Movie Review: Bad Day for the Cut (2017)

Top o’ the mornin’ to ya! Wait, can I say that if I’m not Irish? Anyhow, hope you’re doing well. Let’s get into some movie talk.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Bad Day for the Cut”.

Irish farmer Donal (Nigel O’Neill) must go on a quest to find those responsible for his mother’s murder. That is a very basic way of putting it, but stick with me for two seconds. While at the surface it might seem like another revenge thriller, it doesn’t take long for the movie to reveal that there’s more to it than just “person kill person who killed person that knew person“. Yes, some of the revenge elements are very familiar. But it a lot more fleshed out thanks to plenty of heart, and also a surprising sense of humor. Now, this movie isn’t a comedy per se, but the filmmakers were smart enough to realize that the movie might’ve felt a tad dry had they played it completely straight. And a lot of the humor comes from our main character, whose reactions to people, things, and situations around him make for some excellent levity that add a bit of flavor to this soup. And that’s not to say that the serious parts of the story are uninteresting, because they’re solid enough on their own, with some decently engaging drama going on at times. I’m just saying that those humorous elements help make it stand out a bit more. I do feel that the narrative loses a little bit of steam around 60-65% into the movie, but it picks itself back up soon enough and gives us a riveting finale.

The characters in this are pretty interesting and are, for the most part, sympathetic in some regard. I will only go into detail about one of them though, and that’s Donal, our main man. He is a kind, quiet, middle-aged farmer living in a remote part of Ireland with his dear mother. He’s a good man who goes to some dark places, but without ever truly losing himself, and that makes him a fun character to follow. And Nigel O’Neill is great in the role. We also get supporting work from people like Susan Lynch, Józef Pawlowski, Stuart Graham, Ian McElhinney, Anna Próchiak, and more, all doing very well in their respective roles.

The score for the movie was composed by James Everett, and it was pretty good. It’s not one of those I can remember much of off the top of my head, and I certainly couldn’t hum it to you either. But as far as being a moody, somewhat ambient score for a revenge thriller/drama, it’s solid enough stuff. There were also a handful of licensed tracks used through, and I liked how they were incorporated into their respective scenes. So yeah, music overall was pretty good.

“Bad Day for the Cut” was co-written by Chris Baugh and Brendan Mullin, with Baugh also serving as director. And I will say that it’s really well handled for a low budget thriller. Baugh shows that he knows how to build a decent bit of suspense in a scene, and he really manages to bring us into a character’s mind when simply sitting with them in a scene. It’s also decently well shot, so that’s a nice bonus.

This movie has been pretty well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 92% positive rating. On Metacritic it has an audience score of 5.8/10. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6.5/10.

While it does lose some interest at one point, “Bad Day for the Cut” is still a fun and engaging revenge film that feel fresh thanks to its unique main character and tone. It has a good story, pretty good characters, really good performances, pretty good music, and really good writing/directing. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Bad Day for the Cut” is an 8.87/10. So it’s certainly worth buying!

My review of “Bad Day for the Cut” is now completed.

Good stuff.