HOTB is a movie I will warmly recommend to my philistine friendsit is the simpletons' drama ,art for those unable to taste art. It is junk, war exploitation, an artificial, derivative, tricked product . Highly moralizing also, and unpleasantly patronizing. It is a whole of clichés stupidly assembled by a hack. Selfrighteous drama, wholly tricked and phony. Everything is counterfeited. I liked the first scenesthose set in Irak. Those who delight in JAMES BOND and STAR WARS and STAR TREK and other such garbage will hail HOTB as a remarkable dramaremarkably psychological. On the other hand, I have seen far worse stufffar more banal and boring. One thing is certainfor most of its time, HOME OF
is not boring. Jackson's performance is wrong; yet it is true the man was given crap to begin with. There are a few mildly atmospheric scenesall involving Presley (I guess this might be the name, since it's the only one of the four leads that I had not previously heard about
). This are the two good thingsthe introductory war Irakian scenes; and some of Presley's scenes (Presley's role, quite ineptly played, was nonetheless written as a sort of updating of the Dean/Brando '50s parts something certainly more appealing than the exhausted Vietnam syndrome
).
The most embarrassing scenes are those of Jackson's initially ideal family ,that brusquelyor gradually, in the writer's intentions --becomes gravely _disfunctional and explosive.
HOTB erects a small shrine for an Irak war syndrome. It will certainly impress unpretentious viewers. My main reason for seeing it was Jackson's presence (this is not meant as an excuse!). I enjoyed some things, and do not dismiss the flick altogether.
A short list of worse flicksCRASH, the newer Pacino and De Niro films, Van Sant's films, etc. .I would have liked better a HOTB with Presley's role much extended, widened, explored,and,if possible,with a more _neurosed actor, with many atmospheric city scenes. (Maybe even Presley is not absolutely badonly much below his role.) It's not a honest movie, yet it's not _un-endearing either. It's drama unintentionally turned to rubbish melodrama. To dream on, dear reader, this flick would of greatly benefited from some musical _psychedelismthe liquid, fluent psychedelic unseen landscapes .
The only story more than barely sketched is that of B. Presleyand it's a suggestive, quite interesting one. We find out practically nothing about Mme. Biel' and 50 Cent's characterstheir previous life, etc., while Jackson's scenes are embarrassingly schmaltzy. Schmaltzy charm-less melodrama.
HOTB is much better than rubbish like CRASH (so wisely termed by an IMDb writer, 'chicagoelise'which I am glad to quote hereto be a sincere piece of trashviz.:" would gladly, if not delightfully, accept 1,000 movies this adorably bad (she originally meant a new Craven shocker) over 1,000,000 sincere pieces of trash like "Crash", "Million Dollar Baby", "The House of Sand and Fog", and "Gladiator". Without disasters like "Red Eye", "Showgirls", and, ironically, "Crash" we wouldn't have had a basis of 'truly awful' with which to appreciate genuinely good, well-made movies.").HOTB, more modestly, belongs to the same class of Hollywoodian crap masquerading as drama .HOTB is bad, enjoyable, recommended to all the philistines and softheads. Today it looks like Hollywoodian socalled dramas are only made for them. The collapse of the Hollywoodian drama.
The most embarrassing scenes are those of Jackson's initially ideal family ,that brusquelyor gradually, in the writer's intentions --becomes gravely _disfunctional and explosive.
HOTB erects a small shrine for an Irak war syndrome. It will certainly impress unpretentious viewers. My main reason for seeing it was Jackson's presence (this is not meant as an excuse!). I enjoyed some things, and do not dismiss the flick altogether.
A short list of worse flicksCRASH, the newer Pacino and De Niro films, Van Sant's films, etc. .I would have liked better a HOTB with Presley's role much extended, widened, explored,and,if possible,with a more _neurosed actor, with many atmospheric city scenes. (Maybe even Presley is not absolutely badonly much below his role.) It's not a honest movie, yet it's not _un-endearing either. It's drama unintentionally turned to rubbish melodrama. To dream on, dear reader, this flick would of greatly benefited from some musical _psychedelismthe liquid, fluent psychedelic unseen landscapes .
The only story more than barely sketched is that of B. Presleyand it's a suggestive, quite interesting one. We find out practically nothing about Mme. Biel' and 50 Cent's characterstheir previous life, etc., while Jackson's scenes are embarrassingly schmaltzy. Schmaltzy charm-less melodrama.
HOTB is much better than rubbish like CRASH (so wisely termed by an IMDb writer, 'chicagoelise'which I am glad to quote hereto be a sincere piece of trashviz.:" would gladly, if not delightfully, accept 1,000 movies this adorably bad (she originally meant a new Craven shocker) over 1,000,000 sincere pieces of trash like "Crash", "Million Dollar Baby", "The House of Sand and Fog", and "Gladiator". Without disasters like "Red Eye", "Showgirls", and, ironically, "Crash" we wouldn't have had a basis of 'truly awful' with which to appreciate genuinely good, well-made movies.").HOTB, more modestly, belongs to the same class of Hollywoodian crap masquerading as drama .HOTB is bad, enjoyable, recommended to all the philistines and softheads. Today it looks like Hollywoodian socalled dramas are only made for them. The collapse of the Hollywoodian drama.