Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There are a few unimportant details that prevent me from being able to vote this higher but in many ways this movie was a 10.This film blew me away. I was expecting it to be typical nihilistic garbage but I was surprised by the almost John Steinbeck way that at the beginning you have no sympathy, or even have hatred for the main characters, only to love them in the end as you realize that they are just like you. Also, they have a sort of nobility that you never expected.The film doesn't have much character development but the development it does have is absolutely amazing. Somehow the movie is absurdly dramatic in some ways, but the overall tenor is that it is beautifully understated and as such many people will not appreciate it.For those of you who have never struggled with an addiction or committed a crime, you will not understand the power of the group 12-step program scenes, the realization of who you are and what you have done that slowly dawns on a person. Also, if you have never been tempted to suicide or gotten into the heart and mind of a friend who is tempted to suicide, in order to help him or her, then you won't appreciate a lot of this movie.The scenes with the adopted son and mother as well as with the mother and her daughters, and even the one with the man next to the river, and the man and his parents, were some of the most memorable I've ever seen, memorable because they made me do the work as the viewer.Again, the power of the movie was what it didn't say, leaving the most important statements to the mind of the viewer, so that they can be said more powerfully than a filmmaker ever could. And in that way, my hat is off to those who made this film, they didn't pander to the audience, the movie held back so that it could be more than it would have been, giving the viewer space to learn about themselves as they watched.I came across this movie by accident on Netflix and almost didn't watch it. It is a great little gem.

Yeah, I know. The summary seems a bit oxymoronic, but if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. This is a movie that gets more mileage per production dollar than 95% of what you will ever see.Bleak almost throughout, and repetitive, but welcome to purgatory. It's totally necessary, if a bit confusing at times. I'd like to see it again, now that the premise is firmly in focus. It's a movie that is better, in some ways, the second time around.The acting is mostly great, but the unrelenting hostility of Doris gets a bit wearing. (I have an unfortunate tendency to put "real world" values on movie characters) There isn't a bit of wasted emotion coming from her, though...it's just 'her.' Very true to the character. There are a number of moments of doubt about some of the characters, the chief protagonists, mainly. This is all to the good, in my opinion.I really hope the other projects involving the writer\director, Merlin Dervisevic, are as good. I'm sure going to be looking for them.

Cruel & Unusual could be taken as religious propaganda - especially of the desert cults like Christianity or Islam. But that hardly matters, as it is a fantasy (like religions, in fact). We are so used to daemons and second comings and what-not in fantasy stories, really all that can just be taken as a given.But the approach of this film is what's so original. It's extremely 'crisp', and 'sharp' - presented almost like a Science Fiction film, in the coldly analytical, urgent way it unfolds.All the performances are good, it is cut beautifully, and it never drops the pace.I have seen some idiot reviews elsewhere on the web, including by magazine reviewers who obviously never actually saw the film and include all sorts of false detail that wasn't actually there.And I think that may be where this film hit a big snag - it's distribution was so low that everyone assumed it was either some awful straight-to-DVD release, or assumed they already knew what the story was.In doing so, they missed out on a great, very dark little piece of fantasy film making. Sure, it may cover some ground that's been covered before, but that's in the nature of the beast: Fantasy, ironically, is a limited field - Science Fiction is less so, and Reality is not limited at all. All writers of scripts and books know this, whether they admit knowing it or not.I really liked Cruel & Unusual and wish the disc was easier to come by.A particular highlight was the use of a great Shriekback track in one of the film's darkest scenes.- -- ---

In a world where movies continuously disappoint, there is a title by the name of Cruel & Unusual that brings a ray of hope to this bland over budgeted world of terrible movies.**Spoilers Below **Cruel and Unusual takes us on a journey through the after-life, possibly some type of purgatory, reserved for people who have taken a life. Our characters are stuck re-living when they killed and died. Is there a way out? Can they break the cycle or are they stuck there forever?**End Spoilers **The film held my attention from start to finish and proves that a huge budget and a ton of A list celebrities doesn't make a good movie. All you need is a unique and interesting story put together well.If your wondering if the movie is worth a shot, please do yourself a favor and watch it.