Movies and TV

I’m a huge film and TV buff, so I figured why not share some of my favorite cinema? Here I will be posting the occasional interesting trailer, film review or general ranting about the latest episode of my newest television obsession.
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Let The Summer Movie Season Commence!

Iron Man looks like its gearing up to be the next great comic book movie. Now let’s just hope the movie is as fantastic as this trailer.

Oh, and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is just brilliant.

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Don’t You Disappoint Me Indy…

I’ve been waiting for this movie for a long time, and this trailer is giving me hope that the new Indiana Jones movie won’t be the train wreck many fear it might be.

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Hostel and Home Alone 2

Home Alone 2

Hostel

As I sat watching Home Alone 2 on HBO Family today I had an epiphany, Home Alone 2 was 92’s version of Hostel. Then it occurred to me, when did we relegate obscene violence from the world of children’s cinema to the world of adult cinema? When did violence stop being about making us laugh, and start being about disturbing us? Don’t get me wrong, I understand that violence has always permeated theatre, but never before has it been so crude, popular and prevalent.

It wasn’t that long ago that violence told a story, was used as a tool in film rather than becoming the primary focus. When you actually felt something other than disturbed when some one was brutally beaten, burned, stabbed etc. on screen. Remember what it was like in American History X, watching Derek Vinyard curb stomping someone? That was possibly one of the most gruesome moments in film, but it wasn’t just because of dark creepy surroundings, cliche horror film shots and gallons of blood. It was gruesome not only because it was terribly violent, but because we could feel the hate behind the violence, that made it even more gruesome then any special effects could. Not only is it gruesome, but it actually serves to tell a story, it changed radically the way you felt about Derek Vinyard, and then the movie challenged you again by redeeming him. Hostel and cohorts (The other Hostel movies, The Hills Have Eyes, Saw*, Touristas) exist simply to dwell on violence for violence’s sake, simply to evoke the strongest feelings possible, fear, hate, disgust and hopelessness. And, I have to give it to them that they do a superb job of evoking all those emotions.

The real questions is, why would anyone want to pay eight bucks to watch hours of soul sucking pain? And clearly many many people do, otherwise there wouldn’t be sequels to all of these movies, and copy cats popping up every other month. So whats happened? Back to my original question; when did we stop using violence because it’s blunt crudeness makes us laugh and start using it because it’s dark implications can horrify us? What’s happening in our lives and world today that makes us gravitate towards pain and suffering, instead of hope and laughter?

*I admit that Saw (the first one, the others sucked) had some cinematic merit for it’s story and even message to a degree, but in the end, why did millions go see it? Not because of it’s deep story telling or interesting message, but because there was going to be blood and guts, and it promised to disturb it’s viewers.