Black Mass (2015) Review & Recommendation.

Black Mass is another attempt to glorify mafia life and create nostalgia about the "good ol' days."

Let's be honest, if you have seen one mafia movie, then you have seen them all.  Johnny Depp plays the role of a lunatic mob boss, Whitey Bulger, in Boston; specifically South Boston (or to the natives Southie).

The story chronicles Bulger's trials and tribulations as a Boston mafia kingpin.  Now I know technically the term "mafia" is reserved for the Italians; however, I will use mafia, here, to apply to Black Mass because aside from the ethnic differences, there are not many other differences between what Bulger does in this move compared to what the Italians do in every other mafioso film.  The reason I bring this up at all is because in the movie the Irish are at war with the Italians, and I don't want to give off the impression that Bulger is associated with the Italians by labeling him as a member of the 'mafia.'  However, with this distinction noted, Bulger could be said to be a member of the Irish mafia; so, I will stick with this terminology for the remainder of the review.

Speaking of wars between the Irish and Italians, Bulger allies with an FBI agent in order to help defeat an Italian crime family, which poses a threat to criminal activity that Bulger is conducting.  The FBI agent is an old friend of Bulger's and so the movie leads us to believe that because these two have a history that the FBI agent is more likely to side with Bulger rather than the FBI.  Indeed, this is what ends up happening.  The FBI agent gets in "too deep" with Bulger and becomes implicated in Bulger's criminal activity.  You should see where this is going because it's the typical premise of every other mafia movie made; it's all about territory and respect.  However, in this film, the respect factor is mitigated by the fact that Bulger is a sociopath and enjoys being involved with criminal activity for its own sake.

For those who enjoy mafia style movies, then this will definitely scratch that itch.  The story is interesting and engaging.  Depp does a real nice job of portraying a sociopath just like he did in Secret Window (which is a phenomenal movie you should see, if you haven't).  The overall acting is on point for this style of movie and the character develop is decent as well.  Also, there will be some folks out there who remember hearing about Bulger because this movie is based off of "real events" and took place in the late 70's and early 80's.  So, like I said at the beginning, there is going to be a bit of nostalgia to be had from watching this movie.

On the flip side, if you don't like mafia movies or have no interest in watching a movie that walks you through the life of crime boss, then you probably are going to want to stay away from this movie.  I would even venture to say that while there is some okay character development, the characters are not themselves very deep.  There is a bit of shallowness to the characters, but then again we're talking about the career criminals how deep can they get?

 If you do end up deciding to watch this movie, then just realize that it's not going to blow you away or have any fancy twists.  It is what it is.

What The Hell Did I Just Watch? "Stitches" Movie Review

Netflix, you dirty ol' bastard!  Well, I have just been tricked again by Netflix to watch a movie that I have mixed feelings about.  Let me explain.

First, let me just get the plot of this movie called 'Stitches' out into the open so you have an idea from where I am coming.

******Spoiler Altert******

Stitches is, essentially, a movie about a party clown (Stitches), who is killed within the first 10 minutes of movie as a result of receiving a kitchen knife to the face.  The rest of the movie is about Stitches coming back to life, a clown zombie if you will, and exacting his revenge on all those who have wronged him; specifically, the kids who teased him at the birthday party where he died.  

I am going to highlight the plot a bit further now in order to explain my mixed feelings about this film.

The movie begins when Stitches arrives at a kid's birthday party. Stitches, then, attempts to entertain the kids with a variety of clown tricks.  The kids are not thrilled by the clown's antics.  So, they begin to tease the clown and give him a hard time.  Specifically, one kid ties Stitches' shoe strings together (classic prank), while another kid throws a ball at Stitches causing him
to go off-balance and fall directly onto a kitchen knife that was placed, by an adult, in a dishwasher with the blade sticking straight up.

Who puts a kitchen knife in the dishwasher with he blade sticking straight up and then leaves the dishwasher open, especially with kids hyped up on cake running around???

Anyway, as I said before, Stitches falls on the knife and it goes through his left eye and out the top of his skull.  Blood, brains, and gore spray everywhere (I mean everywhere). It's hilarious the amount of blood and brains that spew from this clown's head wound.  But this is only the beginning of the gore that ensues during the rest of the movie.

At this point, Stitches is "dead" and buried in a grave yard.  The kid, who was having the birthday party, goes to the grave yard and witnesses an ancient clown ritual being performed.  Apparently, when clown's receive their official induction into the 'clownship' they are given an egg with their clown faces painted on it.  This egg is symbolic of the eternal life as a clown.  It also is the thing that ends up destroying the zombie version of Stitches at the end of the movie.

We fast forward 6 years later when the kids are adolescences in middle-school.  The former birthday boy has a pretty severe case of PTSD from the incident 6 years before.  He hallucinates frequently of people around him turning into clowns and performing gruesome acts on other people around him.  For example, one hallucination is when he is sitting in a classroom with his classmates, the teacher turns into a murderous clown, walks up to a kid and rips his dick off in the middle of class.  Then, the clown, who now has a kid's dick in his hand, trots around the classroom displaying the dick to everyone.  Oh, and as the viewers to this spectacle, we are graciously awarded the opportunity to watch the clown rip the kid's dick off while the camera is zoomed in on the entire ordeal.  So, not only do we see the dick being ripped off, but we see it up close and personal and there is plenty of flesh ripping imagery to accompany it.

Shortly after that entertaining sequence (can I call it entertaining???), we learn that it is the hallucinating kid's birthday again.  So, the kid wants to have a birthday party.  He invites the entire school over to his house and a ton of people show up.

During the party, Stitches is magically resurrected from the grave and on a mission to kill all of the kids responsible for his death.  The rest of the movie is about Stitches cleverly and creatively killing a bunch of kids.  For example, he kicks a kid's head off, stabs a girl through the eye with an umbrella, uses a ice-cream scooper to scoop a kid's brains out of his head while simultaneously making an ice-cream sunday; only instead of ice-cream, Stitches uses brains, and disembowels a one guy turning the removed bowel in a balloon animal; specifically, a dog.  All of these acts are accompanied by exaggerated gore, blood spewing, raunchy carnage, screaming, and howling cries of pain by Stitches' victims as they are mutilated.

The movie ends with the birthday boy destroying the egg with Stitches' clown face drawn on it.  When the egg is destroyed, Stitches explodes, but get this, he explodes and the resulting carnage is egg yolk.  And once Stitches is dead, everybody lives happily ever after.

Or do they???

Alright, let me return to what I started this post out with; namely, that I have mixed feelings about this movie.  However, I must first make a confession.  While writing this post I realized something -- I love this movie.  The hyperbolic gore, blood, bad acting, and overall raunchiness speaks to me in a way that I want an independent B-horror movie to speak.  I don't expect this kind of movie to have a good plot or character depth.  I watch these movies because I want to be grossed out, but I also want laugh at the grossness.  Let's call Stitches what it is, a low budget gross out film, and, as such, I can assure you that it delivers.

I don't need to bother recommending this movie because if you are a fan of B-horror movies, then you already know what Stitches is all about.  And if you don't like B-horror movies, then there is no need to waste time trying to convince you that you should watch it.  This movie was made for a particular audience and they know who they are.  However, for those of you who are on the fence about it, give it 15 minutes and if after that you don't like it, turn it off because chances are that you won't like the rest.

As of 2/5/2016 'Stitches' is available on Netflix (US).

Film and The Self: Do the films we enjoy reveal our character?

It is not a stretch to suggest that every able-minded person will, at some point in their life, ask the question: Who am I?  Some individuals will settle on answers in the form of a preordained societal list containing various adjectives representing their respective value system for better or worse.  Others may not be inclined to settle on answering the question in such straight forward terms.  Instead, these individuals may wish to use similar adjectives but redefine them to fit their own value system, again for better or worse.  Some may even be hesitant to apply any adjectives to themselves for fear of commitment to any value system.  Some individuals may see the self as a process and not subject to a fixed description.  Others may reject the question entirely and argue the self is an illusion.  This is not an exhaustive list; however, it does reflect some popular ways that individuals handle the question.

When making our determinations about who we are, what evidence or reasons do we appeal to in order to provide an answer?  Some may look at their consumer possessions i.e. car, diamonds, houses, furniture, fashion items etc. Others may consider their relationships with others i.e. mothers to children, wives to husbands, cousins to uncles, grandparent to grandchild.  Yet others might ask whether they live according to a religious belief system i.e. Judaism, Christianity, Muslim, Hindu etc.  We might consider everything together, but still weigh one area more heavily than others  i.e. the billionaire may weigh his material possessions more heavily than his religious belief system.  Again, the list is not exhaustive, but sufficient to make the point that answering the simple question, "Who am I" requires a complex answer.

One area that may reveal a great deal about ourselves to ourselves and help us answer the question "Who am I" is considering the genres of film we enjoy.  What can be inferred by an individual regarding their personality, who prefers slasher horror genre to romantic comedies.  Why would one have that preference?  How does having that preference effect the view of themselves toward themselves?  I cannot provide answers to these questions.  Answers, if there are any, are reserved for the selves that contemplate the question "Who am I" and use the films they enjoy as evidence for who they think they are.

Movie genres are often not exclusive.  Often times a movie that generally fits into a genre will also have elements of another genre.  Likewise, the individual may have personality characteristics fitting a genre; however, the individual may have elements of other genres as well.  However, we are often closed off from discovering what other elements of other genres we possess.  Perhaps this is why film is a superior choice of evidence when considering the question "Who am I," rather than using consumer goods, relationships, or even religious belief systems.  The human personality is a complex enterprise.  Cornering ourselves into one genre does not allow for us to account for our complexity and diversity.  For example, I may only consider myself a Christian, husband, and father according to the value system of my community.  Here, I have closed myself off to considering what other elements from other genres I possess.  Maybe examining the films I enjoy would help unearth my complexity and my diverse elements incorporated from those other genres?

Asking ourselves "Who am I" is a difficult and burdensome question.  Nonetheless, it's a question we are destined to confront at some point in our lives.  We are also destined, for better or worse, to categorize, label, and box ourselves into genres, which is not, in and of itself, a disservice to ourselves.  However, the damage is done when we allow ourselves to know ourselves by only one genre and not consider the elements from other genres.  This is where film can assist us in answering the question "Who am I?"

Let us know how your personality is reflected by the genres of film you enjoy in the comment section.