Monster's Ball
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Movie Reviews of Monster's Ball
Movie Review: Halle Barry deserved the acadamy award!
Summary: 5 Stars
WOW! Where does one begin writing about such a powerful movie?Billy Bob Thornton plays the unfeeling, unemotional, robot of a man...(He plays him superbly) He comes from a generation of robotic sleeze balls.
How apt that he is one of the gaurds at the prison who executes Halle Barry's husband (Puffy.)
Halle plays her role (No makeup, still stunning) as a sort of welfare, desparate, pathetic soul...probably also from a generation of dysfunction.
Billy and Halle meet somehow---both filling a hole in one another. Somehow it works. Somehow they become better people because of it.
There is a scene where Billy Bob Thorton is painting the inside of his house white...(symbolic for a new beginning)
There are scenes where the viewer will see hands reaching into a cage recovering a bird... (Another metaphor for freedom, change, letting go)
This is one of the best movies I have ever watched...
Halle is superb, deserving of the acadamy award.
Thornton is brilliant as her sleeze ball boyfriend turned human.
Looooooooove it!!!!
PS... beware, the scenes of Barry beating her son is very raw and disturbing, but the directer makes the viewer see that she too, has been in this abusive cycle for many years.
This is not a movie you will soon forget...the images will stay with you and make every emotion surface.
Movie Review: Black Guys "Reviewing" This Movie Need To Quit Whining
Summary: 5 Stars
All the black men who cannot handle the sex scene between Halle Berry or Billy Bob Thornton should really get a hold of themselves and calm the hell down!
Contrary to the popular myth going around black male moviegoer circles, there are WAAAY more films showing interracial romance/sex between black men and white women? (Save The Last Dance, O, The End Of Violence, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?, Hustle And Flow, Love Field, etc.) And, on the rare occasion,
when we do get to see vice versa we got to hear and read angry, spiteful comments. PLEASE!
This isn't even a movie about interracial sex or relationships. It's about two people in a small Southern town in pain, gravitating towards each other because, depite all their differences, nobody else is there for them. Both ease the emotional burdens of the other one in ways no other black man or white woman can. Because down deep inside the color of their skins is less important than the tragic loss of child. That bonds them closer than race or nationality.
The sex scene was not intended to be erotic or arousing. If people see it that way, it is a shame. The sex these two have is really a yearning for life. They are both psycholigically and emotionally damaged. This wasn't any get yer freak on late at night on the sly interracial encounter.
Grow up people!
Movie Review: Understatement savoured
Summary: 5 Stars
Monster's Ball is a colloquial term for the night of good ol' boy togetherness before an exection. In this sensitive, quietly shocking film, we the audience make up the Monster's Ball. We sit in expensive theater seats and observe the deceptively complex lives of a small town in the South. The time is now; the bigotries and wasted mores are eternal. With deft assurance we come to understand a male family of Corrections officers - Peter Boyle as a gasping, respiratory failure grandfather, Billy Bob Thornton as a dutiful father who happens to be the current active executioner, his son Heath Ledger, a sensitive young man wholly out of tune with racial bias and capital punishment. Then there is the one to be executed, a wondrous portrayal by Sean Combs, his obese "never make it looking like that in a Black America" son who hides in candy bars, and the resplendent Halle Berry as the wife/mother, victim of society in more ways then one. The interplay of these extraordinary actors (along with a supporting cast of officers, neighbors, hookers, waitresses so strong that they each could carry a film) results in a story so deeply tender without resorting to bathos that we can only read the final credits in awe and disbelief that life, in many places, is so difficult, yet the human spirit so enduring. This is a very fine film in every way.Movie Review: Brilliant Acting - Simple Plot
Summary: 5 Stars
This cleverly simple, but well balanced plot is well known by now and if you don't know it, it doesn't matter much, as the acting carries this film. Billy Bob Thorton again plays a southern hick (a Corrections Officer), a character he does so well at. His father (Peter Boyle) also plays a great bigot (something he began in 1970's "Joe"). Billy Bob's son played by Heath Ledger, again plays his typical character role as a hick with a conscience. Now, it is Ms. Halle Berry that breaks rank and shows her best in a shockingly well-acted part as a single mother waitress. I saw "X-Men" and didn't expect anything out of Berry, but she went for broke and plays such a convincing character, I was happy she won that Oscar! Again, it's a simple plot, but not one without merit, as it explores some serious issues of racism, bigotry, inter-racial relationships, child abuse, obesity, murder, suicide - and does it with a deft and staight forward tone. Quite a load for a 'small' film. It's not a happy picture and at times can be terribly depressing. But, the script also keeps it afloat with realistic dialogue, taken well advantage of by the cast.
One note of dismay: Only in America can two characters make love in a film where the woman is completely naked and the man still has his underwear on! What is up with that?
Movie Review: Did she deserve the Oscar? You Betcha!...
Summary: 5 Stars
Hail Halle! Not only does she continue to redefine beauty, she redefines acting in her portrayal of a woman at a crossroads. While the film focuses mostly on one man's struggle with the life assigned him and his relationship with his father and son, Halle's character, Leticia, must deal with her own heartache. She finds herself redefining who she after a two significant losses in her life.
When life deals her a very heavy blow she turns to a man who was kind to her and an intense relationship begins. While the editorial review speaks of the loss of children - it is how those deaths happen that bring about the bond. It's an exquisitely written film, expertly directed, and beautifully acted by all! Heath Ledger (one of my favorites) turns in a great performance (while I loved him in A Knights Tale, I didn't think he had it in him and now I am hooked!...) as Hank's son and the dynamic intensity between them leaves you bewildered and angry too.
This is a movie well worth watching. If you are Billy Bob Thorton fan - you will not be disappointed. If you are a Halle Berry fan - you will be stunned to see the depth with which she potray's such loss and pain. I knew she had it in her! She is destined for great and wonderful things and I look forward to her winning her next Oscar!