American Violence

Possibly uses every cliché in this genre and still plays like a poorly written country and western song. Acting is shallow and hackneyed, dialogue is stilted and amateur. Can't make its mind up if it wants to be Bonnie and Clyde or just a generic bad guy who is really a good guy but life done him wrong flick. This is just MTV fodder, better off watching We Need to Talk about Kevin.

This movie had potential, but takes itself way too seriously and it's cast of budget-friendly actors turn in uneven performances. Denise Richards is trying too hard to shed her bimbo persona in a highly intellectual role as a renowned criminal psychologist. Kaiwi Lyman is uneven, veering into melodramatic overstatement in his scenes with Richards, but is much better in flashback scenes of his life of crime, especially when paired with Micheal Pare as his former small time criminal partner. Bruce Dern phones one in for the paycheck and the rest of the cast is varying degrees of bad, from unwatchable to to just ok. The story is all over the place, trying in places to be a character study of small time criminals-which would have been interesting, then trying to be a slick action-y heist movie, then trying to be political with it's socially conscious anti-death penalty message. It never hits the mark with any of it and winds up just being a mess.

Film is generally average, not bad or great. But in the execution chamber the priest is holding a copy of 'The New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures'. A bible internationally recognized for the accuracy of translation from the original language by bible scholars around the world, produced by Jehovah's Witnesses. The priest in the witness room was either Catholic or Protestant and they refuse to use accurate this bible, what gives??????

This clearly puts the eternal debate on capital punishment on trial. No movie, or set of packaged images designed to build momentum in the audience attention, will adequately cover the articulation of the arguments. It did cover the potential complexities that are usually unknown and seldom adequately presented in these situations. Retributive justice provides temporary soothing to those who care for the victims, but society as, a whole is led to believe that a subset of humanity is inherently and incorrigibly evil, so the only solution is to remove that subset. Then there is another intersecting subset that believes they are justified in administering capital punishment without legal authorization. The leadership of society could solve this by implementing legislation that responds to capital crime with complete loss of freedom and devise anti- corruption measures that largely eliminate the possibility of corruption occurring. Leaders envision and can improve humanity by starting at the bottom: humane treatment of it lowest elements. Then a clear message is sent that all have hope; hope reduces desperation, hope introduces options, and hope is beginning of a better existence. That is how a society should be led , rather cathartically lowering itself to respond with an equal crime. Yes we can protect society without prescribed executions; so let's fight like hell for the living

Starting with a violent murder case and a Dr. in criminal psychology to review the case gave me an impression that I would have a good movie but I was totally disappointed.

The story line is totally broken and it's like sketches that does not add to each other. Many murder cases but it seems like a random events that don't build something or contribute to the characters development. many useless events are added or at least not used to affect the story or the characters. The romance is so cheap and the main character fall in love in just 5 minutes and wanted to propose in a week later.

The characters are so shallow. They failed in showing deep psychological side for the characters despite introducing a Dr. in criminal psychology as a main character. There are no logic in introducing the characters. the back stories of side characters are totally neglected. The main character is always act like a superman with super skills so he is a thief, a sniper, a hacker and many more.

In the end of the a movies out of the blue they try to shove a message in our mind that the execution is bad act . without any proper justifications the characters just change their minds. just a sudden 180 degree flip of the character opinions. Making the message is totally alien to the movie story line.

In Nutshell It's a very shallow movie and you will not be satisfied if you are looking for good drama, violent crimes or deep psychology.