"A History of Violence" movie review

[Free4Life11]

I was not very impressed with the movie. The acting was great, but the story was kind of boring. And it was fairly short too!

The amount of violence wasn't as much as other movies I've seen, however, it was REALLY graphic -- lots of blood and they don't just shoot someone, they linger on them after they are shot. In one scene, someone is shot in the face and they show their bloody face squirming and their jaw bone is visible...pretty nasty.

Two sex scenes as well, which I thought were unnecessary as they added nothing to the story. Also, although it was a married couple, one of the scenes was very violent and basically rape, which was pretty disturbing.

I wouldn't recommend seeing it in the theatres.

 

[Cindy B]

I had a free screening for this one. I usually go if free screenings are involved, but I passed on this one.

 

[LoraJ]

I saw it yesterday. I liked it, but didn't love it. That second sex scene was pretty awful. All I could think of was OUCH, that can't be comfortable.

 

[bgirldeb]

We saw it last weekend. Viggo M. and Ed Harris are two of my most favorite actors. It was good, but I could have done without the sex scenes. I do think they were necessary to the story, though. Compared to the reviews I read I think it was overrated a bit. I thought some of the family interaction was over the top nicey nice, but I understand it was for the contrast to what would happen later (without going into spoilers...)

The worst part of going to see this movie was all the little old ladies that came to see it when we did. We went to a Sunday afternoon Matinee and DH said he swore that a bus must have dropped a whole nursing home off. I heard one lady when we were walking out say "I didn't expect it to be like THAT"

It WAS called A History of Violence for a reason!

 

[Feralpeg]

I haven't seen it yet, but I saw an interview with Viggo Mortensen on David Letterman where he talked about the sex scene. He said the director had his wife come in and demonstrate to the actors what he wanted for the scene. Very odd! Even Viggo found it strange. He said both he and the actress that played his wife ended up with a lot of bruises from that scene.

 

[chelle3807]

I just went and saw this movie with my dad this afternoon. We were excitied about it because we love Viggo. The movie was a little strange and the sex scences made me feel so embarrassed to be watching it with my dad. I actually had to look away and hold my breath because I wanted to laugh so hard that I had to watch it with him. We've seen many, many movies together, but none with that kind of sex scene.

 

[Melrosgirl]

Saw this last night. Horrible movie. The violence was way over the top. DH and I literally started laughing during the sex scene b/c it was so not necessary. DH says "those stairs they are on have no carpeting; they are gonna get splinters." OMG. I couldn't stop laughing. The ending was bad. Just the whole movie - bad. (First half I enjoyed though.)

 

[Lorix2]

I saw it last week. I took my father out for his birthday, I was so uncomfortable during those sex scenes sitting next to him, I think they were unnecessary to the plot. I was so nervous I said to him "when did they start letting R movies go porn" and he said "apparently right now" and chuckled.

Violence is violence as far as I'm concerned, but the movie really didn't go anywhere or make you understand why the father had this "history of violence". Weak.