 | irishgit (138)
03/17/2006 | A grim story about some pretty nasty people. Well written and acted, particularly Mortensen in the lead and fine turns by Hurt and Hunt. Pretty violent, but not in a way likely to appeal to the shoot 'em up crowd.
The closing sequence (everything after the murder of Hurt) is particularly unsettling.
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Underspin (24)
12/26/2005 | "The History of Violence" is a smart, quirky film - an atypical, modern-day western - about the culture of violence and how it dominates our world. Though the plot's exceedingly far-fetched, at least it's not cliched. Lots of harrowing twists and turns in this one, and unpredictable enough to keep viewers guessing. In a large sense, "The History of Violence" is a message film, dealing with issues of truth, trust, and personal redemption. Head and shoulders above the usual Hollywood fare.
****1/2
(3 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 1 agree) |
 | daedalus (33)
12/20/2005 | Another excellent movie more concerned with complex story telling instead of gun play, explosions and enormous body counts. If you are not familiar with Cronenberg's style you might not like it, he's not for everyone.
(4 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
 | Bleh (0)
11/12/2005 |  Jeesus H. Christ, I hated this movie. It's been a long time since I wanted to walk out on a film within the first fifteen minutes. Wait a minute . . . no it hasn't. There was "The Constant Gardener". Yuck. Anyway, back to the turd in question. The storyline had one gimmick. A good premise, that went nowhere. So, the story sucked, but it wasn't the worst thing about this film. The worst thing about this film was the MILF. Every second she was on screen was one more second that I seriously contemplated a mad dash for the door. She was plain awful. Her overly melodramatic, shrewlike, smarmy dialouge was bad enough. I'll give her credit for a decent performance. It wasn't her fault that the casting director, film director and screenwriter sucked. She seemed to be a good actress, but I guess it's hard to act your way out of a bad movie. I wouldn't know. In fact, I don't know a damn thing about making movies, except that I know a bad one when I see it. Anyway, I simply didn't buy the idea that this movie "mom" had a sixteen year old son, a five year old daughter and hips like a seventeen year old girl. Needless to say, her makeup & hair were always perfect. Yeah, right. Major pet peeves of mine. I'm sick of Hollywood's version of regular folks who look as though they stepped out of a Spiegel catalog. Seriously, the only time I enjoyed her performance was when she flashed the beaver . . . but, ummm I gotta ask, just what the hell WAS that all about? Hey, I'm into 69'ing cheerleaders and rough sex on the stairway, but I wasn't expecting to see either one in this particular movie. At least, not where the director put them, not from those angles, not for that long and not set to a "Tender Moments" soundtrack. Hot scenes, I guess, but besides being out of place they went on tooooo long. And that MUSIC. Aaaarghhhh! I mean, if I'm watching people bump and grind I expect some bowmp-ba-bowmp or screetching guitars or Bolero or anything but that sappy Hallmark Movie of the Week, elevator music. God, this movie sucked. Just sucked. I need a drink.
(5 voted this helpful, 0 funny and 0 agree) |
