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88You can't look away, not only because the carnage is so masterfully photographed, but because the director sucks you into his bleak, poetic, even sensible vision of cosmic brutality. Not for the faint-hearted!
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83Park is neither glib nor pedantic as he charts the vicious circle that leaves victims in its wake, unintentional and premeditated, and takes its dehumanizing toll on his increasingly brutal heroes.
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80The only constant in Park's brilliantly cruel world is this: No matter how badly things seem to be going, there's a twist of fate lurking around the next curve that will make them worse.
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78Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance's byzantine plot appears fairly straightforward at first, but slowly, deliberately moves into uncharted waters with the fluid grace of a tiger shark bumping up against a potential meal.
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75Savage yet spellbinding.
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75The violence in the final 45 minutes of Mr. Vengeance is tough to watch.
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75Perhaps with an open and willing mind, you'll also see the vast difference between this wily consciousness experiment and, say, Rob Zombie's new box of schlocks.
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Bold, intelligent and provocative.
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70It's a difficult balancing act, but Park crafts his layers carefully and masterfully. He's the kind of filmmaker who can meaningfully craft the gory details of an eye-gouging without ever forgetting the message that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
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A revenge tragedy as brutal and Byzantine as "Titus Andronicus," Park Chanwook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance accomplishes a miraculous feat by being harrowing and humane in equal measure.
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It's all a little ultra-cool for me. Shakespeare was right. Revenge is a dish best served ice-cold, not cool.
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60When it comes to serving up diabolical horror with bold, sophisticated glee, Park, best known for "Oldboy," is right up there with Dario Argento, Guillermo del Toro and Takashi Miike.
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50This ultra-violent revenge thriller is far more notable for its baroque excesses than coherence or credibility.
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50Certainly a stylish affair, but also an extremely bleak and unpleasant one.
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50There is so much talent on display in Park Chanwook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, it is a drag that the film never rises to the level of its director's obvious ability.
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50Offers the same dramatic visual style and cruel plot twists, but the mechanical retribution is even more boring.
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30A problem with Park's naturalistic worldview is that it's hard to find anyone to root for. The movie is beautiful to look at, but hideous in its narrative.
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Degenerates in the second half.
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25So badly told that it ends up dissecting a corruption that exudes from nowhere but itself.
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10Slowly degenerates into a gory revenge thriller that is never thrilling, but is often boring and frequently repulsive.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 7
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Mixed: 0 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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DerekW.10
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giulia8
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matta.7