So Cruel
after a few weeks of hellish work, i was able to sit down and watch some well-deserved DVDs. My weekend list included some notable classics like Blade Runner (thanks jays and sonee!), Anchorman: the legend of ron burgundy, Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, michael moore's Sicko, and Cruel Intentions.
I put in Cruel Intentions as the last for saturday's list, and like my previous viewings, it disturbed me. and this movie has no equal in cruelty, whether implied or stated. mean, there are a thousand other films more evil or horrifying, but in terms of cruelty just for the heck of it, this movie is head and shoulders above the rest.
In my humble opinion (okay, let's drop the humble part since this is my blog and i can be as blatant as i can), most "bad" movies have an ulterior motive: money, power, revenge - mostly in the name of business. This is best exemplifiedby classics such as Wall Street and the Godfather series.
In others, a woman scorned or love gone wrong leads to the escalating chaos. Think of Fatal Attraction, War of the Roses, and something like True Romance.
In rare cases, pure evil is the tone. There's the Hannibal series, Saw, or the Amityville Horror. Here, evil seeps through the storyline from the first scene, so there are no discussions necessary.
Which leads me to Cruel Intentions. In itself, it's not an evil movie. It's just plain cruel. The game between brother and sister is not motivated by anything except their need to outdo each other in breaking other people. Sure, ryan philippe got bad karma and fell in love, but before he did, he spewed a mouthful that sounds very convincing, all of which was true at the time he said it. And Sarah Michelle Gellar's unmasking at the end is the director's way of saying sorry for all that his characters did. Mind you, these are kids doing the damage.
for those of you who still need to know, yes - i like the movie that much.
Sicko placed a close second.
I put in Cruel Intentions as the last for saturday's list, and like my previous viewings, it disturbed me. and this movie has no equal in cruelty, whether implied or stated. mean, there are a thousand other films more evil or horrifying, but in terms of cruelty just for the heck of it, this movie is head and shoulders above the rest.
In my humble opinion (okay, let's drop the humble part since this is my blog and i can be as blatant as i can), most "bad" movies have an ulterior motive: money, power, revenge - mostly in the name of business. This is best exemplifiedby classics such as Wall Street and the Godfather series.
In others, a woman scorned or love gone wrong leads to the escalating chaos. Think of Fatal Attraction, War of the Roses, and something like True Romance.
In rare cases, pure evil is the tone. There's the Hannibal series, Saw, or the Amityville Horror. Here, evil seeps through the storyline from the first scene, so there are no discussions necessary.
Which leads me to Cruel Intentions. In itself, it's not an evil movie. It's just plain cruel. The game between brother and sister is not motivated by anything except their need to outdo each other in breaking other people. Sure, ryan philippe got bad karma and fell in love, but before he did, he spewed a mouthful that sounds very convincing, all of which was true at the time he said it. And Sarah Michelle Gellar's unmasking at the end is the director's way of saying sorry for all that his characters did. Mind you, these are kids doing the damage.
for those of you who still need to know, yes - i like the movie that much.
Sicko placed a close second.
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