Category Archives: Violent

2011, Based on true facts, Disturbing Image, Drugs, Dysfunctional Lives, Military, Redemption, Religious Theme, Sadism, Suspense, True Story, Violent, War

Machine Gun Preacher (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Gerard Butler stars in this true-life story of Sam Childers, a drug dealer who turns his life around to become a spiritual warrior. His mission? Rescuing child soldiers in the Sudan from lives ruined by their forced participation in bloody conflict.

Before starting to watch this film I expected to watch part and then stop because Gerard Butler is not the star of the drama world. However, in portraying the real-life and still very active Sam Childers, Gerard Butler found for himself his perfect role. Granted the macho war scenes might be over the top Hollywood or (given the horrors inflicted on Ugandan and Sudan by the psychotic monster Joseph Kony who is at the present being hunted by UN forces) might just be what must really happen to protect the children. Butler convincingly lets his work bring him to a boiling cauldron of angry hate that nearly destroys his church, business, and family. His subsequent return to a more balanced approach to his even now continuing work is cleverly connected with the very first scene of the film (but no spoiler in this review!).

One other actor that you might recognize is Michael Shannon who plays Childers’ best friend Donnie. Shannon did an outstanding job in the film Take Shelter (2011).

Be sure to watch the closing credits because a side bar shows many photos of the real Sam Childers, his family, and his work in South Sudan.

Could Be Hard To Watch, Could Be Sad, Crime, Crude Talk, Disturbing Image, DO NOT MISS, Drugs, Explicit sexual discussion, French, Gangs, Gay theme, Grim, Limburgish, Nudity, Police Story, Psychological Drama, Race Relations, Revenge, Unusual, Violent

Bullhead (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Tortured by his past and despairing of his stultifying present life, Belgian cattle farmer Jacky becomes entangled in a violent web of deceit involving local mobsters and determined policemen after he uses illegal growth hormones on his herd.

Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts is the perfect choice to play the sadly damaged character Jacky Vanmarsenille in this film spoken in Limburgish and French. His facial expressions capture Jacky’s shame, longing, loneliness, shyness, and rage. To say why he feels these emotions would be a major spoiler. Through a series of flashbacks you learn his past history. Expect some very violent scenes.

Although you may find all the crime details confusing, they really are not very original or important. Jacky is important along with those characters associated with his tragic life.

Much of the violence stems from traditional racial hatreds between the many distinct communities, each with its own language.

Bullhead was on the 2012 list of Best Foreign Language Film of the Year.

In retrospect, the ending chosen for the story is quite probably the only possible conclusion.

If you can accept the sadness, violence, and somewhat brutish characters,

DO NOT MISS THIS FILM!

2012, Crime, Detective, Frenetic, Police Story, Suspense, Violent

Man on a Ledge (2012)

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From NetFlix:

When fugitive ex-cop Nick Cassidy steps onto a window ledge high above a busy Manhattan street, police psychologist Lydia Anderson tries to talk him down. But soon Anderson suspects that there’s more to Cassidy’s stunt than meets the eye.

Despite the fact that many of the action shots are impossible, this raucous sequence of one stunt after another is just fun. Impossible you say? For one example, how can our hero (Sam Worthington who played the lead in “Avatar”) stand for hours on a ledge and then climb by his finger tips from one floor to the roof? How can our hungry hero leap from ledge to ledge? How did our hero manage in prison to plan an incredibly detailed heist?

Along the way we meet

  • Jamie Bell (who was “Billy Elliot”) as our hero’s brother
  • Edward Burns (“The Lynch Pin”) as one of the very few honest cops in the film
  • Titus Welliver (Glen Childs of “The Good Wife”) as a bent cop
  • Elizabeth Banks (Avery Jessup of “30 Rock”) costars as another honest cop
  • Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) as a reporter
  • Ed Harris (huge number of films) as the villain

Just suspend disbelief and enjoy the fun.

2011, Clever Plot, Crime, Detective, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Dysfunctional Lives, FBI, Grim, Murder Investigation, Mystery Film, Politicians, TV Series, Violent, Wonderful acting

The Killing (2011)

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From Net Flix:

The disappearance of a young Seattle girl sets in motion this moody crime series centering on a detective — Sarah Linden — who’s trying to start a new life in California but is unable to walk away from the mysteries posed by the complex case.

Three years after I first wrote this review (2014), Kathy and I have just finished streaming all 26 episodes of season one plus season two (no, not in one sitting). You must see both seasons to see the entire Rosie Larsen story. Amazon Prime offers four seasons for free. You can also use your Roku to search for all streaming sources for any given film, series, or whatever. There is more than one streaming source for “The Killing”.

This TV series from 2011 is well-written, well-acted, and immensely engaging. How, you might ask, can you spend two TV years investigating just one murder? As soon as you start the series you will understand how the plot intertwines many connected and well-constructed threads.

Rosie Larsen is found drowned in a sunken car. Finding her killer involves her family, her teachers, her friends, two starring detectives, and, possibly most interesting of all, an politician running for the office of Seattle’s mayor against a corrupt incumbent. Searching for that murder brings sorrow, family dysfunction, violence, false leads, FBI involvement, unjustified persecution, and the list goes on.

At times the series seemed to drag. An awful lot of time was spent watching the Larsen family suffer the effects of the murder. Just as much time was spent watching the detective Sarah get so involved with the case that she as a single mother does NOT do a good job raising her son. Thank goodness she has the support of her partner detective Holder.

Many surprises are in store, especially in the last episode. It is perhaps realistic and to the writer’s credit that some of the bad guys get away with their skullduggery.

Watching this series from week to week would have been sheer torture. Thank goodness the NetFlix discs let us watch episode after episode without foolish interruptions such as food, sleep, etc.

DO NOT MISS!

2011, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crude Talk, Drama, Gloomy, Mayhem, Medical Theme, Psychological Drama, Sex Scenes, Unusual, Violent

Perfect Sense (2011)

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From NetFlix:

After sparks fly between a newly single epidemiologist and a charming chef, a puzzling patient — a truck driver who’s lost his ability to smell — drastically alters the couple’s budding relationship in this sci-fi thriller.

To call this science fiction is entirely misleading. Basically it is a meditation on the importance of our senses and a “what if” assuming we lose those senses one by one.

Humanity without exception experiences an epidemic in which each person goes through a series of sense loses and negative emotions. Central to this story is the experience of a woman epdemiologist Eva Green and a chef Ewan McGregor as they go through these stages. Our hope is that they can withstand all these personal disasters and still succeed as a loving pair. I cannot give away the ending, but getting to that end could be somewhat harrowing.

Not for everyone, but a very original film.

2012, Acceptable Trash, B-movie, Car Chase, Crude Talk, Explicit sexual discussion, Gangs, Mediocre, Optimistic, Sex Scenes, Violent

This Means War (2012)

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From NetFlix:

Each determined to win the heart of a sexy blonde bombshell, two best friends and CIA spies turn their secret-agent skills against each other, heedless of the ever-widening trail of wreckage and collateral damage they leave in their wake.

“Acceptable Chick Flick Trash” fairly well summarizes this B-film. As you might expect you will encounter crude language, much talk about penises, flirting, sex scenes, etc. What you might not expect are all the CIA action sequences with lots of shooting. Except for the final action sequence that actually involves Reese Witherspoon, the other action sequences seem almost pointless.

Chris Pine you know as Will from “Unstoppable”. Tom Hardy is more of a newcomer to film. He was one of the fighting brothers in “Warrior”.

Having prepared you for the worst, you are now free to sit back and just enjoy the trash.

I LOVE TRASH!

2011, Based on true facts, German, Grim, Jewish Culture, Nudity, Polish, Sex Scenes, True Story, Violent, War

In Darknes (2011)

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From NetFlix:

As Nazis overrun Warsaw, many of the city’s Jews hide out in sewers, where they encounter Leopold, an anti-Semitic sanitation worker. His prejudice reflects the rift between Poland’s Jews and Catholics in this film inspired by true events.

This true story of a Polish Christian man who protected a group of Polish Jews hiding in the sewers to escape the German massacre of Polish Jews is not easy to watch. Be sure to read the final explanatory screen shots which tell what happened in real life to the characters in the film.

Sometimes the day to day details of grubby survival seemed a bit tedious. But the intent is to show that under stress we can accommodate and life goes on.

Also evident was the extreme prejudice of Polish Catholics towards Jews. At several times a Catholic Pole is surprised to learn that Jesus was a Jew.

At one harrowing point in the film, just above a group of Jews in the sewer is a Catholic church in which children are receiving their first holy communion. At that point a heavy rain starts such that the sewers begin to fill and threaten the Jews with drowning.

To encourage you to watch a somewhat grim film, I promise you a happy ending for the Jews in hiding (thanks to the Germans evacuating to escape the Russians).

2011, Could Be Hard To Watch, Dark, Disturbing Image, Grim, Horror, Mental Illness, Occasional gore, Sex Scenes, Violent

We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Eva’s relationship with her son, Kevin, has been difficult from the beginning. When the 15-year-old boy’s cruel streak erupts into violence, Eva wonders how much blame she deserves for his actions.

If your child delights in killing small animals and blinding his sister in one eye, you might think of taking drastic measures. Why these two parental idiots did not report their budding psychopath to the proper authorities is beyond me. In fact, I don’t know what they could have done. Can you say to some helpful member of law enforcement “Our son is a dangerous sociopath, could you suggest something ?”

Tilda Swinton stretches believability. She suffers almost in silence the outrageous behavior of her son Crazy Kevin for all of his 16 years. John C. Reilly plays a doting father who somehow never sees the psychosis in darling Kevin. Get real!

Motivation for this film was probably the fact that there are indeed disturbed (am I being too harsh ?) teenagers that enjoy shooting as many of their classmates as they can manage in one exhilarating afternoon. What in fact was going on in those families ?

Hats off to Ezra Miller who plays the monster as a teenager. It doesn’t get any creepier.

But then, don’t you have something better to do with your time?

2011, Based on true facts, Could Be Hard To Watch, Disturbing Image, Explicit sex, Grim, Love Story, Military, Not Feel Good, Nudity, Rape, Revenge, Sadism, Torture, Violent, War, Wonderful acting

In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Danijel, a Bosnian Serb soldier serving under his father’s command, reunites with Ajla, a Bosnian Muslim woman he was involved with before the war, when she is captured by his camp and forced to work as a sex slave.

Most wars are not one-sided. Of course, there are exceptions: the Nazi Holocaust was one-sided. Behind the Serbian slaughter of the Bosnians are many years of conflicts and offenses on both sides. History is not the point here, but rather the review of a film.

Angelina Jolie has done a marvelous job creating an engrossing view of the war as seen from the side of the Serb killers while maintaining a clever ambivalence in the experience of Danijel. Danijel’s relation with his fanatic warrior father and Ajla, his Muslim lover, make for a difficult contrast. He is so torn between both loyalties that he finds himself trapped in personal conflict.

You are hereby warned that this is, to say the least, a difficult film to watch. If you are the slightest bit squeamish, DO NOT SEE THIS FILM! You will encounter nudity, many rapes (one of the principle Serbian weapons), and Serbian sadism.

For this film to have a satisfying end would be impossible.

2011, Bullying, Crime, Detective, Dysfunctional Lives, Police Story, Sex Scenes, Violent

Rampart (2011)

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From NetFlix:

Dave Brown is a dirty cop with a mile-wide mean streak. As he roams the streets meting out “justice,” the LAPD sinks into a corruption scandal. The countdown to Brown’s judgment is on in this fact-based film co-written by crime novelist James Ellroy.

Have you ever known someone who is “never wrong”? Let me introduce you to Dave Brown (known affectionately as “date rape”). Each day of Dave’s life he sinks just a bit lower into bullying, corruption, murder, etc. Whenever the LAPD tries to restrain him and avoid scandal, he can deliver the most inventive self-justifying excuses you have ever heard. His twisted eloquence is actually entertaining. Unfortunately he more or less believes what he says. His usual inquisitor is Sigourney Weaver with whom I usually associate “aliens” (but in this case the “alien” is our friend Dave).

Woody Harrelson’s performance is excellent. But is it really entertaining to watch a defiantly corrupt man’s life go down the toilet ?