http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=863GSlfp9Uw
The overall message is a little heavy-handed, but the video executes the creep perfectly.

Ugh, Cronenberg made one of my least favorite movies ever.

Which movie? I've only seen The Fly, but I really enjoyed that.

A History of Violence. I don't wish to offend if you're a fan, but I sincerely dislike the film, especially the bit with the (usually excellent) William Hurt at the end. The movie had realistic acting in many areas, but featured cartoonish and hopelessly incompetent villains, yet maybe this was the intent all along (and the film is held in some regard by others). The violence was a similar mix between realism and the clunky and implausible action sequences from B-movies.

It feels like the movie featured a good script and actors performing what is deep down the plot of a crappy mob flick. By the end, the whole thing felt utterly pointless. I've seen plenty of bad movies, but few that made me feel I'd completely wasted my time. I suppose the movie could be considered a success in how it's been years and years since I've seen it, but I still very much dislike it.

I thought a History of Violence was a fine movie but I am also getting the feeling Cronenberg's best years may be behind him (ironic, as he has more star power now than ever before.) Crash is probably my favourite Cronenberg film. I saw an interview of him talking about the Cannes screening and he said there were times you couldn't hear the movie over the sound of people leaving the theatre in disgust. :p

I do love Cronenbergs movies, but I can understand why someone wouldn't like A History of Violence or a lot of his other works for that matter.

This Nintendo Video isn't really all that Cronenbergish anyway, much more basing itself off stuff like Silent Hill (which borrowed heavily from Jacob's Ladder). The message it presented was heavy handed, and something I don't really agree with. It came off as whining about how "Nintendo doesn't make games for us hardcore gamers" when Nintendo hasn't really changed the design behind its main series all that much at all since the 80's, it just started making all the wii Sports/Fit/Party stuff to grab another demographic in addition to it traditional offerings. At least they still make traditional platformers, as primarily a PC gamer, I would love for the big companies to produce some quality titles in the Adventure and Turn Based Strategy genres.

I agree about A History of Violence, although more than one person swears by that movie that I've come across. And I also agree with lord.seo about the video's Cronenbergishness.

I agree with a lot this criticism although I thought History of Violence was still a decent movie, if overrated and a bit overhyped for the year (it'd been awhile since Cronenberg had done a film, so it was a much ballyhooed "return to form" for the man). It had Cronenberg-ian signifiers and directing flourishes to it, however it was definitely a B-movie at heart (a lot like Black Swan that way, which is in theaters now, though for very different reasons). At least I could enjoy the leads and supporting actors, even if they were working with 2nd-rate, bush-league, comic book material.

Whatever demerits History of Violence had, it was nowhere near as atrocious as Eastern Promises, his follow-up a couple of years later, which took all the hammy, idiotic, and over-the-top elements of History of Violence and multiplied them to the power of 1000, while leaving all the good on the cutting room floor. It was like by an entirely different director. Hope Noami Watts was payed well for the shame of acting in that piece of dreck. Awful. Horrendous. One of the worst films that year and easily the worst Cronenberg. He needs to stay away from shitty mobster scripts and "graphic novels" and get back to his gut-wrenching, existential identity and body horror themes he knows thick and thin. Viggo Mortesson is a fine actor in his own right but I don't think he's a good "fit" for Cronenberg. He's coaxed his best performances out of Jeremy Irons, Ralph Fiennes, and James Spader.

Spider remains his masterpiece, followed closely by Naked Lunch.

Naomi Watts not only starred in Funny Games; she was executive producer. I just thought you should know that before you feel too sorry for her.

Besides the fact "Eastern Promises" and "Funny Games" are entirely different movies...

Funny Games was actually good, in the niche of mind-fuck movies anyway, albeit difficult to watch and bluntly provocative.

I disagree. I'll leave it at that.

David Cronenberg is a difficult director for a lot of film-goers. I really liked History and Eastern, but not to the extent that I liked The Fly, Videodrome, Scanners, Naked Lunch or several others.

And surely not as much as Dead Ringers, which is my favorite of Cronenberg's films.