Peter carl The first time I watched this movie on cable, I thought there was something wrong with the sound. So, recently, I watched it again. So there are these long periods, virtually the entire second half of the movie where we watch people speaking to each other but the dialogue is muted. WTF! It is like watching mimes act. I mean what is the point. I kept waiting for Charlie Chaplin. The scene that I am watching now has the Feds talking to each other, and all you hear is the sound of crickets. Sucked is too good of a rating. I am going with sub-suck or over sucked. I can't ask for my money back, but maybe fios could reimburse a portion of my cable bill.

Ed-Shullivan This is definitely a crime genre film with a dark message of violence and fear embedded throughout. The two big stars Willem Dafoe who plays detective Bud Carter of Louisiana, and Matt Dillon as ex-con Jesse Weiland play well against each others persona. The ex-con and hired killer Jesse Weiland gets trapped into becoming an undercover rat for detective Bud Carter to avoid a 200 year jail term and miss out on spending time with his devoted wife Lynn played by the sexy Amy Smart and their newborn son Tommy.Jesse used to work for the big hog Louisiana crime boss Lutin Adams played well by character actor Tom Berenger. As Bud Carter's informant Jesse provides more and more intelligence on the criminal activities of his crime boss Lutin Adams, the noose keeps tightening around Jesse and his vulnerable wife and son to become pawns in this dangerous game of chess. Jesse is fearless but he is not stupid, unless you start to wonder like I did why after a life of crime and killing he has no bankroll to support his wife and son?This is not as strong a storyline as the Godfather or Goodfellas, but it is an interesting macho crime story that kept me interested and not too disappointed with the way the film ends. I give this film a 7 out of 10 due to some strong acting performances by Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon and Tom Berenger. It is well worth a watch for the seedy and dark location shoots and for being a decent crime genre film.

tiger jack Let's get one thing straight: I rely heavily on IMDb average score and reviews. I could say that 9/10 times, IMDb has very accurately reflected the quality of any particular film. However, on the off occasion, it is an extremely non reliable source. In this instance, with Bad Country, I can't understand for the life of me the IMDb score and (some) of the really bad reviews. A movie with its kind of caliber deserves at the bare MINIMUM an average IMDb score of say 6.7/8, not to mention if I watched the film without checking the IMDb rating, I would be more-so expecting a rating of 7.2/3 which is what it most definitely justly deserves. It is quite unfortunate really because I almost did not watch this film due to the terrible rating and reviews. I would genuinely give it an 8.5/10, but for the purposes of this review, am rating it 10/10 in an attempt to push its rating higher.The story is very good, the action is realistic and gritty, the direction is great, the acting is superb and for any of those who think there was not sufficient character development I'm sorry to say is heavily incorrect. This is one of Matt Dillon's finest acting jobs and I was very sympathetic with his character through the entirety of the film. What can I say other than I highly recommend viewing of this film so that more people can appreciate it and its rating can possibly increase closer to what it deserves.

Robert W. Bad Country is simply excruciatingly boring. It lacks any charisma at all and doesn't even keep you remotely interested. I found myself having to force myself to keep watching and I would drift off to doing something else and think, "oh right I'm watching this movie." There is no reason why this should be the case. It has a terrific cast, a story that sounds interesting and based on a true story supposedly but nothing seems to just work right. The cast acts sub-par despite the fact we all know they are a capable and strong cast and there is either too much going on to focus or they're not focusing on what they need to do be. Despite being based on a true story, its missing some sort of gritty true to life crime thriller quality and our evil villain mobster is more "Batman" than he is "The Departed." I mentioned The Departed because this film should be right along those lines but it doesn't work nearly the same despite having positive things going for it. The production quality is great, not cheap in any way, there are some good action scenes and tension is attempted time and time again but for some unknown reason it doesn't work and is completely flat and leaves you feeling empty.I watched this solely based on star power. Willem Dafoe can be a powerful actor, I've seen it. He is okay in this and certainly anyone less than him would have been even worse to watch but his character feels bland and under developed. He gets one good scene where he goes off the rails and the rest of the time instead of looking like a brooding cop, he looks like he's pouting. Matt Dillon's performance is a carbon copy of Dafoe's. His character has the potential to be this mixed up master criminal and killer trying to right his wrongs for the sake of his family. In the end he is a maniac on a vengeance quest, sounds great doesn't it? They miss all this and Dillon's performance lacks something that would make it powerful. Dafoe and Dillon should have had way more scenes together and their characters should have reflected off of each other but they miss that too. Tom Berenger is the villain I mentioned earlier who looks like a Dick Tracy/Batman mobster instead of playing it a little more close to reality. I like Berenger but he's almost boring in this and had the potential to really impress in this role. Supporting cast are okay including notable performances by Bill Duke and Kevin Chapman. One of the best performances in the movie and unfortunately very small was by Neal McDonough as Berenger's lawyer and right hand man. He actually had a great part that was underdeveloped too but he actually looked like he was trying to make the most of a bad script.I began to understand just how bad this movie was in the last 20 minutes during the climatic end scene shoot out. Suddenly we have Dillon and Berenger facing down each other for the first time in a melodramatic ridiculous hand to hand fighting scene that looks like a thug is beating down an old man. The gladiator music in the background makes it even more ridiculous. It was like the film makers got this script, was paid to make it but honestly didn't care if it was done right or not. Its truly unfortunate because under all the wrong things there is some potential for a great movie that will never be. This is Chris Brinker's first and only credit as a director having produced cult classic The Boondock Saints but I can assuredly pronounced to Mr. Brinker that he should go back to producing and not ruin any more potentially great films or crime thrillers. By the time the credits rolled I felt like I was watching an unintentional spoof of crime dramas and I would be forever disappointed but 15 minutes from now I will forget this film ever existed and that I had to fight my way through it. I score it what I am simply because the cast has some great potential and make it watchable in the slightest of ways. 3/10