Scooter admitted that he may very well have to conceed his movie-renting privelages. He picked out another set of real losers in The Weatherman and A History of Violence. I didn’t witness the first atrocity; Julie had to face that one. But the latter, Viggo Mortensen‘s most recent critically-acclaimed work, was what I wasted an hour and a half on tonight.
Please, please, don’t repeat my mistake.
For one of the first times in my nearly 27-years of life, I considered pushing stop half-way through. It was really that bad. But, I give it shot to redeem itself–which it most certainly didn’t. It actually ended much worse than I could have imagined.
Entertainment Weekly calls it the best movie of the year. And to see if they were the only ones with wacked tastes, I checked out RottenTomatoes.com to see what other critics and the general public thought about it.
They’re all nuts, too!
Seriously… did pop culture go from really, really bad to really, really, really, really bad overnight? How can this movie be considered good? The best-of-the-best critics give it a 94% and the rest of the world rates it at 86%. I saw Crash and, though despressing, knew it was good and would be considered for awards. I thought Million Dollar Baby was great, even though it was dark, troubling and wrestled with tough issues.
But I just can’t figure out why people think A History of Violence is quality cinema. Even Christianity Today’s review gave it four (out of four) stars. Sure, it acknowledged the violence and other troubling aspects… but it still hailed it as a great film. I just don’t get it.
I suppose much of the problem comes from the fact that I have no clue how to critique film. I’m probably missing much of the supposed “brilliance” of this work… the irony it contains and the commentary on American life… and all that jazz.
But, I still feel it’s a prime example of how the systems of the world are run by the enemy. And if movies like this and last year’s Brokeback Mountain are going to be the ones getting the glory… I think my interest in movies is going to continue to fade.
I guess I shouldn’t expect much from athiest director David Cronenberg. He says, “I’m not just a nonbeliever, I’m an antibeliever–I think it’s a destructive philosophy.”
And putting mangled bodies on a giant screen is a constructive philosophy?
Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
