"A History of Violence" - Movie Review

[Otto]

Alert -- Minor spoilers below.

Watched this one last night with my wife, and it was definitely not what I expected.

This is a story about an easy going guy named Tom Stall, living in the midwest somewhere. He has a wife and two kids, and they own the local diner. They're very ingrained in the local town, and are upstanding citizens in every right. And then, one seemingly normal day, everything changed when a couple of crazy cross-country murderers stop in at his restaurant. He ends up defending the patrons of the store and killing the bad guys. From here, Tom's past may or may not be coming back to haunt him, and the story continues to unfold.

This show had a decent plot line -- simple guy with a possibly sketchy past. Or do they have the wrong guy? It had enough to keep you unsure for a while, and the characters were interesting enough. Fortunately, it didn't seem to drag on too long on any one aspect. This movie was clocking in around 92 minutes as the credits rolled, and that was just right. So many movies these days want to be of epic proportions, and sometimes they just end up going on too long for no particular reason. For me, this movied was timed well.

There were a lot of stars in this movie, including Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and William Hurt. The wife was Maria Bello, and acting was pretty good overall.

Watch this one for a relatively good crime-drama-thriller if you like that kind of thing.

3.5/5 for me. An easy and fun watch.

[Bob_99]

I remember seeing the reviews of this movie and it did look interesting. I like Viggo Mortensen but I still see him as Aragorn although he was very good in Hidalgo and his acting was good enough to get me to see him as Frank Hopkins. I guess actors sometimes face that problem of being branded by a single character, although in this case, I'm sure it just me.

Bob

[wbassett]

I was surprised at the pace of this movie too, but agree it was a good feel.

The premise was interesting and like you said Otto, they kept you wondering and questioning things just the right amount. Even though it was a violent movie, the early scenes managed to deglam the violence and brought out a sense of being responsible for your actions.

Of course the ending went back to Hollywood style galm violence, but man what an ending it was!

[SLAYER]

Hi folks, thanks Otto,good review and dont think you spoiled it for anyone IMO.
I actually thought this was an action movie and was going to buy it last night but forgot about it .
dont think will be buying it if its a drama (they usually talk too much)

[Otto]

Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it a drama per se, but it's definitely not an action movie either. It's got whodunit aspects and some hints of a thriller, but no horror. It'd probably do all right for ya if you're on the fence; a good one for Netflix if you don't want to buy.

[SLAYER]

hmmm.
im a huge horror fan "night of the living dead"
so this is more like a "mistery" type
maybe its time to open "Ares"
thanks for the info.


slayer....

[WillyD]

I pretty agree completely about the 3.5/5 rating. I found it entertaining and somewhat satisfying, but not necessarily a movie I want to watch more than a few times.