Mel Gibson and "Edge of Darkness"

Mel Gibson and “Edge of Darkness”

Variously rated as a 55% to 60% by “the critics,” this non-professional movie critic assigns Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness a qualified 3 1/4 stars or about 85%.

The movie is somewhat derivative of many previous kid-gets-killed/hurt/kidnapped/lost and dad-seeks-revenge/return of kid and it’s based on an old Brit telly series but, after all is said and done, it does feature Mel Gibson in the starring role.

I’ll leave the detailed reviews and spoilers to others more able than I, although the reader is cautioned to vet the reviewer before believing anything she or he writes or says.

Believe it or not, sometimes movie reviews are determined by the sociopolitical beliefs of the reviewer as much as by the content and quality of the film.

Think Gibson’s 2004 The Passion of the Christ

That very controversial, exceedingly graphic and violent film, was roundly panned with one star or no stars at all and scored an overall rating of 47%-50% mainly because it was interpreted by some as anti-Semitic and condemned by Jewish groups such as B’nai B’rith.

If anything, it was anti-Roman and anti-Italian and should have been criticized by the Sons of Italy, although it wasn’t. What it was was a billion dollar blockbuster at the box office and in DVD sales.

The charges of anti-semitism levelled at Gibson as a result of his July, 2006 drunken encounter with police ratcheted up a DUI a major scandal. He conceded his intemperate and biased . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1482)