Thoughtful premise. The film has good intentions, and could have really been fantastic but comes up short. It goes from feeling like an afterschool special to a dark comedy and never decides which it wants to be. Mixing these CAN work, and dabbling in fantasy is fine but the film seems hell bent on grounding itself in very corny, ordinary, juvenile dialogue (Yes, "you can take that to the bank"). It just doesn't cross the line of strange far enough to allow the user let go and enjoy it. Perhaps if it had made itself into a pseudo-reality in a film-noir mold (Heathers, Reservoir Dogs, 12 Monkeys, Harry Potter), the bizarre characters and nonsensical settings would work, but here they don't. They would have been better either making this into a straight PG or PG-13 movie like BTTF, or grabbing the brass ring and going for the film noir/scifi route as an R rated flick. My guess is that the latter was the intention but somebody wanted to turn it into Back to the Future 4. It turns out to be confused, jumbled mess.
Reviews
3 Reviews
A History of Violence
(2005)
Fake. Moronic. Obvious.
7 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The first thing that bothers me so much about this movie is that there are such poor trade-offs are made between displaying violence and trying to capture a sort of subtle "poignant artistry" in other scenes. You better have some good character development along the way or it just won't work.
Case in point: a little girl gets murdered, we see it, and then later we're told to "feel" something when Viggo Mortensen bows down into a pond to "clean himself" because he supposedly feels so wrought. It's trite.
Then there are little things to complain about, the portrait of a 'small town life' which really seems phony, an overdone score, etc....things that sometimes can and often are overlooked in other movies...which brings us to the main problem with this flick:
There's absolutely no suspense.
You can diagnose the situation from nearly the beginning and then it's just waiting for stuff to happen....then not much really does. No secrets are revealed. It's just a couple decent action scenes and then we're done. Very unimaginative. No twists, no turns, no deep character issues or struggles in morality which come to light. Just dull.
Case in point: a little girl gets murdered, we see it, and then later we're told to "feel" something when Viggo Mortensen bows down into a pond to "clean himself" because he supposedly feels so wrought. It's trite.
Then there are little things to complain about, the portrait of a 'small town life' which really seems phony, an overdone score, etc....things that sometimes can and often are overlooked in other movies...which brings us to the main problem with this flick:
There's absolutely no suspense.
You can diagnose the situation from nearly the beginning and then it's just waiting for stuff to happen....then not much really does. No secrets are revealed. It's just a couple decent action scenes and then we're done. Very unimaginative. No twists, no turns, no deep character issues or struggles in morality which come to light. Just dull.
Rounders
(1998)
Why doesn't Hollywood make more movies like this?
28 February 2006
This wasn't highly over-promoted and didn't involved flashy special effects. It was an interesting story, well-directed, with a fantastic cast. Have to give it a ten because it accomplished exactly what it strived to and then some.
I loved this movie before the recent poker craze and it stands on it's own regardless of what it's focus is. That being said the writers did a good job of using enough technical card speak to interest you in the world but kept it simple enough to know what was happening, and the actors' delivery of lines made translation unnecessary: "Wired aces or kings?"...."I had rags, but I HAD to know"....
It's nothing incredibly new, the usual typical human drama, finding oneself, relationships lost, risk, loyalty, shades of gray with friends and enemies. But touches all points in a realistic and subtle manner The characters are a bit nicely dramatized and their roles sexed-up a bit to make it more interesting, which is OK. it works.
The little things are all well done. A probably unnoticed scene when Worm and Mike arrive in the Atlantic City casino lobby and Mike chides Worm about the "boys upstate bringing about a few changes" is EXACTLY how two men in their mid twenties would act and talk toward one another. Completely aside from the story, but it really gives it credibility.
And finally, kudos to the makers for the ending. Just fantastic. They could have spoiled the whole movie, but finished like figure skater making a perfect bow to the crowd.
I loved this movie before the recent poker craze and it stands on it's own regardless of what it's focus is. That being said the writers did a good job of using enough technical card speak to interest you in the world but kept it simple enough to know what was happening, and the actors' delivery of lines made translation unnecessary: "Wired aces or kings?"...."I had rags, but I HAD to know"....
It's nothing incredibly new, the usual typical human drama, finding oneself, relationships lost, risk, loyalty, shades of gray with friends and enemies. But touches all points in a realistic and subtle manner The characters are a bit nicely dramatized and their roles sexed-up a bit to make it more interesting, which is OK. it works.
The little things are all well done. A probably unnoticed scene when Worm and Mike arrive in the Atlantic City casino lobby and Mike chides Worm about the "boys upstate bringing about a few changes" is EXACTLY how two men in their mid twenties would act and talk toward one another. Completely aside from the story, but it really gives it credibility.
And finally, kudos to the makers for the ending. Just fantastic. They could have spoiled the whole movie, but finished like figure skater making a perfect bow to the crowd.
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