Mediocre..

Rating: Null/10 (29 June 1999)

Powerful? Outstanding? Moving? Superb? Um...no! I just saw American History X and quite frankly, I didn't know a movie could be disturbing and boring at the same time. The overall plot as well as Ed Norton's character arc was ridiculous. "Um, hi, I'm a racist. I cold-bloodedly kill Black kids for trying to steal my car. Ooops, I got raped in the shower, I work next to a Black guy in jail, now I'm not a racist anymore." Oh, okay. If we're supposed to believe that it's his friendship in jail that changes his mind about Black people, the relationship needs to go a little deeper than sex jokes and basketball (especially since racists believe that all Black people are interested in is sex and basketball.) Then he just walks away from his Neo-Nazi group and they make *NO* attempts on his life or attack his family? And on a trivial note: why go through all the trouble of setting up the fact that his mother more than likely has cancer? There was no payoff to that whatsoever.
Overall, I can't give the film any more than a 6, a smidge more than average, but not much.