I went into this movie seeing the trailer, which presented a misanthropic middle-aged man and an equally bitter teenage girl going on a country-wide killing spree. Okay, sounds entertaining, or at least ambitious and original. And this movie truly is. However, this movie seems to walk a fine line between being a blood-soaked fun-fest or a genuine film with something to say.
The ending was hugely disappointing, as it largely revealed the characters to be static and of immovable opinions. Are we supposed to sympathize with a broken man who has just had too much, a la Falling Down? Or is the lesson that we should be "more kind", lest we be killed by some serial killing couple? Typically, I rank great movies on how they change me as a person, challenge my ideals, and make me question the way I think. This movie succeeded in doing that, only to throw away credibility at the end by revealing the characters to be utterly non- sympathetic of the countless people they killed just because they didn't agree with them or thought they were wrong.
On most of these issues I even agree with these people. Exploitation of terrible personality qualities is a problem running rampant in this country, as is our sense of self-entitlement and religious zealots. But people change, and no one deserves to die, period. I don't like this movie because it disagrees with my ideals; I don't like it because the characters thought's were ultimately nullified in my mind when it turned out they were a bunch of psychopathic, contradictory nutjobs.
The ending was hugely disappointing, as it largely revealed the characters to be static and of immovable opinions. Are we supposed to sympathize with a broken man who has just had too much, a la Falling Down? Or is the lesson that we should be "more kind", lest we be killed by some serial killing couple? Typically, I rank great movies on how they change me as a person, challenge my ideals, and make me question the way I think. This movie succeeded in doing that, only to throw away credibility at the end by revealing the characters to be utterly non- sympathetic of the countless people they killed just because they didn't agree with them or thought they were wrong.
On most of these issues I even agree with these people. Exploitation of terrible personality qualities is a problem running rampant in this country, as is our sense of self-entitlement and religious zealots. But people change, and no one deserves to die, period. I don't like this movie because it disagrees with my ideals; I don't like it because the characters thought's were ultimately nullified in my mind when it turned out they were a bunch of psychopathic, contradictory nutjobs.