Predictable Unmotivated Pointless Caricatures Contrived Actors did what they could Actors clearly indicated they were embarrassed to do this Not one emotional connection REAL SEQUENCE FROM FILM "Who you callin?" (sic) "The police"(sic) "You can't do that, Stevie. Hang up the phone"(sic) "Jesse got a sh-t load o' drug money, you can't go involving the cops"(sic) "I'm not so sure stealing money from criminals is a crime. Even if they arrest him at least he'll be alive"(sic) "Listen to me, Stevie, this ain't handled right, Jesse's gonna end up dead. Now hang up that f-in phone." (sic) Best Friend starts to load up guns Brother, "Hey, what're you doin'?" No answer. "Hey, I got a family to worry about." (Keep in mind his child is sitting right there watching-ish all of this) Then more and more and more expositionNotice how in the above sequence, at no time do the police on the other line say, "Hello? Hello? Uh, we can hear everything you're saying. We're sending someone over there right now." Embarrassment for all. Oops.

This HBO Movie is very exciting action thriller. Not to be confused with the Bob Dylan documentary of the same name. The whole cast does a great job and it should be more widely recognized. Eric Stoltz as usual is great as the bum who becomes a hero and Billy Bob Thornton plays a scary villain. Peter Fonda is in it for a few minutes as a hit-man. The action scenes are very suspenseful and you will be entertained. It's on DVD, so hopefully people will rent it. Other great HBO movies include: "Citizen Cohn", and "Citizen X". You will hooked into the film very quickly.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Junkie and down and out Jesse stumbles into the middle of a drugs buy. He steals $200,000 from the deal and flees for his hometown in Texas. He joins up with his childhood friends, however the owners of the money begin to search for him and get closer every step.This story by Thornton is actually quite a good drama. The plot is split in two – one with Jesse with his friends in Texas, the other with Marshall and his gang working his way back to his money. The stuff with the gang is very good but is maybe too cruel for it's own good, however it works well as a crime thriller. The rest with Jesse is OK but doesn't work totally because he is quite a selfish character who brings a lot of harm to those round him – are we supposed to feel sorry for him or like him?The cast are all very good. Stoltz is never brilliant but is quite good here, however of the three friends Corbett (Northern Exposure) is the best. Billy Bob Thornton is on top form as Marshall and his gang has a few well known faces – the only downside is that the gang are maybe too cruel and their laughing as they kill makes it quite hard to watch at times.Overall this is better than I expected. The story isn't anything special but it has enough nice touches to make it interesting. The weakness mostly lies in the unsympathetic nature of a character we're supposed to root for.

{SPOILER ALERT} This HBO movie came out about five years ago. It's too bad because it probably would have done pretty well in theaters considering the cast. There are a lot of recognizable faces here, but hang on, let me go through the plot real fast.Jesse, is a struggling musician who moved to Los Angeles from his hometown of Galveston, Texas. Sometime during the seven years he was there, he became a heroin addict. One night he comes up dry and while looking for a quick fix, he stumbles onto two men (one being Dwight Yoakem) arguing over a botched drug deal. He steals a briefcase containing $300,000 and decides that he's going back to Galveston to straighten his life out.When word works it's way back to Marshall (Billy Bob Thornton in a real Badass role) that a good chunk of his money has been ripped off, he and his cronies start a trek through L.A. looking for Jesse. It's clear that Jesse really doesn't have a clue just how over his head he is. These are some hard-asses who could care less about life. All they want is what's theirs. They're looking everywhere for Jesse, visiting his hangouts, and even killing off some of his friends.Meanwhile, Jesse's in Galveston. He's staying with his two best friends who are doing their best to ween him off the heroin. When they question his money, he says that it all came from a lucky night in Vegas.It's pretty obvious from the get-go what's going to happen and how things are going to turn out. We know that the baddies will eventually find their way to Galveston to kick Jesse's ass, and this would be fine. Jesse is a wholly unsympathetic (but somehow likeable) character. All of the real suspense comes from worrying about his totally innocent buddies who have made decent lives for themselves.Even though the ending is somewhat predictable, it does not hurt the rest of the film. There is a lot of fun along the way. I had a blast seeing Billy Bob in a part like this. It reminded me a lot of his character in "One False Move". He looked NOTHING like he does today and he was about forty or fifty pounds heavier then, I'd say.Dwight Yoakem is disposed of pretty early. It was funny seeing Billy Bob giving HIM a hard time after it being "vice versa" in Sling Blade.Eric Stoltz (Lance from "Pulp Fiction") does fine here. The man is a very talanted actor and the part of Jesse seems tailor made for him. He is very convincing as the failed musician who unintentionally brings trouble with him.