Reviews by OsamaExKing

A history of violence is the movie where i learned that one and a half hour movie can be painfully long, i was so pumped and existed to see it, because i just watched 'Eastern Promises' and i thought it was very good, and this movie had the same director and the same Viggo Mortensen, but they weren't actually the same, the movie was very, very slow, and i hoped that it would be at least stylist while slow, not slow for the sake of being slow, but i was wrong, it kept going like this making the movie impossible to watch.

With all this critical acclaim and the recommendations, i hoped to see one good quality about this movie, but i couldn't, the performances were absolutely terrible, the characters were unexplained, the story was weak, and what kinda name is Joey? when he was a bad-ass his name was Joey? seriously? isn't the name should be representing the character, even the family relationship wasn't real, it was really awkward, why would a teenage boy kiss his mother and say goodbye everyday? is this a 'perfect family', and it just didn't work, Viggo Mortensen performance wasn't deep enough so i can absorb the fact that he used to be a killer and now he retired and became a caring family man, i loved him in 'Eastern Promises', he looked criminal and each line he delivered was filled with so much darkness making the character very interesting, but here, his performance was very shallow and out of place.

Even more awkward was the sex scene on the stairs, was that like releasing the tension kinda thing? because it just made me feel more and more awkward, and i'm not against nudity in films, but nudity should be implied for a reason, but that's not the case with this movie, giving the fact that the wife (Maria Bello) came out of the bathroom fully naked and went to bed, i was literally like WTF was that, why the director was trying to force nudity in this movie? was that his way in outlining the R rating?

The story wasn't good, you can see it coming from a mile away, which not always a bad case but combined with such atmosphere, it looked bad, and what's worse was William Hurt performance, the character was so cliche, the only way that it can be more cliche if the guy had a writing on his forehead saying 'i'm this movie's bad guy', even worse that he was nominated for an academy award for his role.

Overall, it was bad, slow, and not interesting nor entertaining at all, which leads the final conclusion ------ extremely overrated.

Easily one of my all time favorite comedies, mainly because it took the whole genre of comedy into the next level, the comedy genre which was seen as slapstick, sometimes cheesy, naive and stupid, have now been changed, the Coen brothers proved, that it can be more than clever script and good performances, it can be hilarious music videos, good story and characters.

Although i didn't like the part where Sam Elliott narrates the story, but as the movie progress, you forget it and starts looking into the life of the dude, where Jeff Bridges deliver the performance of a life time, a guy who plays bowling, have no job or responsibilities and drinks himself to sleep every day have never sounds so interesting before, along side that are his friends, played by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, where every scenes with those three are comedy golds, i was amazed by the characters, the funny lines, the timing and most importantly, the relationship between them, it was pure magic, i can see each scene 10 times and i wouldn't get bored, in fact, i would notice something new every-time, because with each line delivered by one of those three, you can see so much impressions, it's like those guys have known each-others for years.

The writing was very clever, and had so many references that you don't expect to see in comedy movies, mainly because comedy directors want a large demographic for their movies, so they don't jump into unknown territories, but this movie baldly talks about Pacifism, Nihilistism, Nazis and off course, the "camel fucker" Saddam Hussein, and the movie proudly kick those things in the context, showing you that those people might be broke, irresponsible and lazy but they have knowledge about things, specially John Goodman character who served time in Vietnam and now he likes to connect everything that happens to politics and nam and it's hilarious.

When the dude gets high, he goes into a happy place, a hilarious original music video, with visuals and a mix of real and fiction and it's one of most creative things about this movie, where it pump you up with a positive energy and make you feel so happy, and the movie is extremely quotable, although the script was clever, it still simple and get repeated enough times that you start to memorize it.

John Goodman performance here is something i never have seen before, he's the exact opposite of the dude, which made it a blast to watch, and Philip Seymour Hoffman performance was fantastic (as usual), Julianne Moore was surprisingly annoying, i mean she had a weird accent, i don't know why, and the movie had so much characters, even a cameo of an actor presented itself extremely well, i don't think that any of the actors was there to fill a spot, everyone made me laugh, that's why it's a good comedy, it centers around three guys but everyone was hilarious.

Overall, it's a pure comedy from start to finish, and what all comedies should be, story, characters, writing, dialog and most of all performances, because whoever said that good performances only in drama clearly never watched this movie.

Let's start with M. Night Shyamalan, i think that some of his movies are on, and some are of, he created a masterpiece and he fall down since that, the quality is getting worse and worse with each movie, but i think the happening is the place where all started.

The story, was dull, and had no imaginative, in fact it was very stupid, which leads me to the first question, at what point did Shyamalan think that his story is going to work? because such a story wouldn't cross the line of being boring even if it was executed by martin scorsese, never in my life that i actually watched a story and felt insulted by it, it was like Shyamalan was deliberately trying to make the audience feel stupid and he succeeded.

Now, the performances, to be fair, Mark Wahlberg was trying, but with such script, it's just too painful, i mean watching him squeeze his face to 'feel the moment' or 'make an appropriate face impression' was so painful, i decided to stare at the wall while he do that, and then comes Zooey Deschanel, who made a career being beautiful, but below that pretty face, comes nothing, no talent at all, i was insulted by her performance, which took the movie into a new level of suck-ness and John Leguizamo didn't help, he just took that level of suckness and maintained it.

Shyamalan did try to present an atmosphere, but it didn't work at all, the story was off, so it don't really matter what he does, it wouldn't work either way, instead, everything felt forced, like when he try to thrill you, it made it awkward, and when he tried to scare you, it made it even more awkward, and when he tried to make you laugh, i was already bored and out of my mind, which leads me to the 2nd question, at what point did Shyamalan thinks that it would be a great horror being the villains are trees?, and did he try to deliver a 'message' with this story?, it's like 'the trees will fight back against human treatment of nature' or something, which is like the new level of stupidity that haven't achieved before this movie.

Overall, it's just a bad movie, and it's not even 'bad that it's good' kinda thing, it was bad that it's insulting, because at that level of stupidity, you can't feel entertained, watching too many people scared of something that isn't scary was painful to watch, this movie wouldn't survive even if i watched it with 10 drunken friends, THAT'S how bad this movie is.

I remember having this movie for along time but never watched it, nobody recommended it for me, i just decided to watch it because it's less than 90 minutes and i wanted something not too serious to kick an afternoon.

I had a good time watching it, but it's no something special, it's a black comedy but wasn't that amusing, i mean some scenes where entertaining and some weren't, in fact some characters were very annoying, like Gin (played by Bernie Mac), he's so not funny, and i didn't like him as long as i remember, but in other movies, he always featured in short, unimportant scenes, but here, he had too much screen time, along side with him was Lois (played by Lauren Tom), i don't know her but i felt poisoned by her "performance", she was shockingly annoying, and she had so script, she was there to fill a spot, imagine what would it be if she said something.

It's tells the story of an alcoholic old guy (played by Billy Bob Thornton), who works as Santa for a week or two before the Christmas until, the holiday when he robs the mall with his buddy Marcus (played by Tony Cox), the chemistry between the two were fantastic, i had a great time watching them, and there were few cuss scenes that were hilarious, and i loved Brett Kelly, a fat kid in which Santa lives in his house, and he was really funny.

The story wasn't that great, it was very average, like i said before, it's a great way to kick an afternoon, but that is all, Billy Bob Thornton performance was great, the story kinda takes a touching turn as Santa starts caring for the kid and looking after him, but i don't, something wasn't right about the film, so i didn't enjoy it all, and some annoying characters have killed it for me.

An extremely underrated comedy movie for obvious reasons, Jack black in a leading role tells us pretty much everything we need to know, he haven't been in a decent movie since forever, but this movie proves that you shouldn't judge jack black by his previous work, because his performance in this movie is something you haven't seen before.

Based on true events, it's tells the story of Bernie, a very nice guy from small town in Texas who works as mortician, he's very social and he loves his town and he helps people and everybody love him, the movie looks like a Docudrama because as you follow Bernie along, there are too many people living in that town being interviewed, but those people are actors, so it's not a Docudrama, it's a full length movie.
The movie is very nice and kinda slow at first just showing you the life of Bernie as you go through it everyday, you kinda forget that it's based on true story and you keep watching Bernie closely as he's a very interesting and charismatic guy, he always compliment people and he's very caring and always have a smile on his face and he loves his community, but then he meets this old women who just became a window so he start helping her and things evolve into a kinda weird relationship, and the women starts abusing him, she's very self-involved and she's hated by everyone in the town, and she deals with him as her's, she starts to force him to do stuff for her, and because she's very possessive, and he's very nice, the abuse continue, until it reach a boiling point and he shoots her in the back four time and then he hides her body in the fridge for 9 months and starts spending her money (she's very rich) to help people.

For the first hour of the movie before the murder, you have no idea where the movie is going, but you don't care because you're completely amused by Jack black performance and by the overall atmosphere of the movie, it was based in a small town, so as the movie interview people, you get to see what people thinks of him, some people thinks he's gay, some people thinks he's into old women and it's very funny, it's just a very well written black comedy, and then it gets even better the second hour when everybody in the town have learned about the murder, but somehow they don't believe it, and they still think that because he was nice and she was awful, he should be freed, and it's really is the truth stranger than fiction, because you get to see people defending a murderer, just because they hate the old women, and it get so bad, that the chief of the town actually had to remove his court to another town because he thought the jury will decide that he's Innocent just because they like him.

In most cases, this movie was bashed or overlooked, because people think it's rude or insensitive to make a comedy movie about an actual murder, but to me, i don't see how the movie couldn've actually worked if it weren't a comedy, and what made it work was the incredible performance by Jack Black and the very well written story, so if you into black comedy, then this is a pure gold.

This movie is a cult for a reason, if you read the title, the primes, even the cast, you'd think that it isn't interesting at all, while in reality, the movie is 89 minutes of pure comedy, it had all the ingredients of a comedy, funny writing, variety of characters, naivety and hilarious one liners, furthermore, it's takes a story about a boring, mundane job and makes it really interesting.

The movie writing was the key, because it take a place where everybody can relate to it, and each characters was written so well, that it had so many aspects, even the character that makes a small cameo presented itself very well, and it gets even better when you watch it again.

Overall, i think the best thing about it was it's simplicity, and i have to give credit for Mike Judge for turning such simple characters, simple story and simple atmosphere into a funny movie.

One thing i should mention was Samir Nagheenanajar, although he was funny and had a funny last name, but why would you cast an Indian to play a middle eastern, there's a big difference between the two races, i mean it may not be very noticeable but still a minor mistake (a misdemeanor) but he was funny nonetheless.

It's very hard to review this because, there's too many parties involved, so let's start with why this doc was bashed by Wikileaks supporters:
Prior to the official release of this doc, wikileaks website published a statement bashing the documentary title, the title "We Steal Secrets" isn't directed to wikileaks, it's a direct statement made by former CIA/NSA director Michael Hayden in relation to the activities of US government spies, so you can't get that until you watch the documentary, but even after watching the documentary, the title still misleading, because it's a quote from a former CIA/NSA director followed by "the story of wikileaks", which implies that wikileaks steal secrets, so the title is whoring for attention, pretty much like what tabloids are doing and that's flaw no.1.

Flaw no.2 is a major portion being that the director Alex Gibney, never interviewed Julian Assange, so how can you conduct an entire documentary about a person without that person having a say in this, you can't relay on stock footage and allegations and rumors to discredit a person, you have to interview him to get the truth, and people are saying that "in his defense, he did try to interview Assange, but Assange wanted a million dollars for the interview", well, i'm gonna go out of the limb here and say that this whole documentary shouldn't exist if the director couldn't interview Assange, the director should have gathered information, did the research and then interviewed Assange, and THEN make the documentary, instead, the director tried to get that interview right before the documentary ended.

Many shocking things about this documentary that i can't mention all, but what bothered me the most was the fact that after the sexual assault allegations against Assange, one of the quote from an interview was that Assange was intentionally trying to make children with every girl he sleeps with, and that's basically his ideology of applying what he thinks in the digital world to what he thinks in real life, THAT'S completely ridiculous, offensive and stupid, also they bashed on him so much, trying to show him as an insecure and paranoid person, and the documentary officially stated at the end that Wikileaks is dead and the same person who created the website have now destroyed it, when in reality, a simple research into Wikipedia will show you that wikileaks released 5 millions phone calls and other information on the torture of detainees in Guantanamo prison, so wikileaks isn't dead at all.

To me, this whole professional editing and soundtracks doesn't cover the fact that this whole documentary is completely manipulative and wrong on so many levels, and even if it wasn't then you can't make a documentary about a person without that person official statement, (unless he's dead), Ironically, this documentary made fun of media outlets being manipulative and then followed along the same track.

Easily one of the most boring movies i have ever encountered, it was literally like torture, i wasn't able to look at my computer screen for an entire hour, but i had to force myself into it so that i can review it, but i already regret doing that, because writing this makes me bored.

It's a story about a drunk lonely middle-aged man played by Nicloas cage, which isn't really a problem cause he fit into that role very well, and i don't know if i'm complimenting him or offending him with that, but i never respected Nicloas cage as an actor, but i felt ok about this role, i mean i wasn't impressed or anything like what people are saying but the casting was the best thing about this movie.

The story is really, really boring, Ben Sanderson (played by cage) loses his job, and his wife divorce him, so he decide to move to las vegas and drink himself to death, that's his entire plan, he's an alcoholic who can't even have a normal conversation without drinking, he meets a hooker in las vegas, and they start an awkward relationship, and it's all depend on whether or not you can relate to him, because if you didn't (like me) you'd be bored and out of your mind the entire time, because nothing can help you in making the movie interesting, the dialog was corny, the story is really slow, and nothing happens the entire time, but if you can relate to it, then you might have a good time.

But i don't see how anyone can relate to such a character, specially when there isn't anything in the movie that explain nick cage behavior, i mean he was drunk and borrowing money from friends from the very beginning of the movie, so you have no background as why is this happening, and then comes the hooker (Sera) who just want a meaningless relationship with a dude for no obvious reason, so if you think that you will relate to her, you can't, because there wasn't a proper introduction to that character, even weirder that she had a friend that used to sexually abuse her and she stayed with him for along time, so whatever people saw in this movie, i failed to see, and i was about to shut it down but i didn't because i wanted to write this.

It's been a while since i had this movie, and i knew what it's about, so i was waiting for the right time to watch it, or the right mood, because i want to feel it and appreciate it, which what people should do before watching it, they have to come with the right mentality.

Mainly because it's more an experience than an actual movie, i mean you don't finish it and learn something or have a story to tell, no, you watch it and feel it and that's it, you may learn something, depending on the way you see things, but to me, it's more like a feeling than an actual story.
The most amazing thing was the atmosphere, from the very beginning, you can see that the movie looks very modern, it was mostly filmed in Shanghai - China and LA, and it worked very well, because the concept of the movie was about technology and artificial intelligence and how technology can effect people, you can actually see people in the streets walking alone and/or talking to their phones, along side with that was the beautiful music and the stylist camera work that made every frame looks amazing, it's a very unique look at people, it made everyone look beautiful, and there was a great amount of details about people clothing, although it wasn't fit for everybody, some people looked very awkward with these types of clothes but it was an impressive work nonetheless.

The casting was very good, Joaquin Phoenix delivered a performance filled with emotions, Scarlett Johansson was charming and had a unique voice that made it work perfectly, the movie did made me laugh, specially that video game character played by Spike Jonze was hilarious, but mostly it was a private viewing, and in a movie like this, you can see reviews that are very different and far from eachother, because it wasn't a performance that we all can agree about it being good or bad, instead it was a feeling, so what comes down to it is just matter of opinions, and even the enjoyability may vary, frankly i didn't feel it all, some scenes were off to me, like the sexual surrogate scene, made me really confused or the phone sex scene, but overall it was a masterful work and deserve a look.

The ending was predictable, because you don't expect a relationship like this to work for ever, but it was very surprising at the same time, i mean you don't expect a software designed by a corporate to leave you and go to make a relationship with an AI, i honestly was expecting Her to tell him that she's inlove with all the people she talks to because that would be her way to make people attached to her and hence making more profit to the company but how things evolved at the end seemed reasonable to me so i had no complaints.

This movie is a great example of good concept done badly, it even crossed the barrier to be a movie with great overall potentials but again with terrible execution, while it isn't the most original idea in the world, the concept of revenge is the most overused thing in the action genre, but this movie makes it really appealing, as two brothers kill two members in the Russian mafia as a self defense and when the police set them free, they decide to fight all the bad and the evil in the world, meaning that they take a religious turn and go with it, which makes it really interesting.

The movie seemed interesting, for example, the two brothers Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, they look Bad-Ass enough to play this role, they have tattoos and looks really good, but then they started talking, and you start to hear the dialog, and then you realize there's too many F-Words and too many attempted "Humor", and the movie starts taking violence in a stylist way, pretty much like a video game, which i actually don't minds, but combined that with the awful screen play and the movie starts to look ridiculous.

I mean from the very first few minutes, the movie takes advantage of the R-Rating by using so many cuss words that were absolutely unnecessary, and every time the movie try to make you laugh, i actually cringe more, it was not funny at all, and i don't understand why it was trying to be funny, aside from that, the movie had a cheap production, i mean, the character introduction weren't necessary, no characters depth at all, terrible editing, although the score was very good, and the flashback scenes were very entertaining and stylist but that barely makes it an average movie, and let's not forget the overall awful performances specially from Willem Dafoe, who play a gay FBI agent, who had a weird walk, and weird voice, that made me prefer to stare at the wall than to look at my computer screen.

Overall, if you haven't seen it, you're not missing anything, just another action movie, even sadder because it had potential but creativity at planning should meet creativity at executing, if not then this movie is the result, and i guess it gained a cult following, because of the few good action scenes and the fact that people look at these things at face value, i don't.