The story is basically a strong one, particularly because it's based on an actual person's life. But somehow in general the movie doesn't really grip the edge it should be having. One thing that I notice is that the story flow tries to beautify the movie by splitting its two acts into smaller pieces which the movie alternates in between all the entire duration. But the thing is, the alternating is done on very short durations that the feel on each act doesn't really have any adequate time to build strong in the viewers' minds. If the movie let the environments sink in for longer time, say like twenty five minutes or so before alternating, I think the impact will be far better. The acting overall is a little bit below standard. Spencer Lofranco still needs to work more on his expression which seem hyperbolic on most times. Having Ving Rhames helped a bit in giving depth to this movie.

I give this movie a 9 out of 10 because this movie delivers!! Well at least for me it did! It kept me on the edge of my seat, not literally but it kept me guessing. Jamesy Boy in my opinion is considered to be a "real movie" involving sex, drugs, and money, it goes to the streets, and shows you what the life of drug dealers is, not only does it show you but this movie isn't biased. It has the good and the bad about the drug deals. The money, it shows how you can make a lot of movie but also lose it because "dirty money" isn't good money but as they say not all "dirty money" is bad. Then you have the sex which in this case the sex is just sex to these people, but at certain points its not just about the sex it's about love "making love" and all three of these things in one movie makes the movie much more interesting because, unlike all Hollywood movies, this movie shows the good and bad not just the good.

Spencer Lofranco, a good-looking kid bearing an uncanny resemblance to a young Matt Damon, is 14-yr-old James. We learn that he had been in various troubles since he was 6 yrs old, and now at 14 he seemed to have only one chance left. But discouraged he cut his ankle monitor, leaves mom and little sister, and went off to work for a small time drug dealer. He gets the nickname 'Jamesy Boy'. The movie is edited in a particular way. It cuts between James in his somewhat short career in the drug business, and James in prison with hardened prisoners. Once I figured out the editing it worked well, probably batter than if it had been a time-linear edit.So the big question becomes, will James just end up as another statistic, a criminal kept alive by the state? Or will be gain some insight and set out to improve his life?The telling influence was hardened murderer Ving Rhames as Conrad, who was respected by all the others and basically left alone. Somehow he and James began to interact and it was this spark that enabled James to figure out a few things and make use of his parole after 4 years.This is based on a true story, a photo of the real James is shown, at the time 25, had moved to New York and was in the process of getting his life straightened out. Mary-Louise Parker is good as his mother Tracy. Taissa Farmiga, still a teen, was especially effective as Sarah, the girl minding the C-store who became a girlfriend of sorts to James, but could not put up with his criminal involvements. James Woods is effective as the warden, Lt. Falton.Found it on Netflix streaming movies.

Now you keep writing. It don't matter about what, it don't even matter if it's good or not.Yet another moralizing "boy-on-bad-path-comes-to-reflection" story. There are probably several such individuals of whom a story could be told. Despite the fact that this is a story based on true events, it is a film stuffed with cliché elements. It will be an inspiration for some, but that was the movie "Life of a King" with Cuba Gooding Jr.. too. Only the latter was more convincing and credible. James Burns looks more like a member of "The Backstreet Boys" or a modern parody of James Dean, with his clean-shaven appearance and perfect hairstyle. Hopefully the air conditioners worked on maximum in the cinema, so that they didn't need to evacuate massively fainted teenage girls.James Burns ( Spencer Lofranco ) is a troubled boy who has spent most of his youth in institutions and already running around with an ankle strap at the age of 14. He has an impressive long criminal record, including threatening his mother's boyfriend with a knife. His single mother Tracy (Mary - Louise Parker) does everything to get him back on a by society accepted track. Only James feels misunderstood, and he lacks the will to tackle his life in a different way. As a result, he derails soon and begins again with loitering, truancy, smoking joints and eventually participate in robbing a local store. There he meets Crystal (Rosa Salazar), the local mattress of the neighborhood, who introduced him to Roc (Michael Trotter), a local gang leader and drug trafficker. Because of his sturdy and apparently fearless attitude, James gets more respect from Roc who is promoting him to his right hand after a certain period of time. Yet James tries to get his life back in order and he meets Sarah (Taissa Farmiga), the daughter of the owner of the local store they have previously robbed. Eventually it goes wrong anyway and James ends up in jail. His tough and self-destructive attitude crumbles there slowly. Partly caused by Conrad (Ving Rhames) who's been sentenced to life and tries to convince James not to end up in the same way.Besides the cliché content, also the implausible performance of Lofranco is a setback. He doesn't look like a self-destructive and menacing mobster. Several times I found it a bit ridiculous as this good-looking teen idol waves around with a heavy gun at a fierce looking gangster. Immediately I associated it with the arrest pictures of "Justin Bieber". Also such an angelic face. In general, the acting performance of Lofranco wasn't that bad. Just his looks didn't fit. Obviously we have a mother who'll never give up and still has a little hope that her son will still come to his senses, but eventually realises it's hopeless. Also a girlfriend appears and naturally she introduces him to the wrong friends and drags him into his downfall. Prison life is of course a battleground with different rival gangs and a rather impressive tough gang leader (Taboo from The Black Eyed Peas) of whom, how is it possible, James isn't impressed. That makes that they end up in a fight regularly. The pathetic newcomer also has to be present. Again it's someone who looks like he wouldn't even hurt a fly and the tough guys start harassing him. James of course comes to the rescue for this weakling. And then there's the savior in the form of Ving Rhames. A figure that looks like a steamroller who would crush you effortless to serve as fillings between his sandwich, but repentance came while in prison and he dreams of Rio de Janeiro and the huge statue with spread arms on top of a mountain ... sigh . Eventually, he manages to convince James to change gear. So James subsequently emerge as a future poet and he starts to write down deeply human rhymes. We get the well-known images of someone writing down something diligently, then thoughtfully looking into infinity for a few seconds and then writing enthusiastically again."Jamesy Boy" is a typical story. You start wondering if it really was necessary to make a movie about it. There are so many other like James in the world. The only beautiful moments were the quiet and fragile ones with James and Sarah. Tomorrow I'll forget all this and in the future as it is broad-casted once again on some television channel, I will think deeply whether I've seen it or not. More reviews here : http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/