Cinematical

Come on, you even directly reference The Woodsman and continue to say that you really can't buy Bacon as mild-mannered, vulnerable, and passive in any way? What gives?

Kevin Bacon is gifted with all the acting chops required to wholeheartedly and convincingly pull off that kind of transformation.

Now I'm not saying that this movie is going to be able to rise above it's derivative, exploitative roots and deliver that character's journey onscreen but that could never be deemed a failure of miscasting or performance. It will be due to the screenplay and direction.

I mean, this flick, while sure to be mindlessly entertaining enough, is from the guy responsible for schlockfests like Saw and Dead Silence. You can't expect much thought provocation or substance.

It's just a shame that Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick seemingly have an inversely proportionate relationship in regards to their professional careers. She's garnering all sorts of critical acclaim, kudos, and fans on "The Closer" while he is being reduced to throwaway features like this.

If only "Death Sentence" was going to be a serious, realistic, and intelligent take on the subject matter. I really don't want to see ridiculously graphic and over-the-top action sequences in place of plausibility. You can easily make a genuinely harrowing and exciting thriller out of this kind of movie without devolving into dumb, violent set pieces. I know I haven't seen a frame of footage from this movie but all that's pretty much a given.

I'm not saying even a movie like "The Brave One" will be all that much more than all that above but at least they seem to be making an attempt at realism. Although, I'm thinking that movie will be unfortunately laced with cheap, insultingly stereotypical, Hollywood female empowerment nonsense.

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Dude, don't try to find logic in Monika Bartyzel's posts. She's the black sheep of Cinematical, the one who posts crap no one cares about except her, and when she does post something interesting (like this one), she makes a fool of herself by offering up some lamebrain opinions.

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Ah, thanks for the love, auteur.

L.G. - Sure, he can play a mild-mannered executive, but it's not a stretch to imagine him taking the revenge route. There's a reason he's got so many thrillers and creepy roles under his belt -- he can do it well, and he's got the look.

You make a good point that we'll have to expect a good deal of violence since it's coming from Wan.. But I still want to see the guy you could never even fathom being violent, and how they comes to do such acts.

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I can totally dig on what you're saying, Ms. Bartyzel but I can't fault Bacon in any way, shape, or form for making some compellingly dark character choices over the past several years and I'm more than willing to wholly buy into whatever dynamic his character's got going on in a movie.

I can't imagine much more than 20 minutes or so of this movie's runtime will be devoted to pre-tragedy character development when there's all that gleeful, vengeful carnage to start planning and glorifying, anyway. And I have the sneaking suspicion that Bacon's recent gritty, hard-edged roles and their accompanying image isn't lost on Wan & Co. and they'll be more than happy to pump up the gore quotient in a crude attempt to provoke the shock you and I would both want to feel when Bacon's character embarks on his quest for vengeance.

Unfortunately, there seems like there can only be one "In The Bedroom". Jeez, I love that movie. However, I'm still entirely convinced the right filmmaker could mine a smart, affecting, yet kinetic thriller from this premise.

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