(Flash Review)Why was this a special feature on the Three Billboard DVD? It was deranged. Taking place on a train, two unrelated passengers have had a significant loss in their family. Along comes some demented and highly irritating Irish young man. He hassles the mourning mother enough that she does something highly rash! The train is stopped to investigate the event. Later we learn the police are after this annoying young man. Cue bloodbath. This film had no redeeming value.

From the brilliant and twisted mind of Irish playwright/filmmaker Martin McDonagh, 'Six Shooter' is a dark (and I mean DARK) tragicomedy about death. McDonagh is certainly a fearless filmmaker in terms of subject matter, and he is always willing to take the darkest route possible, while also being extremely unpredictable and often going to places almost no other filmmaker would even dream of going to. With 'Six Shooter', he practically dares the viewer to laugh along with this genuinely disturbing and sad and shocking story, but he also allows the viewer to cry and shake in emotional intensity while fully absorbing the total absurdity of violence. No wonder the man went on to make such jaw dropping successes as 'Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri'. No wonder.

Finally saw this online and wondering what all the fuss is about. Almost whimsical, I couldn't quite believe the darkness at the centre of the story. There are a couple of good lines and the performances are solid – Rory Conroy being the best. Martin McDonagh is a very talented playwright, but on this evidence his directing is a little flat. Film looks and sounds flat too. What struck me about it was the superficiality of it all, the cynicism. However it does have some funny moments and moves along at a brisk pace. I'm not surprised it was looked on so favourably by the academy, picking up an Oscar for Best Short Film – it has hip written all over it. And it is one of the better short Irish films I've seen, complete with twists and double twists and a lot of flippant dialogue. McDonagh is planning a gangster film with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. I'll pay money to see that. He obviously wants to be the Celtic Scorsese. High point a cow explodes. Low point rather tasteless plot line about a baby's death. Brendan Gleeson is in this film.

McDonagh is a brilliant story teller and fully deserves his Tony nominations and his Olivier Award for Best Play (The Pillowman). His critics have questioned his use of casual cruelty as a dramatic device, although he always grounds violence in a social context or connects sadism to particular characters' proclivities. This film is beautifully acted by Brendon Gleeson and especially Rúaidhrí Conroy, sharply photographed, and well directed by McDonagh himself. For technique alone it is Oscar-worthy. But the whole piece strikes me as an absurdist joke with insufficient resonance. This is a mélange of destructions, an indulgence in violence that reduces and parodies McDonagh's better scripts.