Death in Texas

As the movie opens, we find our boy Billy getting paroled after spending seven years in the pen only to discover his beloved mother is dying from liver failure. Billy wants to do everything he can to save his mom but has to dig way down in the slop in order to have any hope of so doing.

Several very good performances from veterans Lara Flynn Boyle (mom) and Bruce Dern as a very unlikeable cartel mobster. Relative unknowns Ronnie Gene Blevins in the lead role of Billy and Stephen Lang as one of mom's caregivers also turned in memorable performances.

All in all, it was very watchable with a couple good plot twists, a moderate to high amount of violence, and a good ending.

This movie has so much going for it. For one, the cinmetography of East Texas is epic. The story is oddly sweet and touching but the action keeps you moving! Loved seeing Laura Flynn Boyle make an appearance on the scene again, and she was very good, but the acting by Ronnie Gene Blevins steals the show. Some nice twists keep you guessing. See it! Very well executed for a small budget and hope to see more from this movie making team.

Seriously, who's idea was it to cast Dern as some big rich drug lord/gangster? The guy looks and sounds like a drunk bum. I was cringing every time the camera was on him and his straggly hair, and started talking like a drunk. He may have worked in a comedy version of this story. Worst casting decision I've ever seen; that casting agent needs to change careers. Then you have Ronnie Gene Blevins all monotonic and straight faced, looking like he was bored and only there for the paycheck. I struggled to stay awake when most of the focus was on him. The only stand-out and convincing performances were by Lara Flynn Boyle, Stephen Lang and Cher Cosenza.

The directing by novice writer and director Scott Windhauser wasn't too bad for a newb, and although the stories concept was amazing, the execution was less desirable. There were many plot and technical issues. Some dialogue was cheesy and/or unnecessary. It lacked any type of action. Why just show flashes of him and the bouncer? Some nice exciting action would've been refreshing to give the audience someone to route for - and struggle less staying awake. The pacing needed improvement, as the 101 min runtime felt much longer. The score was actually not bad for a B-film, but I had some issues with the sound, as some dialogue sounded muffled and illegible. It's a shame, because this story had lots of potential, had it been cast properly with some tweaks to the screenplay. So never mind all the bogus high reviews, it's a generous 6/10 from me.

I really enjoyed this film. Didn't know much what to expect. Explores a lot of elements of human emotions and human nature. Evil, redemption, sacrifice, and more. Definitely worth a watch.

Caution: This is not a bang-bang action flick. To tell the truth, it's not really my type of favorite movie (action and sci-fi, etc.). It's more of a real-life drama with a couple of criminals involved than anything else. But I watch a lot of movies and by that I can tell, this is a really, really well-executed movie. Great acting, good camera, no plot holes, great actors and plenty of drama. I enjoyed this movie a lot. It's not your over the top story or a bunch of invincible super heroes. Much more down to earth real life. A really good movie. No way anything below 7 in my book for what it is. Well recommended.