Two thumbs down

Did this ever happen to you: you see a movie that you know other people liked, that got good reviews, was maybe nominated for some awards...and you feel kind of strange when you hate it? That happened last night when I watched A History of Violence. Normally, I am a big believer in suspension of disbelief, especially when a movie has an interesting or thought-provoking message. And I suppose this one was meant to raise questions about human nature, if we can change who we are, if certain qualities are hereditary, yadda yadda yadda. But just because it has a message doesn't mean a film can get away with a plot filled with both holes and cliches. About five minutes into this one I started hating it. The beginning scenes, which establish the loving family relationship and the friendly small town where the loving family lives, were ridiculously cheesy. And then, after that, well, it was just bad. All rules of passage of time and rational human behavior are suspended, leaving me shouting out questions like: "how long does it take to bandage a foot!?", "Where are all the reporters this time?", "How fast is he running, anyway, with that injured foot!?", "Doesn't anybody care about the three dead bodies in the driveway?!" and the old standby, "Why doesn't she call the police?!" And it was violent and bloody. Yuck. Mercifully, it was only 1 hour 40 minutes long. Anyway, those "two thumbs down" in the subject were mine. Both of them, definitively down.

Feel free to argue with me on this one. Just don't get ridiculous, like on this IMDB discussion board.