Brutal and bully-minded

Rating: 2/10 (4 July 2008)

This movie sums up all that's wrong with modern culture -- it glorifies mindless excessive brutal sadistic violence from one end to the other, it's morally confused, it exudes an air of contempt for everyone, and it has the most childish philosophy of meaning.
Becoming a man -- or even an authentic human being -- in this movie means becoming the best possible killing machine. Growing up means becoming just like your father. The movie tries to justify the cult of assassins, and then gives up and just wallows in a sadistic, voyeuristic, pornographic love of bloodshed for its own sake. The director can't show a body without including a quick closeup of the bloodiest possible wound. The most gratuitous beatings are piled up one on top of another till my wife just got up and walked out (she got her money back). This is the perfect movie for the gore-soaked video game crowd.
There are some terrific John Woo-like ballets of legitimate action and some great stylistic effects. But it's too bad some obvious talent is being wasted in the service of corpse-worship. At the end of the film, the protagonists exults in his killings, and invites the audience to follow his lead. I left in disgust........