Movie Review: A History of Violence
Every once in a while I will pick a tool of a movie to rent from Blockbuster. Constantine, Hitch and Love Chronicles were all terrible movies that I wasted 90 minutes of my life to watch. However, I try to stay away from horrid movies when I venture to the theater. So this past weekend I went online to read the reviews of A History of Violence. The critics gave it decent reviews and the Yahoo users chimed in with some good reviews – even though I consider the Yahoo users suspect when it comes to analyzing movies.
Well, my girlfriend and I venture into the theater and find a seat ready to enjoy what we think will be a good movie. Nothing could have been further from the truth. A History of Violence sucks to the highest of suck-stivity. It never cease to amaze me how badly Hollywood can massacre a good concept. Where can I begin to describe what went wrong with this movie. I guess I could start with the opening scene.
Two men exit their hotel room, hop in the car and start to drive away. But they notice that they don’t have water. So, one of the men walks into the motel office where three bodies are rotting and drenched in blood from gun shot wounds. The guy goes to the cooler and starts filling the jug with water when a young girl enters the scene. The man pulls a gun and kills the little girl. Ok, it’s over the top but the problem is that this scene is only there to set up how violent these men are so when they attempt to rob the diner, it is suppose to ratchet up the suspense. It doesn’t. It was a waste of five minutes.
Where were the other problems with this movie? The director tries to keep us in the dark as to the true identity of Tom Stahl. Because of that, we never have the opportunity to feel the emotional conflict that his going on inside his head. There were some unnecessary “love” scenes that had nothing to do with the movie. The kids were whack, and they want us to believe that the mother who doesn’t look a day over 27 has a 16 year-old son. The ending was contrite.
What makes it so bad is that A History of Violence did not show the history of the violence. Maybe they tried to make an artsy film. Well, it sucked. Don’t waste you money on this crap.
7:02 PM You know, the funny thing is my wife thought it sucked too. But I liked it. Not like, liked it. But liked it.
But I like that violent stuff anyway.
2:41 AM It's not bad on cable (not great either), but yeah I totally see how it would suck even harder on the big screen. Incidently, Maria Bello's actually is 40ish
8:11 PM Just finished watching this crap on DVD...and typed in google Histoey of Violence sucks and found this Blog.
Man what a movie that made no sense...at first I couldnt tell if it was a comedy when funny eye walked in the dinner it felt gimmicky and like a comedy....I expected the 3 bad guys to bump into each other on the way out...
I Think they thought they were making a Pulp Fiction but not even close....
and what were the critics thinking? They just suck up to the Director D'jour.
2:22 PM Finished watching it on Youtube. Well, the movie was plenty violent, which I kind of enjoyed. Plus William Hurt and Ed Harris were great as mobsters. But the rest of the acting was rather wooden and the film just didn't seem to progress logically. One minute you have his teenage son playing baseball and getting bullied in the locker room, the next thing you know, Tom Stall is being garrotted by a bunch of crazy, cliched irish mobsters on the east coast.
5:50 PM I agree completely that this movie sucked.......the critics were certainly on drugs while writing the reviews.
But as for the wife not looking a day over 27.....you must have been on drugs. The woman who played her looked about 40, although she was 38 at the time.