Movie Recap for October 2005: A History of Violence
Published November 02, 2005
October brought forth a mixed bag of good and bad movies. A mixture of potential Oscar hopefuls, and money grabbers for the Halloween season. Without further ado, on to what I saw this month.
Best of the Month: A History of Violence
Worst of the Month: The Fog
Listed in the order I saw them in.
- History of Violence. Cronenberg knocked this one out of the park. Complex characters, deep story, explosive violence. Absolutely beautiful. ****
- Into the Blue. Not awful, not great either. Decent tension is built towards the end, although the movie is a bit overlong. Some great underwater work with Jessica Alba. **.5
- Wallace & Gromit in Curse of the Were-Rabbit. An absolute delight. This was a blast, good for the whole family. Top notch animation and a fun story. Gromit is a wonderful creation. ***.5
- Waiting... Not much to it. It's main purpose seems to be to gross the viewer out. I still enjoyed this, much more than I should have. ***
- Me, and You, and Everyone We Know. This was a pleasant surprise. A quirky, matter of fact drama about fractured people attempting put their lives together. ***.5
- Two for the Money. Carried by excellent performances, but hampered by a weak story. This is definitely worth seeing for the work of the stars, mainly Al Pacino. ***
- Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D. Fascinating IMAX 3D documentary about walking on the moon. Not as deep as some docs I have seen, but still well worth the time. ***.5
- Serenity. Second time I've seen this one, and well worth it. Action, comedy, adventure, it has a little bit of everything. ****
- The Fog. Not terrible, but not terribly good either. It was nice to see a film that didn't rely on jump scares, but tried to create an aura of creepiness. Not successful, but a valiant attempt. **.5
- Domino. This was an excellent film, dripping with style and an abundance of exuberance. Like our title character said "I just want to have a little fun." This delivers. ***
- Haunted Castle 3D. An IMAX experience that seemed more like an amusement park ride than a film. Still, it was an excellent example of 3D done right. ***
- Doom. Not good, but a blast of B level fun. I even liked the first person segment, that worked out pretty good. ***
- Stay. Twisted little tale where nothing is quite what it seems. Good performances, but an unsatisfying close. ***
- Legend of Zorro. Fun, but not up to the original. I like the old school action, but the story was a bit of a mess. Banderas is perfect for the role. **.5
- Saw II. A sadistic mash of twisted traps and only an inkling of a tale. Cannot say I didn't enjoy it, but there is definitely a better film hiding within the blood. ***
- The Squid and the Whale. Interesting tale of a family falling apart. Dryly humorous in its matter of fact nature. Good performances and an intriguing tale are sure to hold your attention. Only problem is that it ends a little abruptly. ***.5
That does it for this month. What did you see?
Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn't sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the "Movie Guy" and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99's Musings and Draven99's Media Center. 
- Movie Recap for October 2005: A History of Violence
- Published: November 02, 2005
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Action, Video: Drama, Video: Family, Video: Film and TV Business, Video: SF, Video: Suspense and Mystery, Video: Thriller
- Part of a feature: Movie Recap
- Writer: Chris Beaumont
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Comments
What, no Elizabethtown for October? Well, it sucked anyway, but it did come out in October.
Note: Cronenberg directed a great film from a GREAT SCRIPT written by Josh Olson.
[Josh adapted his screenplay from a lousy graphic novel -- and thankfully, only about the first 10 minutes of the film is from the AHOV novel -- the rest is all Josh.]
You didn't watch North Country or Capote? I'd have to give my best of the month to Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman lives up to the hype).
I was disappointed in "History of Violence". It was nothing more than a rehash of wornout hitman themes (oh when will we stop glorifying criminals? And when will we stop cannibalizing tired subjects? ) and gratuitous sex. Just the vengeance and sex fantasies of a teenage boy, really. The only bright spot was William Hurts interesting impression of a crime boss fumbling with his keys.
re: A History of Violence:
I hate that such a deep, profound philosophical movie gets lambasted by morons who simply don't have the intellectual tools to see what it was all about.
(Reminds me of people who complained that "Straw Dogs" glorified violence.)
+++++ KINDA SPOILER ALERT +++++++
A lot of people ("B"?) obviously didn't get AHOV; the sex scenes were not gratuitous; they were directly related to ONE of the films themes, which -- as any moron should have been able to tell -- was about how violence begats violence.
Sex scene #1 was about as innocent as one could imagine. Once the 'violence' enters the couple's lives -- we get sex scene #2. Contrast the two scenes to see the difference the appearance/use of violence makes in a person's life.
Also: it was definitely NOT a standard "hitman film"! It was actually a rather subtle statement regarding pacifism.
And at the heart of it all, AHOV was about IDENTITY: cultural, moral, familial.
BEST FILM OF 2005, without a doubt.
Yes, HoV sure went out on a limb there by saying violence is bad.
I should have walked out on it when I had the chance. Thankfully it was only $6.25.
Just a remake of Shane, yawn. And Shane was a dumb movie, too.
The giveaway is the lockerroom scene where the puny fag kid beats the bully. How dumb. How ordinary. How trite. The whole movie is about that: teenage boy ideas of violent vengeance and violent sex. Fantasies of super fighting skill and superspeed. Immature notions of adult male-female relations.
Mix in some old themes like fratricide (Cain and Abel) and disfigurement (Homer used this 3000 years ago for Philoctetes, but better, of course, than a hollywood hack writer) and the whole movie just amounts to a remake of tired old themes.
Too bad I'm not intellectual enough to figure out some Really Cutting personal insults or I could violate the BlogCritics Comment Policy, too.
What would a film -- Waiting, Doom, The Fog -- have to do to get a failing grade?
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/38937)
I agree on A History of Violence, fantastic flick!