Trite, cheap thrills - below the belt movie making at it's best.

Rating: Null/10 (12 March 2008)

Great acting, character development, great script, terrific directing, terrific locations and pace. No story.
The actors in this movie are first rate - and would almost have to be incompetent to screw up the amazingly well written script. Do people in Texas really talk to each other this way? If they do it's darn quick witted and clever. We know enough about most of the characters to care about them - in particular the one that starts the movie out -- Lew. He's a decent guy that does something stupid. You get the sense that his wife loves him and is a good person. She is also pretty. You really want Lew to survive his mistakes. But just as you're really starting to get engrossed in the game of cat and mouse between the psychopath and Lew he gets murdered by somebody else. At that point you start rooting for the sheriff - but he really never gets into the game or figures out what's going on - he's too self absorbed, tired, scared, old - busy thinking about the brave unarmed men who preceded him and his dreams and good old boy platitudes and sayings. In fact this movie could've been done without any law enforcement at all - they're completely extraneous to the story - if you can call it that. That people with southern accents are stupid is a much over used stereo type - and it's milked for all it's worth here. The Sheriff retires because he can't keep up with the modern day crook or killer. Shucks they're just beyond him. And nearly every person shot down in cold blood by the psychopath has a southern drawl. You want this guy to get it. He doesn't. Everything about this movie is believable. In the end, for those of us who go to the movies to escape reality - that's what's fatally wrong with it. Do you really want to pay 10.00 to see a movie where all the good people that you care about are portrayed as victims of bad luck or ignorant hay seeds that get killed? Even if it has an implied prolific "chance" theme; the psychopath and his asking his victims heads or tails only to be slammed into by a green light runner at the movies end. If that is supposed to be deep -- sorry it isn't. IT'S STUPID! Or where the psychopathic cold blooded killer walks off into the sunset with nothing more than a couple nasty wounds ready to continue his lifestyle of killing and destroying of innocent lives? For crying out loud! That's what is in the news papers and on TV and in the white house - so why pay to see it in a theater? Oh, and the loose ends: What happened to the psychopath? We think we know what happened to the wife. What happened to the money (we know the wife couldn't have spent it all) What happened to the drugs? What happened to the other guy in the car wreck at the end? And what's more important after Lew, His wife, his Mom and several other innocent good people die - who really gives a crap? Oh yes, we can discuss all the clever dialogs and reasons why this and reasons why that - but when it comes down to it - this movie says that there is no justice in the world. But WE ALREADY KNOW THAT - THAT'S WHY WE GO TO THE MOVIES AND PRETEND THAT THERE IS. I feel ripped off by this movie. When the movie ended I felt betrayed because I was pulled in and made to care about people who were murdered and the killer got away. That's cheap movie making BS - and it's not original at all. It could've been a great thriller. Instead this is just another movie that glorifies the worst of the worst. I hope this movie is soon forgotten.