Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: History Of Violence (2005)

This is topic History Of Violence (2005) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 09-29-2005, 01:22 PM:

This movie gets the award for "Slowest Moving Movie Of The Year" - at least of the movies that I've seen. Probably could have been condensed to about 45 minutes.

[thumbsdown]

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 10-02-2005, 09:34 AM:

I'm getting a high percentage of senior citizens coming to see this for some reason. I never pegged this as an older person's movie. Anyone else seeing that?

Posted by Amanda Jones (Member # 3326) on 10-03-2005, 12:25 AM:

I went and saw this today. I didn't like it. I found it rather boring.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 10-03-2005, 01:49 PM:

quote: Mark J. Marshall
Anyone else seeing that?

Yeah, we're getting an older crowd too. It didn't really surprise me, though... Cronenberg film, critically acclaimed ... an older crowd doesn't seem too odd. I haven't actually heard many customer reactions as to whether they're liking the film or not.

As for me, I thought it was excellent.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 10-03-2005, 02:08 PM:

These are "reviews"? Where's Evil Sam when we need him?

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 10-03-2005, 11:22 PM:

I'd like to point out that everyone who posted in this thread has given their opinion of the movie except Jim.

[Wink]

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 10-04-2005, 10:54 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemark Movies 12, Ames, IA
AUDITORIUM: 1
PRESENTATION: A decent analog when the print was clean (SHOULD have been digital in this room)
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: The print wasn't so clean...at least to start
RATING: Three stars (out of four), meaning Jim doesn't owe me $6.50 [Razz]

WARNING: Two all-beef spoilers, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed...bun.

Spied in the lobby...A shiny new automated self-serve ticket purchasing thingie. It didn't appear to be working yet. Sure looked cheap. Like one of those "Transnet Wireless" internet kiosks some company was trying to get people to invest in on TV. I've actually seen one of those. The Comfort Suites in St George, Utah had one. Or two.

MAN this print was dirty to start. There was one point where it looked like it had a tire tread on it. It cleared up as we went along.

This movie moves slow and deliberately. We start off with two bad guys who get a scene that exists solely to show how bad they are for background purposes. This sets up their demise at the hands of our hero Tom Stall, a small-town Indiana guy who is kind and gentle and who gives his wife head (yes, it's documented). The bad guys try to rob his diner. As they say on the late news, tragedy strikes.

Tom's a hero, and television stations cover the story well. So well that some old friends of Joey Cusack's in Philly drop in to pay a visit. Who is Joey Cusack? Well THEY seem to think it's the guy known as Tom Stall.

Like I noted previously, this movie moves slow and deliberately. Yet it also has: One little girl shot point blank while holding her stuffed animal, one sex scene involving a cheerleader outfit, one sex scene that starts out as violence and ends in the two practically devouring each other, and just when you least expect it, an evil Bill Hurt. YEAH BABY!!!

There seem to be scenes in here solely to give the movie a reasonable running time. But it's good. It may even make my top ten at the end of the year. But it would have been better with David Lynch in the director's chair.

I'm just saying.

It's NOT for everyone. I heard a guy on the way out telling his friend he thought it was the stupidest movie he'd ever seen. "There's nothing to it!" he said. His friend was surprised at him...I guess he liked it.

Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 10-05-2005, 09:54 AM:

[I'd like to point out that everyone who posted in this thread has given their opinion of the movie except Jim.]

Jim didn't give his opinion as he hasn't seen the film because he lives seven hours by car from the closest theatre playing it and often relies on the Film Handler's Movie Reviews to get not only opinions but content "reviews" of films he can't get to as easily as others do.

Thanks Sam for your usual pithy comments laced with observations and often provoking chuckles. Now that's a "review."

Posted by John Pommon (Member # 648) on 10-12-2005, 02:53 AM:

What's the deal with this "budget looking" sleepy drama (with a few very decent short fight scenes) flick?
I went to see it because of the great cast, Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris William Hurt and the trailer but what a let down.
Yet some are calling it a masterpiece. The boring pace, the screwy scenes were so fake they were painful to watch, all in all a disppointing useless pathetic waste of cast and film.
[gee . . . I guess I didn't like this film]
Seriously . . . it really blows!

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-12-2005, 08:03 PM:

Hmm...I guess I'm weird because I liked it. It's very well acted and I didn't find it to be "slow" at all. Then again, I loved "Goodbye Dragon Inn," which pretty much everyone else complains about by saying "it's slow and nothing happens."

Posted by Paul Gordon (Member # 3320) on 10-16-2005, 05:05 PM:

Great flick, with a Hitchcock feel.. Its survival of the fittest, It's about how you can't get away from what you are (a crazy killer!) Anyway it was well shot, well acted, the pacing was great and its just nice to see low budget Canadian films on the big screen even if its by "Cronenberg" A perfect length to... I'm tired of watching 2 hour + flicks

-Paul

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 04-25-2006, 01:32 PM:

One of the few well-made actual story-type films of '05. Everything evolves at its own appropriate pace with original intrigue. Maria Bello is excellent. Cronenberg knows exactly where he's going with the story & if you don't have anxious friends breathing down your back about the significance of every little action, it's a great ride to the finish.