I had stopped watching History of Violence around the time or the really, really hot fucking, so I had no real background for this movie going in save for my room mate's word and a kick-ass trailer.
Honestly? It's awesome. It's simple, gritty, and violent, yet oddly cold in its execution. As much as I hate contrived love stories, there wasn't really much of one in this one to keep the characters human--which may have been the point. The performances are great and the few bits of true violence there are (included the touted Naked Viggo Mortenson Penis fight) are totally spell-binding. The plot twist was also a nice hook.
All in all, it's really very simple, which is a refreshing change of pace from more complex crime stories like American Gangster. It's short, it's kick-ass, and it has a Russian Aragorn in it--I can think of no reason why anybody should skip this movie unless they are afraid of violence, gore, and naked men.