Category Archives: Violent

2012, Action Film, British, Car Chase, Chase film, Frenetic, Good digital effects, Mayhem, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Spy Theme, Suspense, Violent, Witty dialog

Skyfall (2012)

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From Netflix:

When a serious menace threatens MI6, James Bond is on the case — putting aside his own life and personal issues to hunt and obliterate the perpetrators. Meanwhile, secrets arise from M’s past that strain Bond’s loyalty to his longtime boss.

From Netflix you can stream this 2 hour 23 minute action film.

If nothing else, don’t miss the opening chase scene, possibly the current champion in the race to create ever more frantic and probably impossible chases. Comparing this James Bond film with past efforts shows how far film-makers have progressed in their craft. Just how do you make a London subway train crash through its track floor?

Something new has been added: Both M and James are supposedly getting older which pretends to be the main theme in the film. Of course, James appears in some sex scenes. Perhaps it is just his face, which was made to look if not old then at least really haggard (whereas his body is in very good shape, something that make-up probably cannot hide). Indeed he can stay underwater for 15 minutes and tends to leap over tall buildings (reality is just not important). During the filming he was a young 44 years of age.

As M, Judy Dench fits the bill very well. And she at times in the film looks really old! But let’s give her a break because during the filming she was a young 78 years of age.

Creepy surprise: Javier Bardem knows how to make a really hammy villain. Should we ask how he managed to get a mouthful of decayed teeth? He is the kid on the block because during filming he was a mere 43 years old.

Never mind what the critics say, if you are a James Bond fan then this is just another in a long line of eye-candy adventures.

2013, Action Film, Conspiracy, FilmReview, Frenetic, Nothing special, Revenge, Suspense, Thriller, Violent, Witty dialog

White House Down (2013)

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From Netflix:

When a paramilitary group engineers a violent takeover of the White House, the president must try to hide from the attackers until he can be rescued. Caught up in the chaos, Secret Service agent John Cale ends up becoming his sole protection.

Just a short while ago we were treated to “Olympus Has Fallen“. Since then the theme hasn’t changed much. Just substitute Channing Tatum for Gerald Butler.

There is some humor injected into all the violence. Did you know that John Kennedy used the White House underground catacombs to sneak in Marilyn Monroe? History, after all, is important.

My inner adolescent had fun watching the same-old same-old. Do you think my inner adolescent will ever grow up?

2013, Based on a Book, Catholic culture, Drama, Latino Culture, Spanish, Violent

Bless Me, Ultima (2013)

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From Netflix:

In a village in New Mexico, the life of young farm boy Antonio is dramatically changed when an old medicine woman joins his household. This affecting coming-of-age tale recounts Antonio’s experiences to reveal the spiritual conflict in his community.

“Bendíceme, Última” is a book written originally in English by Rudolfo Anaya. Wikipedia offers an extensive discussion of this film.

Because I had read the book years ago I suspected that watching the film might be boring. If you let yourself immerse in the period, the culture, and the language, you might find this film a charming experience.

There was much superstition, belief in witches, and misinformation mixed in with the Mexican Catholic culture in that place and era. Superstition always surprises and disappoints me. However, if you read much history you come to see how prevalent superstition has been throughout the ages. Let us not forget the Salem witch trials.

From Netflix I got a copy of this film which offered choices in sound track and subtitles. Whether a purchased copy offers the same choices I do not know. In any case I chose Spanish sound track and subtitles and was really happy with the result. For anyone interested in Spanish, this version offers a very approachable and easily understood spoken Spanish. As is almost always the case the spoken and written scripts are very close but not exactly the same.

One other similar film that comes to mind is “Like Water For Chocolate”.

Consider this style of film “sui generis”. Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.

2012, Coming-of-age, Crude Talk, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, Police Corruption, Revenge, Sad small town, Suspense, Teenagers, Violent, Wonderful acting

Mud (2012)

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From Netflix:

Two Mississippi teens, Ellis and Neckbone, meet a mysterious drifter named Mud hiding on a deserted river island and get caught up in his tangled web of tall tales about bounty hunters, crimes of passion, lost love and a perfect woman named Juniper.

Good acting and an involving storyline make this somewhat violent film worth seeing.

For once Matthew McConaughey is neither romantic stud, tough cowboy, nor clever lawyer. His role here as a fugitive from a revenge killing seems to me to be his best effort at acting that I have seen to date (2013).

Similarly Reese Witherspoon is not a bouncy blonde but plays well the part of an imperfect, sad, basically good-hearted young woman. At first I almost did not recognize her (because at the time one of the villains was giving her a beating – did I mention “violent”?).

Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland, the two kids, are good but do not steal the show. Their tough, down-to-earth, terse, somewhat abrupt manner of speaking seemed to me at times to be too mature for their age.

During the entire film I kept wondering how people can stand living where and in the manner that these somewhat down-trodden characters lived. Beasts of the Southern Wild took place in the same ambience.

Essentially not a violent film, but at least a suspenseful film, this one is worth catching.

2013, Adventure, Airline pilot, Amputee, Could Be Hard To Watch, Creepy, Disturbing Image, DO NOT MISS, Frenetic, Grim, Mayhem, Medical Theme, Military, Occasional gore, Optimistic, Suicide, Suspense, Violent, Zombies

World War Z (2013)

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From Netflix:

A U.N. employee races against time and fate as he travels the world trying to stop the spread of a deadly zombie pandemic. As the undead hordes gain strength across the globe, governments topple and Earth stands on the brink of total social collapse.

If you are not eager to see virus-crazed “zombies” infecting other humans by biting, crowds of panicky people running to nowhere, bodies flying through the air, exploding airplanes, and very tense escape sequences, then DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!

On the other hand I love suspense and the various episodes in this fright-fare are indeed some of the scariest I have seen in a long while. In fact the tension mounts throughout the film. Probably the most nerve-wracking sequence has Brad Pitt at the W.H.O headquarters in Wales trying to get to some needed stored virus while avoiding the already infected “zombies” at W.H.O. Of course you understand (we learn this early in the film) that noise is what sets these critters in motion.

As far as endings go, the authors found an excellent way to finish the story.

You have been duly warned. However, in the category of well-plotted, not silly, visually and emotionally explosive scare-mares, DO NOT MISS!

2013, Acceptable for children, Acceptable Trash, Action Film, Corny, Frenetic, Nothing special, Orchestral Music, Sci-Fi, Violent

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

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From Netflix:

This sequel returns much of the cast from the Star Trek feature released in 2009, breathing new life into the seemingly ageless space franchise. Led by the intrepid Captain Kirk, the Enterprise crew still includes Scotty, Spock and Chekov as well.

If you are a fourteen year old male or have left in your psyche enough adolescence, then you might enjoy this nothing-special sequel to a sequel to a ….

As far as digital effects go, the eye-candy is just fine. If you don’t mind an incredibly over-sentimental (in fact, downright sloppy) script, then jump right in. Maybe you will watch out of sheer perverse loyalty.

2012, Basically Sad, Chase film, Clever Plot, Crime, Crude Talk, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Motorcycles, Police Corruption, Police Story, Talking Heads, Violent

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

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From Netflix:

Luke is a professional motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, but when he crosses paths with a rookie police officer, their violent confrontation spirals into a tense generational feud.

By this time (2012) in their lives 32 year old Ryan Gosling and 37 year old Bradley Cooper may well be in their young adult film prime. Each already has a long list of credits. Of the two, Gosling can better play more eccentric roles as he does here in this film, although he belongs to that school of acting which promotes the idea “The less you say the better, let the audience think the thoughts that you should be having in this particular scene”. Call it the silent meditation school of acting. Cooper is a more direct actor. In a certain sense the acting style is often a natural and very real “talking heads”, but the story line is so good that it all works together.

Good writing and plotting has produced a story with two parts: Part One portrays the events that affect the lives of the characters in Part Two, fifteen years later. Without giving much away (plot is paramount in this film), Gosling and Cooper are crook and cop, each with a son Jason and AJ respectively. Interaction between the fathers early in their lives has strong repercussions later in the lives of the sons. Dane DeHaan (as Jason) and Emory Cohen (as AJ) did fine jobs as lost teenagers.

All that I feel that I must tell you is: Do not expect a happy ending. Century 21 is the century of unresolved conflicts.

2013, Action Film, Conspiracy, Crude Talk, Frenetic, Mayhem, Military, North Korea, Suspense, Terrorist Attack, Thriller, Violent

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

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From Netflix:

Director Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent who must come to the rescue when Korean terrorists descend on the White House and take the president hostage.

Are we seeing a competition among movie makers to create more and more violent mayhem on screen? But so what! This particular film kills just about every U.S. employee possible, destroys the White House, lots of automobiles, and at least 5 helicopters. Despite what seems like the usual number of explosions this is a well-made, exciting, could-it-ever-happen action film just made for an alpha-male actor such as Gerard Butler.

If we ever look back to this film review, let’s note that it is the year 2013 and since every such film needs a villain, this year’s choice seems to be North Korea. Do you think the starving people in North Korea will ever be offended by this film?

From Google I found references to Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards hell. Who knows if we could really detonate all our underground missiles at once while they are still in the ground?

Perhaps I am an action-film junkie, but I could not stop watching.

1990, Anti-Semitism, Based on true facts, Could Be Hard To Watch, DO NOT MISS, Gay theme, German, Human spirit, Jewish Culture, Military, Nudity, Polish, Revenge, Russian, Sex Scenes, True Story, Violent, War, WWII

Europa Europa (1990)

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From Wikipedia:

Europa Europa is a 1990 film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. “Hitler Youth Salomon”. It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped the Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but as an elite “Aryan” German. The film stars Marco Hofschneider and Julie Delpy; Perel appears briefly as himself in the finale. The film is an international co-production between CCC Film and companies in France and Poland.

Hopefully you will watch both this 2 hour film and also the 3 hour film Sunshine.
Whereas “Sunshine” is an epic showing the history of Hungarian Jews during several epochs, “Europa Europa” is a true story about one Jewish teenager’s survival in the confusing changes in political alignment in Germany, Poland, and Russia between Hitler and Stalin.

WARNING: Once again (as in “Sunshine”) there will be some ugly scenes. Once such scene shows what it was like in the Jewish ghetto during WWII when the Germans either starved the Jews, or killed them outright, or sent them to concentration camps.

If this were not an autobiography I would label it as fantasy or magic realism or some such departure from reality. Yupp, the teenager, had literally unbelievable good luck. However, he survived partly because in all his reincarnations he learned to speak not only German but also Polish and Russian. Of course, he was also very resourceful. Moreover, when faced with a moral choice, he chose survival.

Watching the indoctrination of the Nazi Youth into a violent anti-Semitism was a revelation.

Despite the story’s best efforts, I will personally never believe that the German people did not know what was happening to the Jews.

Coupled with “Sunshine” I would call this film a DO NOT MISS!

2013, Clever Plot, Creepy, Dark, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, Erotic Thriller, Flirting, Mental Illness, Mystery Film, Plot Twist, Psychological Thriller, Rape, Suspense, Unusual, Violent

Stoker (2013)

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From Netflix:

An impressionable teenager grieving for her late father lives with her unstable mother and is bewitched by her enigmatic uncle, who has mysterious motives for his sudden appearance in her life.

“Creepy” is the first adjective that comes to mind. “Stoker” is not a horror film. Rather it is a psychological, suspense-filled, well-written story with unexpected plot and character twists. In addition it is somewhat of a mystery story that asks “Just who is this suddenly appearing uncle?” At each step you think you know what will happen, but you are probably wrong.

Does Nicole Kidman get more beautiful each day? Matthew Goode, the British actor who played Charles Ryder in the 2008 production of “Brideshead Revisited”, is the perfectly cunning psychopath. Mia Wasikowska, the Australian actress who played Jane Eyre in the 2011 production of “Jane Eyre”, steals the show as an enigmatic and unpredictably strange teenager.

You will stay glued to your seat during this frighteningly possible sequence of events.