the Mind’s Chew Toy

Well, Monster’s Ball has won a few Academy Awards®, and gotten rave reviews. A friend of mine bought it, and let me borrow it. I hadn’t been that interested in watching it, but since it was free, I decided I might as well.

The characters of Monster’s Ball are incredibly stereotyped: Hank, the son of a racist who sees the error of his ways; Leticia, a poor black woman whose husband sits on death row; Sonny, the son whose father hates him, but he loves his father just the same; even Hank’s father, an old racist at heart, who considers everyone else to be weak, as he sits attached to an oxygen tank living out the last days of his life.

The characters all fit into neat little packages, and didn’t do anything against that. There was no great surprise in their actions whatsoever, and they all tended toward a monotone.

Monster’s Ball was incredibly predictable. You could see everything coming miles away, and got bored by the time the movie caught up. I don’t know what the Academy saw here, but I didn’t see it, at all. This almost seemed like a porn video, with a slap together plot. There was enough sex to keep the twentysomething viewers interested, and hopefully to keep them awake through the movie as well. It moved at an incredibly slow place, and failed to keep my attention.

All in all, if this hadn’t been a freebie, I never would have watched Monster’s Ball, and I wouldn’t be any the worse for wear because of it. Some movies are powerful, some are moving.

This movie doesn’t do either, except maybe move you to the bathroom watching Billy Bob and Halle get together. That was downright disgusting…he’s gotta be one of the ugliest actors in show biz today.

One interesting side note: Amazing how Swordfish (2001) had to pay extra to get Halle Berry to bare her breasts, but tell her it’s a drama, and she’s naked for half of the movie!

They say the title is the name of the little party they have the night before the execution. This film must be the decaying corpse the day after.