didn't get the chemistry... love johnny but what was he doing with her? Awkward and disappointing. Too bad. Could have been a great story!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Mellencamp in a great movie
Added 8/23/2008
Great movie about small town living with a big star that comes back to shake things up. It's a very good story. Mellencamp is not the star in this movie. The story is.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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This movie is so boring. I appreciate Mellencamp as a muscian but
his acting is stilted and dull, as are most of the performances in
this movie. It is along the lines of Toby Keith's movie he did
a couple years ago, another boring movie. I was also disappointed
that Mellencamp didn't sing in the movie.
There is so much adultery in the movie, it was disgusting.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Mellencamp the Sinner of Seymour
Added 6/9/2007
John Mellencamp does a sensitive job of directing his first starring
film. He portrays a country singing star who returns to his hometown
of Seymour, Indiana, and soon is wronging his wife, played by sexy
Mariel Hemingway. Mellencamp's dad and grandpa, played by the wonderful
"redneck" actors, Claude Akins and Dub Taylor, are seriously oversexed,
and the curse has descended down to him. Everyone despises his weakness,
himself most of all. Mellencamp resolves his guilt in the most idiotic
way imaginable. Don't try this at home!
I like the verisimilitude of this southern Indiana-shot movie. You
will savor the porches and kitchens, chicken farm, fishin' creek,
roller rink, shot 'n' beer joint, and breakfast diner, where mean Claude
Akins delivers a big plate o' beat-up. Look for folksinger John Prine
as Mellencamp's brother-in-law. Some critics have roasted Mellencamp's
performance; I think he is adequately natural. To sum, it's a "little
movie that could."
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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An OK first movie...
Added 1/5/2005
I bought this film because I'm a big Mellencamp fan, and Roger Ebert praised it highly. Plus, the script came from Larry McMurtry, author of "Lonesome Dove", "The Last Picture Show", etc.
The good stuff first: Mellencamp proves himself to be an adequate director.
Surprisingly, for a first time out, it's a perfectly fine directorial debut. Nothing flashy...actually it's anti-flashy, befitting the material. No major screw-ups. Close-up, two-shot, pan...it's fine.
He definitely has screen presence, if not real acting chops. He's fine for the role he's in, yet you can see (or feel) the hesitation before lines; he knows when he's supposed to come in...he moves well, but you still get the feeling he's "reading" his lines.
His grandfather is a hoot, and his father malevolent enough for what happens in the film.
Overall though, the movie isn't terribly good. Much of the acting from the other characters seemed forced; the line reading flat. Other characters barely existed at all. There are a lot of characters, by the way. Bud Parks (Mellencamp) has a wife (Mariel Hemingway) and a daughter. He's visiting from Hollywood, as he's a huge country star coming home to visit. He's got a brother, married to Bud's old high school girlfriend (Kay Lenz). They have a passel of kids. He's got a sister, married to some guy, and they have money problems. He's got an illegitimate but widely acknowledged half-brother, who appears to be most close to him. He has a mom, a grandmother, a father and a grandfather...none of whom are divorced, yet spend no time with each other. There's a friend/caretaker/employee or two (or three). Most of the men are clearly scum. Most of the women are saintly, with a few marked exceptions.
The Southern Gothic aspect of the script I didn't think worked. The actors didn't make me believe they could do the things they did. Does that make sense?
Sometimes in a film, characters do unrealistic things, but because of the craft of acting, screenwriting...of filmmaking...you get so carried away that it doesn't matter.
Better yet, those supposedly "unrealistic" things become possible, even "real."
None of this happened here.
Here's the thing: I love Mellencamp, and actually think he could really be something on screen. There is that something about him that works. It's just that here there are too many things that don't work here...and by the time the film was over (100 minutes, but due to it's deliberate pacing, felt like twice that) I just didn't give a hoot about any of them.
8 out of 11 people found this helpful.
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didn't get the chemistry... love johnny but what was he doing with her? Awkward and disappointing. Too bad. Could have been a great story!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Mellencamp in a great movie
Added 8/23/2008
Great movie about small town living with a big star that comes back to shake things up. It's a very good story. Mellencamp is not the star in this movie. The story is.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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This movie is so boring. I appreciate Mellencamp as a muscian but
his acting is stilted and dull, as are most of the performances in
this movie. It is along the lines of Toby Keith's movie he did
a couple years ago, another boring movie. I was also disappointed
that Mellencamp didn't sing in the movie.
There is so much adultery in the movie, it was disgusting.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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