Ebert calls the new movie Kick Ass "morally reprehensible" because it depicts an eleven-year old girl as a cartoonishly violent martial artist and assassin, punching and chopping her way through a gang of thugs and using language that would make a standup comedian blush.
Yet Roger had no such criticism for a movie last year that I felt was one of the most reprehensible and unneccessarily brutal that I'd ever seen. In Last House on the Left a gang of killers beats and rapes one teenage girl and shoots another in the back as she is trying to escape. And the rape scene is arduous and graphic.
Yes, Kick Ass is unquestionably violent. And yes, the little girl has a potty mouth (which, I agree, could have been toned down, probably to better effect). She also gets punched out toward the end by a far bigger and stronger adult. But come on, Roger! You gave Last House on the Left four stars and mentioned the rape only in passing. Kick Ass got two thumbs down.
Kick Ass is a dark comedy crafted from the cartoon of the same name. The "super hero" characters are what Peter Parker might have become if he had only the suit and a bellyful of moral outrage (and enough Lotto winnings to buy an arsenal that includes a bazooka, Gatling gun and a jetpack). It's campy and fun and devilishly unrealistic in a Jackie Chan, John Woo, chop-socky sort of way. Most important, however, it has heart and characters who care about each other.
I can't begin to say that about the trash that is Last House on the Left which looked to me as though it was written and filmed by a bunch of people with some frightening sexual fantasies.
Roger, your moral compass is seriously skewed.
Showing posts with label killing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label killing. Show all posts
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
On Murder and 20/20 Hindsight
Several people took me to task for yesterday's post about the double murder/suicide in Wilmette, just as they did awhile back when I made the assertion that crime victims often ignore warning signs of danger, particularly when they occur in relationships.
Richard Wiley was an ex-con who murdered his first wife by stabbing her almost two dozen times. He was convicted, served fifteen years of a thirty year sentence, and was released in 2000. The man who prosecuted him is quoted as saying Wiley,"gave me chills."
Eight months after his release, Kathryn Motes married him.
Over the weekend, the couple reportedly argued. Then, police say, Wiley shot her and her teenage son, spent the night writing a suicide note, then killed himself.
Motes knew Wiley killed his first wife. So did her pastor and the people in her church. The pastor who married them tells the Tribune she even had misgivings about marrying the two but that Motes assured her she had considered all the scenarios and could, "deal with it."
And some of you think there weren't warning signs in this relationship? C'mon! The man got angry and stabbed wife number one twenty-three times! Some relationships have subtle hints of problems to come. This one flashed, "DANGER AHEAD" in big red letters from the first day they met. Undoubtedly there were other, more subtle, warnings that went unheeded over the past eight years, too.
Yet, as one friend noted to me yesterday, "People see what they want to see." And no one wants to see evil when they look into the eyes of someone they love.
My final thoughts on the subject? God Bless Kathryn Motes for loving Richard Wiley despite his history. God Bless the members of their church for accepting him and supporting her. I wish it had all turned out differently for them and her son. May God rest their souls.
"Thus," as I am fond of quoting Sean Connery in The Untouchables, "endeth the lesson."
Oh, but not really. A little postscript.
Recently a young mother in the Chicago area moved in with an ex-cop with a history of checkered relationships. You know the one I mean. One ex-wife dead in their bathtub? The other one missing? His grinning face all over the news on a regular basis? That guy.
Another pretty obvious case of warning bells clanging loudly, right? Personally, I think she'll go missing someday, too. Just because he wants the thrill of doing it right under the noses of people who are watching and waiting for it to happen.
I'm more worried about the silent domestic alarms, however. The ones going off, maybe in a relationship in your community. Maybe even between people you know and care about.
Perhaps nasty words have given way to shouting. Making threats. Or grabbing an arm and twisting it. Or giving a shove. Maybe a punch. Maybe one of the kids has an unexplainable bruise. Or someone has a black eye from "running into a door." Or someone fell down a flight of stairs.
Accidents, pure and simple? Or warning signs of domestic abuse?
What does your intuition tell you?
What are you going to do about it?
Richard Wiley was an ex-con who murdered his first wife by stabbing her almost two dozen times. He was convicted, served fifteen years of a thirty year sentence, and was released in 2000. The man who prosecuted him is quoted as saying Wiley,"gave me chills."
Eight months after his release, Kathryn Motes married him.
Over the weekend, the couple reportedly argued. Then, police say, Wiley shot her and her teenage son, spent the night writing a suicide note, then killed himself.
Motes knew Wiley killed his first wife. So did her pastor and the people in her church. The pastor who married them tells the Tribune she even had misgivings about marrying the two but that Motes assured her she had considered all the scenarios and could, "deal with it."
And some of you think there weren't warning signs in this relationship? C'mon! The man got angry and stabbed wife number one twenty-three times! Some relationships have subtle hints of problems to come. This one flashed, "DANGER AHEAD" in big red letters from the first day they met. Undoubtedly there were other, more subtle, warnings that went unheeded over the past eight years, too.
Yet, as one friend noted to me yesterday, "People see what they want to see." And no one wants to see evil when they look into the eyes of someone they love.
My final thoughts on the subject? God Bless Kathryn Motes for loving Richard Wiley despite his history. God Bless the members of their church for accepting him and supporting her. I wish it had all turned out differently for them and her son. May God rest their souls.
"Thus," as I am fond of quoting Sean Connery in The Untouchables, "endeth the lesson."
Oh, but not really. A little postscript.
Recently a young mother in the Chicago area moved in with an ex-cop with a history of checkered relationships. You know the one I mean. One ex-wife dead in their bathtub? The other one missing? His grinning face all over the news on a regular basis? That guy.
Another pretty obvious case of warning bells clanging loudly, right? Personally, I think she'll go missing someday, too. Just because he wants the thrill of doing it right under the noses of people who are watching and waiting for it to happen.
I'm more worried about the silent domestic alarms, however. The ones going off, maybe in a relationship in your community. Maybe even between people you know and care about.
Perhaps nasty words have given way to shouting. Making threats. Or grabbing an arm and twisting it. Or giving a shove. Maybe a punch. Maybe one of the kids has an unexplainable bruise. Or someone has a black eye from "running into a door." Or someone fell down a flight of stairs.
Accidents, pure and simple? Or warning signs of domestic abuse?
What does your intuition tell you?
What are you going to do about it?
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