God Bless America (2011) [Blu-ray]
Comedy | Crime

Tagline: Taking out the trash one jerk at a time.

Frank (Joel Murray) has had enough of the downward spiral of American culture. Divorced, recently fired, and possibly terminally ill, Frank feels he has nothing left to live for. However, instead of taking his own life, he embarks on a killing spree with cohort Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), who shares his sense of rage and disenfranchisement, and together they embark on a nation-wide assault on our country's dumbest, most irritating celebrities.

User Comment: Chris Grimey Davidson from Toronto, 17 September 2011 • I saw this movie's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. I loved it. Bobcat Goldthwait has given us a hilarious comedy that perfectly satirizes our self-centred, celebrity-obsessed, uncritical age. Throughout the dark comedy Joel Murray delivers a perfect performance as one of the last thinking men, who has grown weary of life and society. In between the action and the comedy, Joel Murray's character delivers scathing indictments of society that had the Toronto audience break out into spontaneous applause. Besides being hilarious, this movie is really an interesting exploration of the insensitivity and thoughtlessness of modern popular culture. This movie is the antidote our "reality show," celebrity-obsessed, know-nothing-and-proud-of-it culture. The film's outlandish violence perfectly captures Horace Walpole's epigram, "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." Unfortunately, as the movie points out, few people are now capable of either thinking or feeling.

Summary: Captures our age of narcissism and stupidity.

User Comment: crushingaflood from Portland, OR (USA), 8 April 2012 • Bobcat Goldthwait's scathing critique on modern pop culture is vicious, unapologetically ugly and truly hilarious. Whereas Mike Judge's "Idiocracy" was a clever yet far fetched tale of humanity gone stupid, "God Bless America" uses, with absolute precision, a scalpel to peel back layer after disturbing layer of American shallowness and cruelty. Incorporating elements of mindless pop culture, media propaganda, and reality TV cruelty and bravado, this movie perfectly illustrates the all too real (and sudden) cultural cancer that people nowadays consider entertainment. It is simultaneously hilarious and morbid.

I read someone refer to this as Idiocracy meets Natural Born Killers and for a very generic descriptor that may suffice, but it is a far more intelligent movie than Idiocracy was (or even set out to be). Make no mistake about it, this is a very dark movie and there is more murder and blood than you could shake a swizzle stick at, yet the brutality is tempered with hilarity and witty observation that seamlessly keeps this movie always headed in the right direction - there is no confusion here, it knows exactly what it's saying.

I worry this movie may fly under the radar since the typical mainstream audience is pretty much the targeted subject material here, but I think this movie is an instant classic. It so eloquently dissects all the absurdities of modern American culture, the desire for fame and to be known, the need for attention, etc. The trailer doesn't do this movie justice -- it's really good!

Summary: Been waiting so long for a movie this smart.

User Comment: RainbowCastel from Switzerland, 7 April 2012 • I loved this movie. This is "The One" Feel-Good movie I've been missing since long time.

Each day and night after work or watching world and local TV news if you start feeling frustration because of stupidity of people, politicians, dictators, and pointless empty TV shows like the ones in this movie, you need something to calm yourself down.

This is a movie that takes all those rage and poison out of your mind and make you sleep well at night.

It is as satisfying as playing Doom in God Mode, just to shoot those Evils with that Shotgun or your shiny BFG9000, after those long, long meetings with stupid PowerPoint slide readers!

It is as satisfying as a long run in Castle Wolfenstein, bringing down those Nazis shouting Achtung, one by one, after a long night working after hours ... again!

It is as satisfying as scratching and slowly removing that crust off your healing wound. It hurts, tingles and your mind says stop, but you continue playing with it because feels so good!

This movie is like Daily Show on steroids! Take this movie as a medication to your frustrations and calm down.

Summary: God Bless Arrogance and Stupidity!

[CSW] -3.5- A darkly satirical film that takes a lot of shots, at much of what is wrong with the current state of American; society, its entertainment and faux news media, and a lack of civility, respect, and consideration in general. There is not a lot of subtlety or sophistication here, but there is certainly is an excess of, targets of opportunity. Many will find the frequent depictions of graphic violence and objectionable materials to be unacceptable, but those without a sense of humor, a working irony detector, and a tolerance for these sorts of representations, shouldn't be watching this kind of film in the first place. It is a shame that the mass shooting and murders at the Colorado Theater does put a damper on the some of the otherwise great ironic humor of this film. I'm sure that there will be people who will object to this film because of that tragedy, but I'm sure that the author had no way to foresee future events. That said, I did enjoy this film and I recommend it to everyone because this ironic and satirical humor really take aim at some of the very real problems within our society. Why can't we all just get along?
[V3.5-A3.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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