Pajiba

"...until Bain begins her rampage and gradually transforms into a chunk of homicidal steel.."

WOOOOOT! I'm so there for this, it also looks like a pretty decent update of Death Wish.

PS: And to think that Julianne Moore actually thought she could step into Clarisse Starling's shoes. Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft

Ranylt, now that Jeremy has become frustratingly intermittent, you are my favourite Pajiban. Both this and your "Hunting Party" review are fantastic, polished and erudite and funny. You give online movie criticism a good name.

This movie sucked. Don't waste yourself on it.

kind at:

Would you care to elaborate on that?

"I want my dog back!" *gunshot

Great review, Ranylt, especially the introduction/survey of Jodie Foster's career of anguish.

Neat and tidy violence is for James Bond films [which we know aren't real]. I wouldn't expect Jodie Foster to be in a direct-to-video story. I prefer my revenge violence "A History of Violence" style. The bad guys deserve what they get, but it never feels "good" afterward.

i've been waiting with open arms for this movie.

i love jodie foster.

i love jodie foster in good movies (silence of the lambs, contact, taxi driver), i like jodie foster in ok movies (panic room, maverick) and i like jodie foster in shitty as hell movies (flightplan, anna and the king). i love jodie foster in the morning, in the afternoon and in my coffee. jodie foster is the best.

so i might have to see this movie.

For the first time since South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (and to a far lesser extent: Snakes on a Plane), my brother and I both want to see the same film.

And that film is The Brave One.

I want to see it for Foster's wonderful performance, my brother wants to see it because he's NYPD. It's a win, win. We both like revenge flicks as well, which doesn't hurt.

I can't wait to tell him it doesn't suck.

When did Jodie Foster start looking like Mariska Hagerty?

Bucko, I agree; she doesn't look like herself. But I thought she looked more like Amanda Tapping, that woman from Stargate SG-1.

Despite the formulaic plot, I really want to see this. Something about Howard and Foster in the same film just excites me.

I will see this, eventually.

But only for Nicky Katt.

I love that guy.

Hmmm, I think I'll pass on this one. Ranylt's review of The Brave One pretty much confirmed the impression I took from the film's trailer: the movie is basically Death Wish on estrogen. Except Neil Jordan went and gave the movie a garnish of feminist cant, to judge from the review.

Thanks, but if I need some cinematic vigilante justice, I'll stick with Charles Bronson. At least Bronson didn't feel the need to preach at the audience.

And, besides, I still haven't seen 3:10 to Yuma...

No one does Jodie Foster like Jodie Foster.

For whatever inexplicable reason, I find this line entirely too amusing, and my giggling is drawing odd looks.
I think that's a sort of compliment?

I wish I could draw odd looks at 3:50 am.

I wonder if Handy McClapper knows Walky Walkerson and Jerky Jerknut? Those two dipnits live in my neighborhood and get up to di-dos, let me tell you. Jodie would have at 'em, I'm most certain. Bless.

Different time zone. Not that it especially matters, as my household is filled with naught but insomniacs anyway. :D

Hmmm...
Opening review of artist's CV to establish credibility-- check.
Overwritten prose ("shiny-blue and taut with that Hollywood-issued incandescence...")-- check.
Superfluous reference to a movie the reviewer knows most readers won't know to cement credibility (Abel Ferrara's 1981 Ms .45)-- check.
Requisite social commentary (Libertarians gleefully nod along with vindicated smugness...)-- check.

Yep. Definitely a Pajiba review.
This site never lets me down.

Thanks for expanding my vocabulary with "susurration."

@ just tired

So you don't want evocative description, any acknowledgement of film history that exceeds your own knowledge, nor any of issues beyond the cinematic even if they're plainly relevant, and you don't care what any of the involved players have done previously. Maybe movie reviews that try to have value beyond just reflecting the reviewer's knee-jerk emotional response just aren't for you?

And a quick survey of the previous five reviews reveals that they don't follow the pattern you cite.

Well. Maybe you're just tired.

Don't forget "Carny."

I'm damn tired of gun movies. Does it seem to anybody else like the Gun Lobby is going over the friggin' top with the volume of movies its pushing this year? I'm tired of this "you're only safe when you have a gun" b.s. being thrown at me every time I turn on the television. Kill Bill and Sin City were great, but I'm burnt out.

I prefer my revenge violence "A History of Violence" style. The bad guys deserve what they get, but it never feels "good" afterward.

I found "History of Violence" to be one of the most realistic movies I've ever seen (along with the Pan's Labryinth war scenes). The violence was exactly what it was, with no extra camera work, soundtrack work, anything.

Disturbing as hell and fantastic cinema. The preview for this didn't look half as good.

I agree with you Twig but to play the devil's advocate those two movies were a few years ago and our society (as a whole) is so blanketed from violence (compared to previous centuries) that very few of us would have the guts to stab someone to death ... guns are just less "messy".

So if you make a revenge movie, guns is usually the way to go. Unless you're saying no to violence in movie in general and than that's your perogative ...

"PS: And to think that Julianne Moore actually thought she could step into Clarisse Starling's shoes."

^5 BarbadoSlim: Good subtle cross-reference to Lechter's characterization of Clarice's cheap shoes. Unfortunately, Thomas Harris had already prostituted his brilliant creation of Clarice Starling when he wrote that literary abortion in which Julianne Moore performed. Fortunately, JM is not as good at playing Jodie Foster as is Jodie Foster (big call out to you, Ms. Richildris!) because the character named Clarice Starling in the tertiary installment of the Hannibal Lechter triptich had already been butchered by the author. Although playing a similarly named character, Ms. Moore could only mouth scraps of dialogue attributed to the mutilated original. Jodie Foster wisely turned down the role.

I read an interview with Jodie Foster a few weeks ago where she said, in her pov, her character is essentially the bad guy, and that the choices she makes throughout the movie are systematically wrong ones. I haven't seen this reflected in any of the reviews I've read, so I wonder if they just aren't bothering to mention them, or if her performance was edited to keep it a strict vengance film. Or maybe it would just give away the end of the film?

I love Neil Jordan (although this does seem terribly formulaic for him) but I just can't watch Jodie Foster since Sommersby. Every time I see her face, all I can hear is "Ah nevah loved heem, the way Ah loved yooo".

Its funny that a movie like this would come out now. In the 70's and 80's theatres will full of revenge films (eg Charles Bronson's Death Wish movies), that in many ways reflected the feeling that our urban areas were spiraling out of control. The Brave One feels thirty years out of date.

This is the kind of Vigilante film that wants to provoke thought, but doesn't have the teeth for it. Every single one of her victims is portrayed as an absolute monster, and every one of them attacks her first, (ala Greedo) so they can all be felled in self defense.

If just one them had turned out to be innocent, or even ambiguous, it might have been worth the effort. As it stands, not so much.

My fellow patrons went totally bonkers with glee at each and every killing. But it wasn't entirely their fault. This film is just that dumb.

Naveen Andrews, huh? I just can't deal with that. Wherefore art thou, Sayid? Wherefore art thou, um, Juliette Binoche's love interest from The English Patient? I love that guy. He's definitely top-50 on the "If I Had to . . ." list.

SOW, "Andrews"? WTF?

Jodie: Nell anyone? "Is that my Oscar in there?!?!?! Is that my Oscar in there?!?!?"

Thanks, Ranylt. Insightful and non-critic-traditional as usual. Thank you.

Uh, SoCalled, You may want to check out Ella's comment in the How Much TiVo...thread re: "wherefore". You are not asking where Sayid is located but, rather, why he exits. I think that is directly contrary to your intent but, maybe not.

rudy, I actually was just snarking around without too much thought. But since he gets brained with a pipe, metaphorically exiting, "wherefore" probably works.

Thanks SoCalled, we seem to rarely agree but I always laugh out loud, with you, on your comments. I respect the depth of intellectual snarkiness even in your (self-identified) unintended allusions in your ripostes.

Handy McClapper-lmao.
^^I'm stealing that.^^
And I wanted to add that even though I am anti-capital punishment (and I can't speak for everyone who is the same as I), when I watch these, I know it's not a documentary. I know it's not something that's really happening. And I know it's entertainment. So it's not like I sit in my seat and am like "HOLY SHIT! THIS IS OFFENSIVE!" I'm just like "Damn,(s)he kicks ass!" or something. And personally, even though I have my own opinions set in stone about that, I still think it's healthy to question if something like revenge movies WERE real and how I might feel then. Just sitting in a pile of your own viewpoints and shutting everything out makes life way too boring. =)
And I really DID want to see this movie, and it's so Netflixed. =)

Spoilers:

This movie was complete and utter bullshit. I'm supposed to applaud this women for killing 8 (7 unarmed) people? Four of whom had nothing to do with her initial attack? What's so "brave" about that? Then the cops let her go?!?!? But this horse I ain't buying.

I think the filmmakers were aiming for us to watch her transformation, from a woman in awe of NYC's idiosyncrasies to a woman all too familiar with it's faults. I guess they wanted us to stand up and cheer (as many in my theater did) when she shot at unarmed people and then sought out new victims. I suppose I was feel sorry for her when she wanted to confess her sins but couldn't. But that didn't happen. Instead, I was disgusted and appalled, moreso by the lemmings in the audience buying this crap.

If they had stuck to her finding and shooting her attackers, I might have justified her actions. But random strangers, even evil, mean, and vile ones? Hell no.

the problem with this film is that, other than the parts where she's "blowing away scumbags" and interacting with Terrence Howard once he became suspicious, it was dead boring and formulaic.




Oh, and the ending was ludicrous.