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A History of Violence
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Viggo Mortensen,
Ed Harris, Maria Bello |
| MPAA Rated: |
R |
| Released By: |
New Line Cinema |
| Web Site: |
www.historyofviolence.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
For goodness sake,
leave them at home. |
| Date Movie: |
Only if she can
handle a lot of gore. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Very intense and,
frontal nudity, and Viggo's butt. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Some of the best
quality kills I've seen in a long time. |
| Action: |
Not too much
chasing. |
| Laughs: |
A great scene at
the end that it probably isn't appropriate to laugh, but I
laughed my ass off. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
The scene in the
front yard with Tom Stall and Carl. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
I'm not saying who
said it, but it's simply the line "How do fuck that up?" |
| Directed By: |
David Cronenberg |
| Produced By: |
Chris Bender,
David Cronenberg, J.C. Spink |
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A History of Violence
A Movie Review |
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As I was leaving "A History of Violence" my initial
reaction was simply "Holy crap!" mostly because it’s been a
long time since I’ve seen a movie that had such brutal
violence, intense sex, sort of disappointing nudity,
appreciation for the cheerleader fantasy, creepy characters,
laugh-out-loud moments, and perfectly cast characters. Such
was my take on "A History of Violence."
The premise of the story goes like this…
Viggo Mortensen is Tom Stall. He runs Stall’s Diner in a
quiet, little, Midwestern town where other than bullies
picking on other kids, there really isn’t much violence
happening. He’s got a loving, hot wife in Edie (Maria Bello),
and a nerdy son, Jack (Asthon Holmes), the latter of whom
keeps getting picked on by the high school bully. Things are
their normal, quiet, self, until these two bad guys, who
have been on a killing spree since they left the west coast,
show up at Stall’s Diner. They’re threatening the few people
there, planning to take advantage of the waitress, when Tom
springs into action. The next thing we know the two bad
dudes are dead, or at least we’re pretty sure since one of
them doesn’t have much of his face left as his jaw is kind
of bouncing up and down in a pool of blood, and Tom is a
hero. Of course the television crews show up, and now Tom
Stall is on every news channel as a hero.
The next thing we know, Carl (Ed Harris), a creepy,
mob-looking kind of guy with a bad eye, shows up in the
diner, telling Tom that Tom is really a mob guy from Philly
named Joey. Tom looks at him like he’s nuts, Edie is creeped
out by the dude, especially when they find out from their
local sheriff that Carl isn’t just a mob-looking kind of
guy, but is a mob guy, and at this point we’ve got a lot of
questions.
Like…
Is Tom really Joey or is this just a case of mistaken
identity? Will Tom’s family pay for this mistaken identity
if that’s what it is? Will Jack get some balls? How did Carl
get such a messed up face to begin with? How did they clean
up all of that blood so quickly? How in the hell can nudity
be disappointing?
Well I’m not giving you the answer to any of those
questions except the last. First off, God bless Maria Bello
for not being afraid to take her clothes off, and she really
doesn’t have any reason to be afraid because she’s pretty
hot. But, the full-frontal nudity scene for me, was slightly
disappointing, because it came at a time I was really
conflicted about the scene that just preceded it. And that’s
all I’m going to say about that.
Wrapping this up, "A History of Violence" has some of the
best quality kills in a long time, so if you’re not one for
blood and guts getting everywhere, stay away. Also, if sex
in cinema makes you sick, this is definitely not for you.
But if any of that entices you, along with a really quality
thriller where Viggo Mortensen does a fantastic job as the
small-town Tom, Maria Bello shows Edie wondering if Tom
really is who he says he is fabulously, and Ed Harris is as
creepy as I’ve ever seen him just saying the word "Joey."
I really had a great time at "A History of Violence," but
do understand if this movie isn’t for you. But it was for
me, and I wasn’t afraid to laugh out loud, even though it
seemed a little inappropriate, during a scene towards the
end of the film. 4 ½ stars out of 5 for "A History of
Violence."
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |
