What's new

The Last Movie You Watched?

Today I watched Free State of Jones .

I'll post a full review when I'm sober.

Free State of Jones
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1124037/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Based on a True Story.

A Rebel Deserter leads a rag-tag group of farm families and former slaves against the Confederate Army, eventually occupying 3 counties in Mississippi and declaring themselves an independent enclave, associating with and supporting The Union.

The story begins during the Civil War, and continues through 1874. There are flashes forward to a legal trial in the early 20th Century, focusing on one of the descendants of the Free State and his true racial identity.

As I sat in the theater waiting for the film to start, I checked IMDB for more info about the cast and I was surprised to see that they gave this movie only a 6.1/10 ... I thought this was a rather low rating, but even after it was all over, I thought it only deserved about a 7.

Although the acting is excellent, the costumes and props and scenery appear to be historically accurate, and the storyline is well-written ... this movie falls flat over-all.

There is no real suspense or plot-twists in the movie ... you can pretty much always figure out what's going to happen next.
There was too much violence, blood and gore shown on the screen, when it could just as easily been implied.

And at 2 hours and 19 minutes long, I couldn't wait for it to be over.
The story could have been easily told in 90 minutes, maybe an hour and 45 minutes tops.
There are a lot of extra scenes that could have been left out or trimmed down during editing.

History buffs and especially Civil War re-enactors might like this movie ... but there's not much in it for anyone else.
 
Last edited:
4 of 10


$The_Do-Over_Poster.png
 
A couple of my wife's picks from the library:

Win Win - This one flew totally under my radar, I don't recall hearing anything about it when it was released in 2011. There are a lot of excellent actors in this movie, Paul Giamatti, Bobby Canavale, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor, and Burt Young. Giamatti plays a lawyer who's struggling to make ends meet when he sees the opportunity to make a little extra money by becoming a legal guardian for Burt Young's character who's in the early stages of dementia. Things get complicated and threatens this windfall when that character's grandson shows up in the picture. As it turns out, the kid is a champion wrestler who can help out the woefully bad wrestling team Giamatti's character coaches. The kid is very likeable and chill and is played by Alex Shaffer, an actor I never heard of. In real life, he was a New Jersey state wrestling champion. The story description doesn't sound like something you'd probably want to rush out and see but I'd recommend it, it's a very good movie. (94% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes)

Waiting For Guffman - My wife dug it a lot more than I did. There's some charm and humor there but the crew of Canadian Second City actors and friends which populate this and other similar type movies they made didn't really strike a chord with me, I found it kind of self indulgent. I'd give it an OK.
 
Last edited:
I tried to watch the Bill Murray movie, Rock The Kasbah....I was lost. It was all over the place and I gave up after an hour or so.

Don't waste your time. The soundtrack was the only thing holding my attention for that long.

I stuck it out to the end.....you bailed and are better off for it
 
Top Bottom