A man sliced in half by a blade on a pendulum? Sounds like it’s taken from ‘The pit and the pendulum’, which was Poe’s depiction of how things were in Toledo under the Spanish Inquisition. Just wonder how would they transplant that to Baltimore?

Infidel on April 28, 2012 at 3:51 am

And of course Jason Segel is a child of an intermarriage himself, with a Jewish father and a non-Jewish, Christian mother. I guess he’s playing his dad in a way.

dee on April 28, 2012 at 5:14 am

Debbie, thanks for the graphic warning on The Raven. Too many times, reviewers never properly alert moviegoers to the graphic violence in today’s flicks. I solve that by barely going to the movies.

JeffT on April 28, 2012 at 9:18 am

Debbie,

I am sick and tired of all these Jewish actors portraying as badly. Why is it every time there is a movie with disgusting behavior it always has either a Jewish Director or Jewish Actors. Why are we all always debasing ourselves just to make others laugh. I always feel angry/guilty telling people I am jewish here in Pennsylvania because most of my friends are really devout Christians and always complain that American TV was much cleaner before the Jews began entering the field.

We are not like these losers who portray us on TV. Its no wonder Muslims/Christians look at us with disdain and view us immoral liberals. Thank you Jason Segal/Gene Simmons/Jerry Seinfeld/Judd Apatow etc…..

We need more Speilbergs

Thanks for the Reviews

Avi on April 28, 2012 at 9:35 am

Going to see the Raven, been a Poe fan for a long time. Not a fan of Cusacks politics, but Grosse Pointe Blank made me like him briefly. Until he started publicly outing himself as a uberlib.

samurai on April 28, 2012 at 9:50 am

I do not go to movies, I refuse to support Hollywood instead I support people like Debbie. Thank you Debbie for your work. bye the by can you get anything on Obama’s Enemies list & his sending the IRS after them? Namely I read where they are targeting anyone who has contributed to Romney.

A_Zion_State_0'mind on April 28, 2012 at 11:10 am

I enjoyed your review (very much!) on that girly-man movie. And you pin-pointed the strangeness of Emily Blunt’s face. And you’re spot on—she is waaaaaaaay over-rated.

Movies like that make it fun being an ex-feminist. It just cements my view now that feminists are frauds, selfish, stupid and don’t have a clue (because, basically, they have become everything they hated in men). It shows the ugliness of women and proves they do not corner the market on being the better class of humans.

Since I avoid America films I hadn’t seen any action films in a long time. At the gym I saw a cable network play some Jason Statham film and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it! The action was crazy and hard to believe but I enjoyed it (when he landed on a bus or truck with a jet-ski or something!). So when I was away last month working, I got to enjoy some action movies on cable tv.

Skunky on April 28, 2012 at 1:05 pm

Debbie, Thank you for your reviews, I’ve been making and keeping notes for a long time regarding key words and ideas you implement in them. I use this list to review which films may have been obtained by my library for my viewing, since I decline to spend any money to support the industry. I’d rather donate those dollars to my local library since I’ve discovered the librarians locally are mostly non-libs, and some depend on me to recommend movies to them. I generally use your rules of thumb, or recommend they seek your site and read for themselves.

Kent on April 28, 2012 at 3:16 pm

Debbie,

I saw Safe today while the wife and kids saw the chimp movie. It was a delightfully escapist movie. I really enjoyed just vegging out on this dreary Michigan day.

Michael on April 28, 2012 at 4:51 pm

“that American TV was much cleaner before the Jews began entering the field”

Fiction. American television has been very Jewish behind-the-scenes, and somewhat in front of, since its very inception. The idea that TV “got dirtier” once Jews got in is an anti-Jewish canard because television didn’t exist before the Jews and the networks, most of which were founded by Jews. If anything, TV is much less Jewish now than it was in the 1950s.

dee on April 28, 2012 at 5:30 pm

Emily Blunt is a funny, charming, pretty, sexy woman. Debbie S. has nothing better to do than write about a small imperfection in her in teeth. Meow?

I believe the rest of the review, though. I can’t imagine watching that movie when it’s free on cable.

JGlanton on April 28, 2012 at 8:17 pm

“If you like mindless action films with a decent story and lots of shoot-outs and fights, this is for you.”

Yes!!!!! I love anything Jason Statham is in, most especially The Transporter series by my favorite director, Luc Besson.

Debbie, you need to move out of that awful Michigan and come down to Nashville, TN. We can go to the movies together since we have pretty similar tastes.

Jeff_W on April 28, 2012 at 9:39 pm

@ Avi,

I am a really devout Christian and I have nothing but utmost respect for the Jewish people. That definitely goes for Debbie. We might believe differently, but Ms. Schlussel is so respectful of Christians and the respect is more than mutual from me.

I can’t speak for all Christians of course, but most I know feel the same about Israel and Jews. Of course, Jesus was a Jew, same for Paul who wrote most of the New Testament. Most Christians I know have utmost respect for Jews because we acknowledge and believe they are God’s chosen people. In fact, Caleb from the Old Testament is one of my all time favorite heroes (He was the Chuck Norris of the Bible!!!!).

I know Christians haven’t always been as respectful towards the Jews, but there are a great deal like me who have great respect and admiration for Israel and the Jews.

Jeff_W on April 28, 2012 at 9:46 pm

My wife and I saw The Raven today and I really enjoyed it. I read your reviews every week, and wondered while I watched it whether you sould like it or not. Glad you gave it at least 1 1/2 Reagans!

John F on April 28, 2012 at 10:36 pm

“The Raven” looks like it has an interesting take on the Edgar Allan Poe stories by transforming him into a Sherlock Holmes-type character. Of course, Poe INVENTED the modern detective story, and Holmes (like many other great literary detective) was based on the character that Poe created named C. Auguste Dupin, who is featured in Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (involving a grisly double homicide), “The Mystery of Marie Roget” and “The Purloined Letter.” So, it would seem that in this movie, Poe, in effect becomes Dupin.

Many of Poe’s stories involved acts of violence, terror, and gore, but Poe’s writings were not so much concerned with the acts and results themselves, but with the “state of mind” of both the perpetrators and the victims of those acts. Consequently, Poe is very difficult to translate into cinematic terms, without substantially altering the nature and quality of his works. It appears that this movie focuses on the physical acts, rather than on the intellect and emotions of the characters, taking the more commonly traveled and easier road to script.

The best film version of Poe’s works is still “Spirits of the Dead” (1968) which is really three short subjects separately directed by Rogert Vadim, Louis Malle, and Federico Fellini. And the best of the best is Fellini’s short based on Poe’s short story “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.” Although Fellini’s work is very different from the original story as well, Fellini, in my opinion, best captures the true spirit of Poe’s writing, as he focuses on the state of mind of the protagonist in his story, rather than the overt violence. In Fellini’s short, the violence is only implied. But then, few filmmakers have been able to create cinematic visions that refect inner thoughts and emotions with the genius and verve of Fellini.

Ralph Adamo on April 29, 2012 at 2:15 am

‘I am jewish here in Pennsylvania because most of my friends are really devout Christians and always complain that American TV was much cleaner before the Jews began entering the field.’

Hmmmm….’most of my friends…complain…before the Jews began…’

And you’re a Jew? Yeah, right.

Nir Leiu on April 29, 2012 at 3:19 am

Avi

You don’t need more Spielbergs – wasn’t one Munich enough? But I agree w/ others – don’t beat up on yourself.

After coming to America in 1991, I realized that there is a difference b/w Christians/Jews/Buddhists/Shintos/Hindus/Taoists vs Atheists and Agnostics. Previously, I’d have associated one just by his ancestrial/nominal religion, unless s/he happened to have formally converted.

Honestly, if someone were to point out to me that Stanley Cohen, a top American-Israeli lawyer who’s worked for both Hamas and Hizbullah, is a Jew, I’d laugh @ him. The ‘Jew’ label in his case is just a facade – in reality, what he does is something that even most Muslims would be hard pressed to match. The same goes for a huge number of his comrades in both the US and Israel, as well as elsewhere.

I just wish people like that were a minority in the Jewish community, rather than a majority. Officially, the world’s Jewish population is said to be 14 million (as per adherents.com), of which only 2 million are said to be orthodox, while between Reform and Secular Jews are 8 million. Since I’m not a Jew, I’d not have bothered too much about their religious practices, but the fact that their religious practices translate directly into whether they are self-hating or not is what is bothersome.

Infidel on April 29, 2012 at 4:22 am

Jason Statham gives street cred to guys with thinning hair everywhere. DOWN WITH ACTION HEROS WITH THICK, BEAUTIFUL, LUSTROUS HAIR!

DS_ROCKS! on April 29, 2012 at 2:13 pm

I saw “Safe” and, like Debbie, I enjoyed it. Actually, I think I liked it even more than she did.

I like Jason Statham in general as an action star. The problem with action films of the last decade, though, is that the stars generally play nihilists with no core values except doing their job (of killing) well. This is the main idea behind “The Mechanic” and also “The Professional.” So the action heroes haven’t been all that heroic.

In this new film, “Safe,” Statham plays someone I found myself admiring, not just respecting. He goes after organized crime, here updated from the 80s and 90s to include both Chinese and Russian, and meanwhile has to battle dirty New York cops as well. All the people he has to fight are very evil and I also felt they were convincing as characters I could genuinely hate. Also Statham here isn’t looking for trouble, and he even goes to extra lengths to avoid collateral damage as he should.

Another thing I liked in this film was the little Chinese girl. The trailers made her look like a cynically included extra, something like the gorgeous-but-not-very-interesting tag-alongs who are used as props in the “Professional” films. But actually in this case, the kid was likable, spunky and interesting in her own right–reminding me of the kid in “Commando” which I consider one of the best action films of this type ever made.

Burke on April 30, 2012 at 12:53 pm

I also saw “Five-Year-Engagement.” I knew the film was going to be weird when I reached the scene where Jason was dressed up as a pink bunny for the party. His girlfriend Blunt was dressed up as Diana which makes sense because Diana wore the pants in her relationship with Charles.

Thanks for explaining the pig references, because I didn’t get why they were making a big deal of them in the film (such as the bed-and-breakfast scene at The Drunken Pig). So it was simply the director’s way of making a point that a little rebellion against religious rules is fine and healthy. I see.

There are two kinds of corrupt comedies, it seems to me: those that are merely raunchy like “The Hangover” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and those with a liberal ideological axe to grind like “Friends with Benefits” that purposefully are made to undermine traditional conservative values. This was of the second type. It’s set up as a women’s lib parable to show that if a woman sacrifices her career for marriage, the couple will be miserable. By showing what happens to a man in similar circumstances, we’re to understand that the same principles will apply with women. Drip drip drip–the erosion doesn’t stop.

About Blunt: she had two excellent movies with conservative subtexts a few years back: “Young Victoria” and “Wolfman.” Since then, she’s been in very unappealing liberal films, “The Adjustment Bureau” being the worst.

Burke on April 30, 2012 at 2:40 pm

I also saw “The Raven” and pretty much agree with Debbie’s assessment, that it was okay so long as you don’t take it too seriously. Like Debbie, I’m glad Cusack has apparently outgrown making sentimental stinkers like “Martian Child” and liberal propaganda like “War, Inc.”

Poe is admired by conservatives because he used rhyme and meter in his poems instead of going the way of Walt Whitman and producing formless, narcissistic slop. He’s also loved by liberals because supposedly he was a heavy user of drugs, and from a liberal’s perspective, that’s enough to catapult even an ordinary individual to superstardom, let alone a literary figure. The dirty little secret not known by most liberals is that Poe was a passionate racist who detested blacks; his longest work “Narrative of Gordon Pym” is an allegory where blacks are depicted as demons from hell (actually the Antarctic).

I think the worst and most notorious Poe adaptation to film was “The Raven” (1963 version). For many years this film was considered a campy film classic because it included as stars not only Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, but also Jack Nicholson during his early Roger Corman years. But the movie doesn’t resemble the poem at all, not a bit. Even the sorcery in the film wasn’t similar, because the original raven didn’t speak the phrase “Nevermore” because of supernatural ability, but because ravens can actually talk a little, like a parrot or minah bird (Poe got the idea after reading Dickens’s then recently published “Barnaby Rudge” which also had a slightly talking raven).

Another pretty bad Poe adaptation was “Masque of the Red Death” based on Poe’s story about an arrogant prince named Prospero who’s not afraid of a coming plague. Because Poe’s stories are all so short and minimalist, this adaptation into full movie length was greatly padded so that it really didn’t resemble the original either.

One film adaptation I really did like was “The Tomb of Leigeia” (1964–Roger Corman, of course). This actually weaves two short stories together–“The Black Cat” and “Tomb of Leigeia”–and does it in a scary way keeping many of the original details of the originals.

(I’m looking forward to seeing the film adaption “Spirits of the Dead” which Ralph Adamo (in the above comments) recommends. Excellent insights, Ralph, all of them.)

Of course this particular film “The Raven” which came out this Friday isn’t trying to be an adaptation. Instead it builds Poe into a mythic figure running around solving complicated murder cases as if he were a real detective. It reminds me in that way of the film coming out soon, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer.” The wave of the future, maybe, where real historical figures become heroic protagonists? That device was common during the most decadent years of Greek Hellenism and it would fit with our own culture’s decline.

One last comment: the gruesomeness of the pendulum scene in this just-released film doesn’t resemble Poe’s original short story which– oddly for a Poe story– has a happy ending and includes no mayhem whatsoever.

Burke on April 30, 2012 at 10:24 pm

The Raven sounds like the pilot episode of “Castle,” only bloodier.

Michelle on May 2, 2012 at 12:18 pm

Michelle, this plot device of patterning murders after crimes written about in novels is way, way, way, way WAY older than “Castle” and has been used literally hundreds of times both in films and on programs like “Murder She Wrote,” “CSI,” “Perry Mason,” and really any long-running show that has run out of plots and so goes back to the storeroom and borrows one from the back shelf. My favorite film borrowing this plot variation was “Basic Instinct.”

(I admit, though, that the basic setup in “Castle” does seem particularly similar to “The Raven.”)

Burke on May 2, 2012 at 8:51 pm

Wow. Your ideas are digusting. If you honestly believe so little of women, you should slip off your shoes, get knocked up and go back to cooking dinner. Clearly this is where you believe women belong.

WomanWithABrain on November 18, 2013 at 2:49 am