Burning Palms

What is normal? This is a movie about five different groups of people. A very close father and daughter. A boyfriend with a strange bedroom habit. A gay couple who want to adopt. A boy who is a borderline psychopath, and a women who falls in love with her attacker. Very, very strange. Very offensive in parts, and also pretty good. This movie I really liked, and I don't think I should of. When you watch it you will see why. This is a hard movie to recommend because of the subject matter. But if you like movies that are very different and not a movie that has been re-done 50 times this is the one for you. I liked it, but again if you are easily offended do not watch this. I give it a B.

Would I watch again? - I don't know if I would *Also try - 11:14

Burning Palms (2010) is a satirical thriller movie written and directed by Christopher Landon and it was very mediocre.

Positives for Burning Palms (2010): It was interesting for me to see Christopher Landon directing a movie that isn't horror. The movie has an insanely awesome ensemble cast including Adriana Barraza, Lake Bell, Jamie Chung, Shannen Doherty, Robert Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Peter Macdissi, Dylan McDermott, Anson Mount, Jon Polito, Zoe Saldana, Nick Stahl and Paz Vega. The five short stories are interesting for their stories and what they were saying. And finally, I liked the comic book style transitions to each story.

Negatives for Burning Palms (2010): There are spots in these stories that are a little bit dumb to watch. I didn't care about a lot of these damn characters. Some of them kind of act like dirt bags. And finally, the endings to these stores with the exception of the second one were really dumb.

Overall, Burning Palms (2010) is an interesting if not messy satirical thriller movie by Christopher Landon and it marked the beginning of a very successful and promising career for the guy.

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 am not sure if this was meant to be ironic, subversive or surreal, but it failed on every level. Framed as stories in some demented comic book, it isn't presented as 'different' enough to be believable as a comic story. It comes off as racist, sexist and just generally unpleasant. The actions of the characters are so unbelievable and irrational as to drive me to distraction. The acting is just awful in most cases. It is supposed to be some comment on Los Angeles, yet it is just absurd. There was potential for this to be insightful, witty or interesting, yet that was all frittered away with shock value and the extreme unbelievability of the characters. And because it was presented in a normal world, this makes it all the frustrating. It was just unrelentingly bad.

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.