wendellfountain Once again, William Macy proved that he has incredible talent, and that does not include the wonderful performances of the other actors. The writing was outstanding. This was a fresh and creative plot. This is the type of movie I thoroughly enjoy. The children in the film also did a fine job. It has a lot of twists and turns which add greatly to the movie. Happy, Texas is a rather fast-paced comedy which holds your attention. Even though as film-making goes, this was a low-budget production, that did not in any way detract from the professionalism and filming. All of the actors truly excelled. I highly recommend this film.

raypdaley182 take 2 complete unknowns and cast them as convicts on the run from the police, one is a car thief, one is a fraudster. Take Ron Perlman (City Of Lost Children, Alien Resurrection) playing a US Marshall chasing them and the third convict on the run who is a murderer.then take William Macy playing a small town sheriff who turns out to be a closet homosexual.the 2 lesser criminals steal a camper van that belongs to 2 gay pageant organizers who they are mistaken for and the "jokes" start and promptly finish there.William Macy plays the small town cop very well, trying to hide his homosexuality from the bigots. It's basically a story of mistaken identity, people hiding their true selves and people hiding being facades.The outcome of the local kids winning the show is pretty predictable. That they don't rob the bank, likewise predictable.the film is just a bit of a harmless fun, it fills the time.

iisdbomb Good premise, forced Zahn comedy, forced love stories, GREAT MACY as always. When I watched the 2nd time (yesteday), I found it even harder to get through. The Director/Writer special feature on the DVD was enlightening and will encourage any wannabee filmmaker.The hard part to believe is that in 1999 this film made it to Sundance and was picked up by Miramax. This just needed a better script and less forced plot to be an interesting character film. Seems like everyone wants to make a quirky FARGO but ends up with broad, contrived, unfunny small-town characters.I am currently in pre-production on my first feature film called "PIGS" and I base my own comedy on 2 things: real situations, fresh characters who are complex to the point that their inadequacies prompt conflict with other characters. Plus I've got a killer Amish sub-plot that is a twisted WITNESS tale. (Am I talking about my own film too much? It's only because I have to fill these 10 stupid lines and I've said everything about Happy.)

Pepper Anne Happy, Texas follows your standard deception comedies. Harmless deviants who assume a false identity (or some kind of false characteristic) lead on a couple of nice town residents, inadvertently bring some joy to the town solving whatever problem they have, and meanwhile, not going through with the scheme they had originally attended before they won the trust of the town, only to be exposed anyway and things ending up with a happy resolution for all. Movies like these, too, are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. Similar instances that I can think of are: 'The Experts,' 'She's All That,' '10 Things I Hate About You,' and so forth. They need not be romantic comedies, but they usually are. And Happy, Texas is just one more forgettable version to top the list.Here, three guys are suddenly prison fugitives after the van they're riding in overturns. One goes his own way while the other two stumble upon a small Texas town, and steal the motorhome of two gay men who are notorious for their work in preparing young girls for pageants. So the two guys pose as the gay pageant duo and help out the town's pageant woe's while plotting to rob the local bank. Of course, they gain the trust of the town and both fall in love with two local women and meanwhile help out the Sheriff figure out his sexual identity. And then the first guy returns and threatens to blow their cover, especially because he wants a piece of the bank action, too.At least Steven Zahn was a little funnier here in his ritual performance as the dimwitted spaz.