Good, but lacking something...

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2000)

Spoilers lie within...
American History X came to me highly recommended and having just seen it I can see why.
Edward Norton stars as the racist skinhead Derek Vinyard, who after killing two black guys trying to steal his car gets sent to prison. While he is inside his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is going down the same track as he did and on the day of his brothers release hands in a paper called "My Mein Kampf". Derek now reformed tries to stop his brother from going the same way as he did.
I thought that film, while being powerful and, at times, shocking (see the brutal kerbing scene) it lacked something.
It was a film for the 3 minute attention span generation, in that it seemed too short and the 2 brothers found redemption extraordinarily quickly (and in the case of Derek it was slightly cliched) I also thought that it got tied up in a fairly predictable story line after a while.
That said it does have many good moments and Edward Norton gives a performance worthy of his Oscar nomination.
7/10