The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I always suspected that somewhere deep down inside David Cronenberg there was a good movie waiting to get out. This was one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Fantastic action scenes: David isn’t afraid to show you what’s going on. Menacing and stylish and surprisingly sexed-up (well, given this director, not really surprising). My only complaints are that some scenes can go on a little too long and that a side-plot about the son feels like it gets dropped part way through the movie. A-

I can’t believe this was based on a comic.

Ya, we dug this one. I'd read some negative reviews and basically I just don't agree with them. Noticing it was based on a graphic novel helped, maybe.

fffffffffffffucking awful. what the hell kind of story is that? it had all the wrong parts of a comic book - immortal hero, detached vengeance, and man-ass. they totally left the kid's story hanging after he shot the dude, even tho they spent all that time in the beginning building up the moral dilemma of being a badass, and the kid-beats-crap-out-of-other-kid thing was as trite and "done" as they come.

i love me some ed harris, and i was deeply disappointed in this pile of shit.

Puce wrote:I always suspected that somewhere deep down inside David Cronenberg there was a good movie waiting to get out.

Maybe you need to watch The Fly again.

Or Dead Ringers, or Crash, or the Dead Zone, and I'd say Existenz although I may be alone in that.

I didn't like A History of Violence either, though. Dude can't direct actors.

or videodrome! "kill your partners! kill them!" or scanners! dude should have gotten an oscar just for making louis del grande's head blow up.

i found h.o.v. to be very satisfying, but the invincibility blue mentions did cross my mind. i never really felt dude was in peril. great action though.

loved the ending, but thought it was too short. i mean, unforgiven was like two and a half hours or something. and wasn't h.o.v. kind of the same movie? ok not exactly the same, but essentially an updated western about failed attempts at repentance.

oddly enough i ended up watching the ice harvest within a few days of this one, which i also enjoyed immensely. i was thinking they might make an interesting compare-and-contrast review, two movies that show the unpleasant side of violence.

And Scanners!

My wife and I just watched this last night. I thought it was okay, but I'm really glad we didn't shell out twenty bucks for it in the theater. I knew it was from a comic, but I was still expecting it to have more depth than it does. I certainly expected us to get more inside Tom's (or is it Joe's?) mind.

I dunno...not a bad rental, but much less than I had hoped for.

Brick Pig wrote:I knew it was from a comic, but I was still expecting it to have more depth than it does.

Go read Watchmen and get your mind right, man.

jute gyte wrote:

Brick Pig wrote:I knew it was from a comic, but I was still expecting it to have more depth than it does.

Go read Watchmen and get your mind right, man.

No, no, didn't make myself clear. I don't mean comics don't (or can't) have depth. I read 'em all the time, and I know how great they can be. (Although I will admit that I never caught on to the attraction that so many people feel for Watchmen. Or for LXG for that matter; I thought the movie was every bit as entertaining as the book -- which is my comment on the book moreso than the movie, if you get my drift.)

What I meant about History of Violence though, was that usually movies based on comics don't accomplish that depth, but I expected this one to do a better job of it than most. But in my opinion, it didn't.