2006-05-08 - 6:20 a.m.
I got your history of violence right here.
I always read several reviews of a movie before I see it. I especially focus on the bad reviews as they tend to cut to the heart of the matter, and expose flaws in a film that the gushing reviews tend to leave out.
It also helps to find reviewers that have similar tastes to you, critics that love your favorite movies and hate the ones you do as well.
In addition to that research, I have a particular talent for spotting terrible movies a mile away. I sometimes don�t even have to see the preview, let me know the idea, who is in it and who is directing, and I can give you a fair assessment.
Even with all that preparation, I still find myself watching films and thinking �What the Hell?�
Most of the time it�s my own fault, I know that a movie is going to be miserable, but I watch it anyway for some reason or another. More often I have doubts about a movie that almost always prove correct.
I read several great reviews about �A history of Violence� and the poor reviews I read didn�t give me the idea that the movie would be truly awful. Oh were they wrong. My spidy sense was tingling about this one. There was something about it that told me to be wary.
But I have to admit that I didn�t foresee the giant mountain of meaty stink that is this movie. The very best thing about movies like this is listening to the actors and director go on about the film as if they had made a truly great work. They are talking about the duality of man and the motivation of every extra, when the end product was something that would be more at home in an amateur fan film.
Sometimes I can feel a little sympathy for a director, I can see what they were trying to do, and how they just didn�t quite get it right. Not the case here, this guy couldn�t be happier with his film, and in that case I deem him an idiot.
This film is based on a graphic novel that I haven�t read, but it would be difficult to imagine it being worse than the film. Why do people keep trying to adapt these things to film? there is a certain element of a single frame drawing, that allows you to fill in the spaces with your imagination, and in a lot of cases something that looks terribly cool in a comic panel, looks terribly stupid when acted out on film. Has there been a really good GN to film adaptation? NO. Quit trying.
By the way, living out your cheerleadersex/rape fantasies in your movies is not art, its just plain sad.
�Realizing that there is another depth to her own sexuality, that she finds disturbing, but also attractive�
- Director David Cronenberg on why he added two sex scenes to the script, one in which the hero chokes and roughs up his wife, which she apparently finds terribly erotic.
I�m not a prude by any means, this is simply a terrible scene, that doesn�t ring true for either character, and simply resurrects the old �No really means yes� theme in movie romance. I may slap you, but if you keep kissing me despite my struggling to get away, I�ll eventually submit to your charms. Works every time right guys?
The film is clumsy, poorly shot, the acting is terrible for the most part, the script, adolescent, the stunts are crap, the �hyper-realistic violence� very unrealistic. The film has an overall feeling of �TV movie of the week� quality that somehow has a very high caliber cast.
�Best Movie of the Year�
What the hell? Maybe all the reviewers saw a different film and there was some tragic mistake at the printing house and we all got this B movie in the DVD case.
So anyway, now you know more about how I look at movies anyway.
One out of ten stars.
-Justus
