Row Your Boat

I bought ROW YOUR BOAT on DVD at my local Just-A-Buck dollar store almost a year ago and it sat on the shelf unplayed till this past weekend. I had picked it up mainly for my wife, who still carries the torch from her teenage crush on Jon Bon Jovi. I had never seen Jon in an acting role before, but I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised by his abilities. (However, I have always HATED his fluff-rock band, and I suppose I always will!) Jon stars here as an ex-con who's determined to walk the straight and narrow path after his parole. When we first meet "Jamie" (Jon), he's spending his nights at flophouse hotels or on the streets of Manhattan and trying to avoid the temptation to go back to work for his brother (a genuinely slimy William Forsythe), a small time hoodlum who was the cause of Jon's imprisonment in the first place. Jamie takes a low paying job as an "enumerator" for the US Census Division, which leads to many funny scenes as he trots around bad New York neighborhoods trying to count the various occupants. His census job brings him into contact with a lovely but unhappy Chinese woman (Bai Ling), who is basically a "trophy wife" for a much older Chinese businessman. He offers to give her English lessons and they begin a wobbly but romantic relationship, while his brother's "business" begins to tempt him back into the fold. I'm not going to proclaim this is a great movie but I did enjoy its combination of romantic comedy and crime drama, and the ending is not the one that I'd expected/hoped for. Add in some cool shot-on-location scenes from the gritty side of New York City and you have a cool little film that was definitely worth the dollar I paid for it, which is not something I can say about most of the other "Dollar Store DVDs" in my collection.

I liked this movie for what it was...I thought it was a nice little touch for Jon's movie career.(Seeing him as a bad guy recovering and trying to be good).I may have just liked it a lot because I like him a lot but I truly do think this is worth watching.Jon I think shows some acting skills in this and he shows that he can be an actor, not just a rockstar.The movie in itself had a good story.The characters were well-developed and it was a very easy and relaxing movie to watch.I enjoyed it and think you will too.I rated it as a ten because it is a good movie and I really liked it. As mentioned before by another person I think Jon is better being a bad guy like in Pay it Forward.(another good movie to check out)

Personally, I'm a Bon Jovi fan. You could say that I'm in a way biased into liking this movie. The truth, however, is that I've never been too keen on Jon Bon Jovi's acting. In this movie however, I was strangely moved by the story and remarkably stunned by the acting. For once I can say that Jon Bon Jovi pulled it off, as well as Ling Bai, and the rest of the cast certainly didn't fall short. Honestly, I belived it. Many times in a movie regardless of how great the story is, you don't really believe the actors or the other way around. In this movie I found the story to be, although soppy at times, moving. I bought it.

It's definitely a movie worth watching.

You had to see the movie to have an opinion, right?

Don't you ever advise anyone not to see a movie, whatever movie it is, for how bad it is.

Movies are made to be seen by everybody, my friend. Worst than your comment is people who refuse to see movies based on others opinions. If you don't want to give money to see it in a theater, fine. And, god, it's an independent movie! As if movies without budget weren't discriminated enough in the cinema business, there are still people that come and say "Oh, I've seen it. S****, don't watch it! It's a friendly advise!" Hope you're not related to cinema in any way. If I judged every movie by the crew and their personal life's, wouldn't likely see most of Collin Farrel's starring ones!

The ones to thank you for that unfortunate comment are ignorants.

I am not going to lie and say that this film is one of the most fantastic movies committed to celluloid (despite my childhood passion for Bon Jovi). What I will say is that this movie is very enjoyable. The script has some fantastic touches. Subtle humour and touching romance. Jon Bon Jovi once again proves that he can act. This is a good movie with a lot more to offer than just eye-candy for old rockers like myself.