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***MILD SPOILER ALERT!!!
- Unlikable and uninspiring lead character: Edward Wilson is a typical government worker character who's extremely successful and good at what he does at work but isn't able to have a normal, loving relationship with his family. Worse, he left his nice girlfriend to marry someone who he doesn't love (for political reason) and then cheated on his wife. Matt Damon isn't a bad looking actor but his character is so boring it's hard to understand how all these attractive female characters throw themselves at him.
- Robert De Niro, who's arguably one of the best actors of our time, isn't able to manage the large group of all-star casts with a somewhat complex plot and subplots. He did an admirable job directing A Bronx Tale when the cast was much smaller and the story was less complicated.
- The editing by Tariq Anwar, which is something that De Niro should be partly responsible for, was inefficient in that it failed to compact the story and move on to something else more interesting. The main problem is that it kept linger in the dark world, which was beautifully set up and shot but you get tired after looking at it for most of the movie. I was able to appreciate the end of the movie much more when the location is in Dominican Republic where it's much more vibrant.
A movie can be a form of entertainment but it can also be art. Movies put together many artistic aspects such as photography, acting, directing, music score, costume, set design, etc. It’s a strong medium that can be very powerful and can reach a broader audience than the other medium such as music, painting, and the other forms of art.
As far as violence in a movie, it’s ignorant at best to lump all violent movies together and criticize them as a whole. Sure, Hollywood is the number one offender when it comes to gross-out violent movies but to be able to intelligently discuss this issue; you need to ask why a (violent) scene is there. You need to think about the intention of having certain scenes or displaying of certain images. Are they related to the storyline? Do they help stressing the messages that the directors try to get across?
In a way, a violent scene should be analyzed the same way as a sex/nude scene.
Case Study One: The violence in Braveheart is much worse than Kill Bill but somehow is more accepted (judging by Kill Bill being constantly criticized) even though the violence in Braveheart is real and the violence in Kill Bill is highly stylized and cartoonish (also applies to Sin City).
Case Study Two: Many religious people who have been opposing violent movies have embraced The Passion of The Christ. It’s interesting that when people agree with the message of the film, they open up to something they have strongly opposed. They are more willing to understand and even attempt to explain to those who don’t agree.
