South of Heaven

While I understand why many rate this movie poorly, to me it is a bit better than its IMDb rating. Again, to me, it starts off with signs of a totally serious movie but about half-way turns into what I would describe as a very dark comedy, with lots of dirty money involved. The "good" guys start to figure out ways to get the best of the "bad" guys and that type of story is always fun to watch.

(Of note, on the DVD extras the writer-director says he wrote it as a dark comedy and Sudeikis played the role a bit more seriously than first intended.)

After serving 12 years for a bank robbery Jimmy (Jason Sudeikis) wants to go straight for his dying girlfriend Annie (Evangeline Lilly), marry her and give her the life she deserves for what may only be another year. It starts out OK, he meets his parole officer and gets a laborer job. But soon things turn dark, he is faced with doing a "pickup" or go back to prison. Things get messier and messier from there.

Bottom line - I was entertained and I like the several main actors. Filmed in the DFW area, I watched it at home on DVD from my public library. My wife skipped, she wasn't in the mood for this kind of film.

Well I have to agree with the negative reviews for once. Despite the good cast and an interesting first half the movie quality went downhill pretty fast. There are a lot of scenes that weren't good at all, that didn't make much sense and that brought the quality of the story down. As for the acting there were some actors that were not convincing at all at times. And I'm not talking about extras but major actors. I don't know what happened, it started good but it turned bad at one point and it never recovered. Too bad because it had potential.

It's sad to see so many ppl not appreciating this fine film. Us older folks remember classic stories, like South of Heaven, that portray real people faced with extraordinary challenges. Old westerns come to mind, where the hero is thrown into a predicament that can't easily be fixed.

This film is a modern day tragedy with realistic characters. Several times the hero did act on instinct. Consistently did the villain remain treacherous-while revealing his softer side, as did the heart of Annie remain true.

Believable supporting cast, music that compliments the action and a script that hit all the beats.

The direction of this film, the script, acting, score and cinematography all combined to deliver an emotional drama that entertains.

Are there flaws in this movie? A couple small question marks but even those are forgiven without taking away from the overall story.

I really wish filmmakers would make more pictures like this. My wife and I are only 59 but we were engrossed watching this because it's not b.s. Gangsters sometimes have heart and good guys sometimes become a badass to get the job done.

The kid trying to live up to his dad's reality was another nice touch.

Lotta good stuff goin' in this movie.

**to the loser bashing this film.."step off punk." Jason proved he's just as good at drama as he is at T. Lasso.

To the entire cast n crew-Job well done, we thank you!

Newb co-writer, producer and director Aharon Keshales was close to having a great film, but sadly missed the mark with many rookie filmmaking mistakes. For starters, many scenes were way too long and unnecessary, and the slow pacing made the two-hour runtime feel endless. This film needed at least 20 mins cut out of it to maintain suspense and make it more engaging.

Then, having random events happen that are irrelevant to the main narrative detract from the film's main premise; at around the one hour mark, the story basically hits the reset button and a entirely different narrative begins. It's like the beginning of a different episode and it all happens purely by chance and key conflicts of the first hour are completely inconsequential to what follows. You keep expecting them to intersect, but they never do. There's no motivation or reason behind it, a random event simply happens for no other reason than the writers merely wanted to put Jimmy in another tough spot.

That's the major issue this film had, the disjointed and convoluted events that confuse the narrative, and make you lose interest in the characters and faith in their motivations - like when Jimmy goes from a sweet and doting schlub to a one-shot-killing henchmen destroyer - it gets really implausible in a hurry. To make matters worse, Keshales decides to ruin a happy and satisfying ending with a fade-out and fade-in enigmatic final shot that adds yet another question to the already convoluted mess.

Nevertheless, all casting and performances were excellent, especially Sudeikis and Lilly with their convincing chemistry, and the score and cinematography where spot on. It's too bad the writing couldn't have been tighter and more focused.

I gave it a 7.3, out of ten because the editing and unanswered q s. But, I think the woman(Anne)was astounding, and only did I find out in the credits that it was actually Evangeline Lilly, thus began my mind to be blown. Wow! Great performance!!!

I rented it from our local library and saw Sudeikus on the front cover at a glance so I grabbed it. Played it wee hours of the morning and I will look to purchase it. Hit all emotions, and Jason can do drama like Bill Murray and honestly I didn't recognize her that it was her.

And IMDB employees and owners, change it so we can rate with the decimal point!!!