Sadly Over-hyped

hyped garbage

Great Film overall

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I watched this largely on the basis of the cast. I like both Andie MacDowell and Cary Elwes. I admit that even just reading the plot outline made me uncomfortable - MacDowell plays a woman whose husband was a murdered white supremacist leader; Elwes plays the man she believed responsible for his death, so she and a couple of cohorts kidnap and seek revenge by torturing him. It sounded pretty brutal and unpleasant, but I do like both MacDowell and Elwes. So I watched it.It is brutal and unpleasant. The extended opening part dealing with Ethan (Elwes) and his family and his troubles with his landlord seems kind of disconnected from the basic plot, and once Helen (MacDowell) and her team start taking their revenge on Ethan it does become a rather sick and twisted story, becoming even moreso as more and more people get drawn into the plot for revenge.There's some potentially redeeming quality to this as long as you believe that Ethan really is innocent; a horrible victim of mistaken identity. In the end, though, the (unnecessary in my opinion) plot twist that closes the movie establishes that he really was there when Helen's husband was killed. So he loses much of the sympathy that had been building for him and to me an already unpleasant movie just kind of fizzled out with the concluding scenes.The fact that a movie is brutal and unpleasant doesn't make it a bad movie. This certainly keeps your attention as you wonder how far the trio of revenge seekers is willing to go, but in the end I just didn't find this to have had any real point or message. When all was said and done, it seemed to have been violence for the sake of violence; brutality for the sake of brutality. It had no redeeming qualities once it was over. It deserves some credit for managing to hold my attention, but it loses a lot for, in the end, leaving me very disappointed and empty. (5/10)

I recommend this film highly, not sure why all the hate. There are good performances and it touches on something which exists in our society today, whether people choose to see the reality or not.Cary Elwes is a photojournalist who lives in NYC and is on the verge of being evicted. He lives with a daughter and is estranged from his wife. The film starts as he drops his daughter off to be with her mother. He has a golden retriever named "Mao".We see flashbacks of an earlier pivotal incident which involves Brian Cox (always excellent, look for him in "Manhunter" and "The Minus Man" with Mercedes Ruehl and Owen Wilson as a serial killer).Cox is an evangelical preacher, preaching hate, and that change in America can start with "just one match" and other such comments, along the lines of David Duke. His wife is Andie McDowell, and she has a son who we now see in NYC is 18 years old. He and his mother survived the attack but "an eye for eye" dictates they must now avenge the violence, and death of their religious leader.I will not divulge the outcome but the theme here is interesting. Frank Whaley also belongs to this religious group and in NYC he tells Elwes "I was saved in prison my leader, he was a good man". He is a zealot, but resents anyone in New York who isn't "like him". He berates the local the news stand owner, "this city is "filled with foreigners" he remarks ignorantly.McDowell is surprisingly good here, a southern woman with values about to be toppled, she has survived the horror of third degree burns over most of her body.The director and writer have ventured into territory which is real here. Preaching hatred and violence leads to nothing, but death. Whether you are in New York City or Alabama.9/10.

what it seems type of movies. I thought this movie was pretty good. It had suspense, torture, and of course a twist. It's about a woman, Helen, whose religious leader husband was killed years earlier. She has hired a sort of mercenary to track down those involved with the murder and her being set on fire. The mercenary believes he has found one of those involved, photographer, Ethan. So, he tortures Ethan in trying to get him to confess. All the while, Helen and her son whom survived the attack watch. Ethan professes his innocence and says he has proof. But, the question is will Helen or the mercenary believe him? Ethan's wife and daughter also become involved.FINAL VERDICT: Suspenseful and twisted. Worth a viewing.

What kind of sicko writes ship like this???? I mean REALLY? Who produces, directs, shoots, acts, and edits movies like this? Some people have spent weeks or months of their lives working on this dark, disturbing movie - which really has NO redeeming qualities. My wife and I kept thinking that at some point, something would happen that would make it interesting or worth watching, but it just made us uncomfortable and sick all the way through.One line at the end of the movie was put in to make us feel like there was some big plot twist or revelation, but in reality, the whole movie was disgusting.There's plenty of unfortunate, unavoidable violence and drama in the world without spending millions making movies with the intention of creating tension and suspense.Grow up Hollywood.Don't waste your time or mind walking down through this darkness. It's pointless and hopeless.Probably the most pointless film in history.