-house types will love the film (or at least pretend to),finding hidden meaning and symbolism in its languorous plot and mind-bogglingly dull execution, but most right-minded people will quite rightly dismiss this for the utter garbage that it is.

This film, from director Nicolas Winding Refn, is set in the Bangkok underworld where a tale of revenge is about to play out. Julian runs a boxing club, which is a front for his mother's drug empire. One day he learns that his brother has been murdered... it turns out he had raped and murdered a teenaged girl and police officer Lieutenant Chang has allowed the girl's father to extract his revenge. Julian's mother is determined to have her own revenge against the father and Chang. Before the story is over several more people will die.

This is one of those films where a fairly average score is highly misleading... there is nothing average about it but it is a film one is likely to love or hate. Everything looks very stylish with lighting and colour schemes where I'm sure every detail was carefully decided upon. At times the action loves at a slow pace... literally the characters move slowly; I was never bored though. The characters might not have great depth, nor are they particularly sympathetic but they are intriguing. The acting is great; most notably from Ryan Gosling, Vithaya Pansringarm and Kristin Scott Thomas as Julian, Chang and Julian's mother. As one might expect Refn there are moments of extreme, disturbing violence that is likely to have most viewers wincing... I certainly did at times! Overall I'd say that this won't be for everybody but I'd still recommend it to anybody wanting something very stylish that leaves one thinking.

I was expecting something more shocking. Don't get me wrong. This is violent and misogyny at it worst. But we've seen it all before. Especially the worldly movie reviewers that are so eager to give it a zero. If anything, it's the minimalist acting that's unique here. And not just the limited dialog but it's the movement. They don't even move that much.

The minimalist acting, the over saturation of color red, the grotesque violence, the misogyny, all of it adds to a unique feel unlike anything I've seen before. Even with all its oddness, it was compelling and mesmerizing. This is like nothing I've ever seen before and that's worth something to me.