esrosedotblog

Political movies are hard to watch.

First, they reduce hard issues to soft cinematic mood pieces. Second, because they are one sided and usually preach to the crowd. If you are not part of the crowd, well, too bad.

Today's film is about the world arms market. It stars Nicolas Cage. Mr. Intense. He plays an asshole, type casting, and he is the cold, hard hearted arms merchant.

Ethan Hawke in a neat buzz cut is the Fed who is after him.

Ian Holm, a favorite, is a father figure to them all. Another kinder dealer.

It is all bogus bullshit. No doubt based on facts but the cartoonish nature of the film is hard to take.

Rant and more rant.

Of course, the arms dealers are terrible people. Period. Don't make me watch them for two hours and try to make them human.

Just do not.

I am not sure how I ended up renting this. I will be more wary in future. A 2 out of Netflix5. I had to FF through the weepy shit and the talking heads. Also the bloody killings.

Labels: films, violence

There is no end to the violence and sado-machochistic goings on in this film.

Ichi: The Killer (2001>

I have no idea how this found its way onto my Netflix queue.

But there it is/was. One of the most violent vividly horrific films I have ever seen.

But I could not stop watching.

Well, I did FF a bit half way through.

Based on a Japanese comic they have not spared the horses in this vivid re-creation of what we normally let pass in a comic but somehow cannot abide watching happen to real live humans.

It does not help to say to oneself that these are "just actors". Even when one knows that it is fake, the utterly blatant and gratuitous mayhem is somehow magnetic. I could not look away.

I suppose that I should be repulsed over this and worry that such stuff is available for people to see.

But I also know that inside me and probably everyone else, there are devils that need to be let out safely somehow.

I truly believe that no individual is going to go out and hack someone up after seeing this movie. Perhaps there is some outlet here that would prevent it. But I doubt it.

As cinema the action is riveting, the people are wonderful in their roles. Even the bodies have charisma. The long shots of high buildings are dizzying as are many other innovative angles. Running down a staircase with the characters, in retrospect, I know was done from a boom camera. But at the time one does not consider the "how it was done" stuff.

I would like to see more of this kind of film. But it is probably not good for me to do so. I don't know. The jury is out about this subject.

I do know that I was rooting for the avenger to do his thing. Even the hard-to-watch eye and tongue work was well deserved by these gangster bastards.

Once is enough though A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, violence

Another film with Vigo Mortensen, my hero.

In this one he plays a guy in the American midwest. Perfect accent. American from the toes.

He has a past and it comes to visit him and his family who have no idea.

He has to clean house. And he does.

A History of Violence (2005)

He goes back to Philadelphia to settle old scores.

This is a thriller with twists as all good thrillers twist. Original surprising. Lots of stuff we do not see coming.

I have seen it a few times and still was at the edge of my seat as his family deals with the "history".

His son is being bullied in school and eventually uses what skills his Dad obviously taught him.

Was that necessary? Is the violence that solves the back east problem necessary?

Is it OK if bad guys get hurt and good guys triumph? How badly hurt is hurt.

That said, a bravura performance for John Hurt who is out of type in his role as the mobster brother that Viggo has to go "see".

I love this movie. A 5 out of Netflix5.

Labels: best films, films, violence

For those of us who have sat on the bench all our lives, this stuff is just a complete mystery.

Aaron Hernandez conviction: Gambling on risky players is an NFL reality

Football has always seemed brutal to me. Even when I tried to play touch as a kid. The hard tag. The grapple. The sudden fights that would flare up with kids who had a "hot temper".

Just a game? Not for these kids.

We did not have football at the tiny school I went to. MIT did not have football. I had one son who went out for it and got a shoulder injury. Maybe that was in the little league or whatever it was. I was happy it cut his career short.

I could never watch a game. But I have trouble with all the television sports. It is not in my nature to care about this activity.

I ran, I swam some, I have gone to the gym forever. But competitive sports filled me with performance anxiety. When I was a kid, gym class was a horror.

So I am not a player.

I have missed out on watching this crazy ass macho behavior up close.

So I suppose, as a bona fide sissy, I do not get to comment on something like this. But fuck that. This is just the point.

I realize that hundreds of jocks have had small and large careers without having this violent streak. OK. Gentlemen.

But it is really scary to me when grown men who are not jocks gather round and cheer on the gladiators as though they are in the pit themselves. It is just bad. Ugly.

Everyone who cheered for this guy is part of the guilt. Sorry. I cannot see it any other way.

Labels: football, sports, violence