Review of America The Beautiful (2008) by Eva J — 17 Aug 2012

I saw this rare treat on Netflix. With an election coming up, the banality level is going through the roof. I'm one of those persons who urges voters to 1) become informed and 2) be discriminate in what passes as knowledge. This movie does not take sides, but in the scream loud nonsense and flat out lie until people believe you, the far right (even the close right) is winning hands down. However, the movie is none-too-gentile on the liberal psychobabble on child rearingâ"so don't expect your side to be handled "fairly" while the other side is righteously blasted to fire and brimstone.

Some viewers will be offended by the violence as two characters--a middle age man and teeny-bopper --blast away the many ills and evil they find in contemporary society. (Where were these guys when I needed them when a person disrupted a movie with their cell phones?) However, the violence is more like a pointer in a presentation--"Look at this" --than the kind of violence in the blood baths found in horror films that have no message other than to scare dates into a clutching snuggle.

Some who see this film will come away with "OMG, they shot a reality show star!" and others will think, "Not a bad idea..." The whole point is to look at what has happened to our culture, as smallness and meanness have replaced any kind of nobility and decency. (Even 'nobility' has come to mean 'entitled.').

Just you wait, though. Some half-wit will claim films like this 'caused' the massacre at the Batman movie. They'll have missed the point entirely and perhaps belong on that list of contemporary shallowness in thought and deed.