I was very impressed by this movie. It contained a totally awesome cast lineup, was genuinely funny - very remarkable on such a low budget. And it also moves fairly tightly and briskly, with none of the pretentiousness of most B-grade "arthouse" fare.The cast ensemble was an absolute dream in fact. Stalwarts like Jeff Goldblum, Steve Zahn, David Cross, David Hyde Pierce - and that lady who now plays the wife in "Scrubs". They were excellent.And Elijah Wood is totally awesome in this. I once said that he had totally lost his comic touch or interest after the NORTH fiasco. Well, I now have to completely eat my words. He showed a lot of the brilliant personality that he displayed as an all-time great child actor - especially as Huck Finn. This is the role that I would class as his definitive transition role from child protégé to credible adult actor. It contains most of his charm and personality that were the highlights of his early career, with the professional maturity of his later work.And once again I am totally blown away by Tom Wilkinson. His was a great role for a jobbing British actor in Hollywood; and he handles it wonderfully. This would be the perfect foil to his dramatic antagonist in Mel Gibson's THE PATRIOT (see my review); and a great foretaste of his comic flair as Doctor Chasubile in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.This movie really worked a lot better than I thought it would. I was expecting some dour, slow-paced cynical "modern" serio-comedy with garish visuals and poor pacing - like RUSHMORE, or ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, or ADAPTATION; i.e. **way** self-consciously smug, with far more drama than comedy. But instead I got a snappy, witty, intelligent little character comedy with enough imagination and pacing to really keep it rolling along. It lacks the real punch of a classic movie like THE STING, Jim Carrey's THE MASK, or even ZERO EFFECT; but on its own terms it is very watchable, and totally deserves a lot more success. I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. A movie that's definitely worth renting.

Ordered the dvd last week and after reading the comments on this site I was expecting a jolly good time with a sparkling comedy, but - errr - I thought it was a bit lame. Good actors and some interesting ideas for characters, but it (and the acting!) was hampered all too often by lame dialogue - were they all trying to imitate Bollingsworth or what? A bit more colloquialism might have helped. And better directing! I don't know the other work Traktor have done but if they want to make sparkly movie comedies they've still got some way to go. Or am I missing something?I'm a huge fan of Elijah Wood's and very partial to anything he does, but can't in good conscience give this movie more than a 4 out of 10 (unless I'm really missing a point here???) - it was great to see him do some action stuff & do the gun thing - and the funniest bit in the movie was probably Mikey saying, through his sobs: "Don't worry, I'll do the hit" - but he, as well as some of the others (particularly Selma Hayek) seemed hampered by having to deliver far too many words in some situations, and not necessarily stuff that anyone would actually *say* either. Andy could have been a riot as well (he probably comes closest to being funny, next to Mikey and his craving to see "Cats") - but most of the rest of the characters were fairly clicheed, and do we really need TWO almost identical-looking bitchy women in Kresk's life? (Ex-wife and sister). The premise of everyone trying to be incredibly bad-ass and not succeeding at all could have been really funny, but it all fell down in the delivery. :-(

i am an ardent fan of traktor... or at least fan of certain elements in traktor and was sadly disappointed by the film. the storyline was not the ingenious silliness one expects from traktor's work. i'd love to make some specific comments, but i began nodding out after jeff goldblum was left in the ex's apartment. sorry, but i cannot recommend this one... not even to my little brother.

This is basically a "laugh at the losers" episode flick in the vein of "Short Cuts", without the pretension and with a healthy dose of Quentin Tarantino thrown in for good measure (sans the nastiness and macho violence.) Chain of Fools boasts the essential (for this type of movie) array of crooks and oddballs; from Jeff Goldblum's psychopathic rent-a-thief character to Elijah Wood's adolescent aspiring hitman.The film is uneven, which is probably a result of the relative inexperience of the director(s). There are several scenes that just feel pointless, and the Bollingsworth character could have used a little polishing, but on the whole the movie is thoroughly enjoyable. Steve Zahn is great as the loser protagonist, Elijah Wood shines as the hitman wannabe, Jeff Goldblum turns in a solid performance and sexy Salma Hayek once again demonstrates she can do a lot more than just look pretty and dance with snakes.Chain of Fools is no Pulp Fiction, but it has got an endearing quality all of its own. If Tarantino and the Coen brothers were to do a movie together I imagine you would get something a lot like this.I give it 7/10, where Pulp Fiction is a 10/10 and The Big Lebowski is a 9/10.