Grkmagas85 Review of A History of Violence

A History of Violence (2005)

WHat's going on with viewers today? MAJOR SPOILERS!

[1/10 · 17 October 2005]

I can't believe this movie is getting such good reviews, I finally saw it today. *** SPOILERS********** Alright, so the movie starts off with a shot of a chair, then the director spends ten minutes extra trying to get us to understand that this is a loving family, done. Tom Stall, played horribly by Viggo Mortensen is a former criminal from the east, Philadelphia to be more specific. He has successfully relocated to a small town in Indiana and all is well - until his diner gets robbed. Tom reverts to his instincts and kills the two men and now he's a hero. Took long enough to get to this part, now we see Tom Stall's son getting bullied in school and playing baseball, very useless if you ask me, doesn't do anything for the story. Ed Harris shows up at Tom's diner claiming he's "JOE CUSACK". We know the bad guys want TOm, why is not yet known. After some pointless sex scenes, yeah married couple performing 69, the bad guys finally reach Tom at his house. Tom goes psycho and kills all the men after we FIND OUT Tom's brother, Richie, wants to see him. This is mind you 50 minutes into the script, NOW we find out Richie wants to see Tom or Joe, whichever. Tom has some make up sex with his wife on the steps which is so out-of-place it's not even funny. Very unnatural dialogue also detracts from this film. Tom's son suspects of his past, and tells his father, who mind you has been good to him all these years: "WHat are you gonna do, WACK ME? Like those two guys in the diner". LOL! What's that? A son saying that to his father after he killed two men in self defense, trust me, the dialogue is horrible, and so is the acting. We're now well into the third act, we still don't know why these ppl want Tom for, finally Tom visits his brother Richie. Turns out, all Richie needed to do was call his brother up, yep that's right - A PHONE CALL. No need to send five guys to get killed when you can just call your brother up. Alright, he calls him up and Tom meets RIchie at his HUGE MANSion. We now finally figure out the reason for all this VIOLENCE> Tom was crazy back in phili and he killed a bunch of dudes, now RICHIE can't move up in the criminal world because of his brothers actions. EVEN Though he has a huge mansion and lives well, his brother being alive is messing everything up! SO, instead of leaving his brother alone in Indina, he decides it would be better to kill him. Yeah, he's as good as gone in Indiana, but NO! He wants to kill him. SO Richie attempts to have Tom killed and Tom of course kills everyone in the mansion. He goes back home and lives happily ever after. Very bad dialogue, very bad direction, very bad acting. 4/10 stars NEXT!!!!!!!