Emotional pornography

Rating: 1/10 (19 August 2008)

Ben Affleck has created a movie in which his scrawny little brother Casey can act out his wet dreams of playing a tough guy. It's pathetic from the syrupy opening sequence where we discover the "heart" of the local people of Boston, all the way to the end, where Casey avenges then deaths of all the little innocent children and slain heroes. Watching this movie was wallowing in bad, emotional pornography.
The movie is a series of vignettes in which the littlest Affleck gets to show what a bad ass he wants to be. The plot winds on and on as Casey saves the day scene after scene. There is no trajectory to the story, no sense of rhythm, just back-fired catharsis after back-fired catharsis. It's mind-numbing. You will hear "for the sake of the children" until you want to stuff cotton in your ears. I can't imagine any self-respecting writer actually putting this schlock on paper.
So what does the movie do? Affleck's redundantly long film massages the prostate gland of gun-toting, vigilante-wannabes who think the best way to extract justice is by "taking care of things themselves" and "taking justice into their own hands" and watching movies about bad asses. The LAST thing America moviegoers need is another film to stroke the egos of puffed-up, self-righteous violence mongers. The movie is basically Team America with a dramatic score.
Please do not support this kind of movie-making. It's pathetic. We can do better.