Rented another fine wreck of a movie by Uwe Boll through Netflix: "
Heart of America." I was just expecting this to be awful! In the end...yeah, it is. Stylistically it's not bad though and makes for passable entertainment; camermanship is pretty solid, the acting is passable (maybe a little cheesy though), it is pretty slick how they used B&W shots for flashbacks, and the music was not bad.
Other than that, the movie stinks. The dialogue is mostly cheesy (a couple of parts made me laugh; out of the blue, this one guy asks "so what do I do now?" and the other guy replies "We're having this conversation." Brilliant! I should use these lines in real life, see what happens!). Characters are one-dimensional, and practically stereotypical. The plot is a bit messy (not that it's full of holes or anything, but there are a few scenes that don't really fit in the movie (like the opening shot) and there are many scenes where something suddenly happens and they throw in a flashback to explain it; seems very contrived to me). The overall production quality resembles that of a made-for-TV movie.
One funny thing about this movie: it's supposed to be summertime (you know, the end of high school), but the movie was obviously made in autumn time. All the trees are dead, it looked like it rained in some shots, and in one scene you could see the characters' breath. Jeez, in other movies, they either wait for a good season to film, or use props/sets to simulate a given season; they didn't even bother with this one. Way to go, Uwe!
But the biggest gripe I have is over the movie's content. School shootings is a sensitive and controversial subject as it is; if the film was earnest and of higher quality, I probably would appreciate it a lot better. But coming from Uwe Boll, I couldn't help but to think that he handled the subject matter very weakly, using gratuitous violence for pure and shallow shock value rather than to create anything invoking. At times, the bullying scenes actually seemed way too over-the-top to be taken seriously. And ultimately, the movie makes the shooters out to be victims more than anything, completely disregarding any background or development that would otherwise indicate that they themselves are troubled. As such, it is a one-sided viewpoint, and it is highly unrealistic. In the end, I felt this movie was just another expression of Uwe's nihilism and shallow guilty pleasures more than anything.
Come to think of it, I'm not even sure what this movie's message is supposed to be about. Does it even have one? Why is it called "Heart of America?" Is it criticism, indicating that the heart of America is full of violence (if so...BOOOOO!!!!!)? Agh, it's too scary to even think about it...
So overall...2/5.
