A History of Violence

If you're a fan of blood and sex, you definitely won't want to miss this movie (and who isn't a fan of either of these things, especially sex, got to love sex). It's horribly violent in a down to earth sort of way and has a few of the more bawdy, maybe even debauched, sex scenes I've seen in a while. Really, the first went on until it became almost comical. You know how most sex scenes in movies these days start with some kissing and groping but then do some lame fade out before it gets interesting? See, what they like to do is skirt the issue and not show you the good stuff, leaving it to your imagination to put the actresses in wanton positions (this is fine really because I can think up all sorts of lecherous things for them to do in my mind, but it's still nice to see it once and a while). Anyway, this one kept going after the kissing point, and let me tell you, it got very interesting. Legs were spread, arms put in funny places, heads put between spread legs, kissing going on in obscene areas, and... well, you get the idea. You get to see Maria Bello full frontal too. Oh joy.

The only thing better than the lewd parts were the bloody parts. Some of it was outright nasty but not in the tawdry horror movie type of way. It was gory in a very graphic, lifelike way, and I think that's why it was kind of disturbing. It didn't try to be overly gruesome for effect, it simply tried to attain the highest degree of realism; at least that's the impression I got. I've never actually seen anyone get shot in the head before so I don't know for sure, but I have seen those messed up Faces of Death type things and it reminded me of that. The gore in the movie just came off as brutally realistic to me. The sex scenes were the same way; they appear very believable (I REALLY wish I had some experience here to compare it to but sadly I do not).

Blood and sex, now only if they could mix the two...

Oh, and the story was good too. The writing was a little flimsy in spots, especially the beginning which suffered from some truly terrible lines being said, but the script had plenty of good moments to counteract it. The turn of events were quite exciting and it built up to a great climax with a very good ending that had lots of possibilities so you couldn't nail it down before hand.

I wouldn't recommend this one to everyone, especially if you're the Gone with the Wind, sappy ass, Chocolate, listen to Steeley Dan, drive a VW Beetle, pogo stick hoping, tofu eating, weight watching, natural fibers, wimp. If you don't do any of those things though you'll probably like it. Hell, even if you do some of those things you might like it. Basically, if you're a promoter of total and utter awesomeness, then check this one out.

Matt DeVall official rating: B+