Burning Palms

Not anywhere near as good as what the synopsis would have you think. The stories are not interconnected at all and the plots are mostly very predictable. Is quite gritty, but in some cases this is a bad thing: the characters are so loathsome you just want the individual story to end.

The set-up for most of the punch-lines is pretty good, but the conclusions often feel rushed, contrived and out-of-the-blue.

Despite its amateurish plot, the cast are mostly stars: Rosamund Pike, Dylan McDermott, Shannen Doherty, Zoe Saldana, Paz Vega, Nick Stahl, Performances are mostly pretty good. Shannen Doherty does put on the worst English accent ever though, assuming that's what she was aiming for.

If you can stomach/appreciate dark humor in the line of Louie C.K. and Jimmy Carr, this movie will entertain.

There are five stories, simple pulp fiction type tales without significant character development, but still resembling Aesops fables - only for adults.

Stripping off the cozy duvet of political correctness some of the tales will disgust and others will amuse, but buttons will be pushed for most.

By grossly exaggerating the little neuroses most people in modern society happily allow themselves and tolerate in others. The movie quickly reveals how seriously we take ourselves and our stereotypes, and how fragile these ego shells are when exposed to ridicule or scrutiny.

If you're unused to questioning motives, be it your own or those of others, and firmly believe there is such a thing as a "victim" - steer clear. Otherwise allow yourself to be shocked, it won't kill you and you may be healthily disillusioned (to be deprived of illusions).

As far as the acting, some support actors seemed to enjoy their mostly satirical roles - e.g. Shannen Doherty's accent and Paz Vega's emoting (worthy of the telenovela playing in the background), helped to lighten the fairly dark subject matter.

Oh, the segment "Buyers Remorse" is a must see for those looking to adopt.. If you spot ANY of those traits, please don't.

Initially I wanted to give this film grade five, that is one note for each story. But after I watched, in the first and last segment are events that can happen in real life so I stopped on four. The remaining stories are cheesy and tacky. A father has intimate relations with his underage daughter, a girl has problems with hygiene after a bizarre practice with her boyfriend, a gay couple buys a daughter, then realizing it's better to buy a dog. A housekeeper is mocking by a rebellious kid and then stolen by something that seems out of the ordinary and a young woman is a victim of a rape, then she seeks the aggressor and put it in a position to repeat the scene.

I'm not surprised that this movie has so few votes and opinions.

Hopefully this kind of films will not be made.

I thought this was terrific although I have not seen the last story yet. Very funny and NON PC which is refreshing.

I am surprised I highly recommend this movie unless you are a prude or can't handle NON PC type stuff. I give it a 6 instead of higher because some of the acting is bad.

I don't see how you can not laugh at this movie. It is dark humor and if you like that kind of thing you should watch this one

The adoption story and the finger is worth the price alone.

I am not sure why more people did not like this one. I will look for more movies from this writer

If you have a dark humor, and speak cynicism fluently - this movie definitely worths your time. Usually when a movie depicts a couple of different stories with a common denominator, shown one following the other, not interlacing, it is used in order to show "a bigger picture", which brings me to one of the two only issues with this film (in my opinion): there is no bigger picture. If you're looking for a final scene that will connect all the dots together, you should know there isn't any. It's just not this kind of movie, nothing to be disappointed about.

The other thing that might bother you, is the lack of "tightness" in the plots. This becomes very apparent in the different endings - as if the writer had an excellent idea for five sketches, but not a movie.

However, "Burning Palms" is a very good movie indeed. It could score a solid 8 (not kidding!) if there would have been some small modification in the screenplay, but as it is it's still captivating - go watch it.