A mess of things here to both love and, well not love. It is a wild experiment that is nothing if not different and it is something to behold. A long and sometimes tedious Movie with a great deal of quirkiness and a meandering mystical story.A daunting task, undertaken by the Star/Director/Writer, this is an impressive first time effort. Not without some self-indulgent flaws and failings, it nevertheless is an Artistic array of elements that dosen't quite mesh with moments of confusion.For a Western that is quite violent, it is the gunfights that seem flat and uninspired. Especially the more elaborate confrontations containing multiple participants with dynamite and a machine gun. These come off as less than exciting when they are surely meant to be.The more close-up, gritty altercations work much better and overall it is the bizarre characters and the pithy, dark writing along with some excellent Cinematography and staging that make this quite an off-kilter combination of a standard Western template with unexpected genre concepts.

After a robbery and multiple murders, Marshall Yoakam hunts his scummy outlaw foster family, including bible-thumping dad Luke Askew (who's great), hot-headed brothers Vince Vaughn and Paul Reubens (!), culminating in a strange showdown at Bridget Fonda's father's boarding house.It's always quite a gamble to give a movie camera to someone who's first claim to fame isn't film. Writer/director/star/composer Dwight Yoakam is an excellent entertainer and a good character actor. But this is just too pretentious and rambling, with a plot looser than a two-dollar whore.On the other hand, there's some great photography, loads of amusing moments, and a lot of Dwight's famous friends hanging around.Though not as bad as everyone says it is, I'd say this could have been a great movie if it had only been taken away from Yoakam in post-production. Typical of novice filmmakers, he just doesn't seem to know how to sacrifice unneeded scenes for the greater good of the picture. Another thing novice filmmakers do is write multiple scenes where they get to make out with gorgeous women!As a particularly over-the-top desperado, Joe Unger is the most entertaining thing about the movie, the second being the hilarious Michael Jeter.Billy Bob Thornton, Warren Zevon, Scott Wilson and Peter Fonda are all wasted in pointless cameos. Also apparently wasted was Dwight Yoakam when he wrote the script!

This movie has a cast of some of the best or most popular actors in the last 20 years. But even with all that talent they cannot make the impossible possible. Or to put it another way you can't polish a turd.The cinematography, lighting, editing, directing, plot, timing, writing & any conscious thought are lacking or nonexistent.And when you have a bad director, you have bad actors. Some of the biggest names (Fonda, Thorton) have no more than a handful of lines. Which was probably a blessing for them.Do yourself a favor and watch Unforgiven or The Fastest Gun in the West or just read some Louis L'Amour.Dwight stick to singing.

I bought the DVD to watch due to the fact that it has a brilliant cast. There are not many films to watch with so many famous and talented actors in it. Well, this was my assumption before I sat through South of Heaven West of Hell. One of the issues was the screenplay. It felt like writers had difficulties to remember what they had written in the beginning of movie. There were quite a few things left without question marks in ending. Or I didn't get them like everyone I viewed the film with.(A couple of them had fallen asleep so no need to include those). The second issue was the casting. It is mostly expected to see so many successful actors in Robert Altman movies. In this film they were either there as guest actors or were showing their least as if this was just a movie they were making before their next important project. They were as slow as the film's scenario and dialogs. Of course there were a few pictures but that didn't add much up to films slowness and false dialogs. Well, I cant say this film is not worth watching. I think all films deserve viewing however bad they are. Just make sure you don't spend your pennies on this. Borrow it from someone who has it or watch it on TV. * out of *****