LyceeM16 Good, but not great.. Based on the reviews, I expected to like this film a bit more than I did. I love quirky independent films and I am a big fan of Morgan Freeman. So, it pains me to say that the writing (dialogue) was clunky. The characters were interesting and offbeat but some of the relationships that developed did not seem credible. Casey Affleck, Christina Ricci, and Brandan Sexton III were all very good. That said, I thought that the idea of portraying the struggle of people in a small town and the juxtaposition of the quirky (ice cream cone, beach in the desert) with the clear tedium and pain of life in an economically depressed and largely abandoned town was interesting.

merklekranz Any town that needs a giant ice cream cone to put it on the map, has to be a pathetically boring place to live, so why make a movie about boredom? The end result is a well acted, but totally pointless film. You need more than a bunch of quirky characters trapped by a hazardous materials spill doing essentially nothing that creates interest. Even the truck crash, occasional pyrotechnic explosions, and a shooting, are done off screen, further contributing to this pointless and extremely shallow movie. John Heard has made some terrific films (see "Cutter's Way"), unfortunately "Desert Blue" would not be among them. You have been warned. - MERK

Squrpleboy If you ever happen upon Baxter, California (Pop. 87, and home tothe world's largest ice cream cone) you might wanna just keep ontruckin' clear on through to the next town; there's NOTHINGhappening here.Populated with a very small cast of marginally eccentriccharacters, mostly listless teens, Desert Blue tells the story of agroup of bored (and boring) townsfolk inhabiting what remains ofan old miners settlement. One day a Cultural Studies professor(John Heard) and his snotty young actress daughter (KateHudson) stop by to get a look at the world's largest ice cream conemonument! Suddenly, a tanker truck carrying the secret ingredientused to make local soda-magnate Empire Cola's special brewoverturns and spews out toxic chemicals, which of course meansthe FBI is called in to quarantine the town! Now all the teens haveleft to do is sit around drinking and making out! Which means ofcourse that Hudson's character, Skye, will fall for the sensitive (ie.,dumb) local boy, Blue, who is so desperately trying to fulfill hisdead father's dream of opening a water-park in the middle of thedesert (?), and in turn she become a much more sensitive womanin the process! Awwww. Oh, and Christina Ricci likes to blow stuffup...........real good!The film reeks of having little to say, or show, but nonetheless s-t- r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out what it does provide as long as it can. None ofthe characters is expanded on enough to be truly engaging oranything beyond mere caricature. Not that the acting is bad (withthe exception of Ricci, who is just horrible), but Hudson comes offas the closest to being realistic, with the others merely beingample. The film itself doesn't look too bad visually, although itbecomes very noticeable that most action takes place outside ofthe town, or inside locations, so that no people outside of the castappear anywhere. The best part of the film is the eclecticsoundtrack, featuring some nice old Country & Western tracksspliced in amongst the newer lo-fi stuff. Over-all, I've written farmore than this film deserves words wasted on it.5/10. Yawn. Sunday afternoon fodder at best or a cure forinsomnia at least.

sarahjeanaxo i really did like this movie. it's totally cheesy and teeny-bobberish, but it's cute. casey affleck is great and so is kate hudson. i rented this movie and watched it like 5 times over the course of my 5-day rental. gotta get my money's worth and i feel like i did.