Jesse Stone: Operazione Mosca

Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost has the former Paradise, Massachusetts police chief trying for a comeback and his small staff of Kathy Baker and Kohl Sudduth wishing he hadn't gone. But he riled up some members of the town council and one of them has put his nephew in as the new police chief. The rather arrogant and fatuous new chief is played by Jeff Geddis.

Tom Selleck as Stone has a perpetual savior who has come for his aid on a couple of occasions. Stephen McHattie who is head of the homicide division of the Massachusetts State Police has a case he's having second thoughts about, but the trial is going on. Selleck interviews the defendant who is on trial for murder and who won't provide an alibi as to his whereabouts at the time of the crime. Selleck also has instincts that prove correct.

At the same time Selleck is investigating this crime a young girl whom he had arrested while on the job has died of a drug overdose. That investigation is on the house and with his credentials supplied by McHattie, Selleck goes off on another investigation and in his usual style steps on toes. What are they going do, fire him?

The Jesse Stone movies are all good, some are better than others. But Tom Selleck has totally gotten away from Magnum, PI. This grim man with issues is so different from Thomas Magnum. Check Selleck out in all of them if you can.

The seventh film in the Jesse Stone series and not based on any book. Seems that's it, the adaptations are over. I thought it was a temporary diversion, but after the third straight film with no sign of going back, somewhat clear that it won't in the future as well. So only the characters from the book by Robert B. Parker was used to take the series forward with the original screenplays.

Jesse is preoccupied with new of him. He stopped talking to his ex- wife since the phone line he cut off. But it could be the reason a teen girl's death. I mean he's not responsible, but when she needed him the most he was unreachable. So he's kind of in guilt for her death and trying to find the real reason behind it. The police department closed the case with a simple statement, but Jesse knows there's something or someone to blame. Like usual, he goes after with the clues he got and also gets some help from his frenemy Mr Fish. Where it takes him and how he solves it comes in the last quarter.

In the opening credit, it was a different look, particularly the Jesse character was transformed into something new. When the rest of the film was in progress, there's nothing like that, just the old Jesse we all knew. He's trying to be close with Reggie, but it is not working. He's not in the force which is not looking good. Not just for him, but also for the film. Because he is a cop, a best one the paradise has ever seen, but his exit from the force was uninteresting the new development in the series. They are trying with the different things since it left the book, but not paying off with the success the series saw from the initial three films.

"What are you looking at?"

The director for this sequel has changed. This is the first time and I was not expecting that, because I thought that's the best thing about this series. I know the last couple of films were not up to the standards, but seems it's good that they wanted a fresh perspective, still, I don't think the new attempt worked out so well. I won't blame the director completely, first of all the story was pretty bad. This is surely the worst film in the series and it came in the time when the series needed a serious uplift. I don't know, from this position where it will head in the future.

It's not about the film is bad, but it does suit to be a part of the Jesse Stone franchise and that's the issue here. Because I felt it was out of the sync with the series. Those new characters, especially what they told us the dead girl Cindy was a close friend of Jesse is somewhat unacceptable. We have never seen her before and you can't just bring her in saying that's a very important person in Jesse's life. Because we know Jesse since he got to Paradise, so this girl is a mystery. Sorry, it did not work for me, maybe a prequel to that might do the fixing job all the damage done in this part. But I'm not confident about that would happen.

For the filmmakers, this installment is a bad dream. How could the writers did not think to include the flashbacks to cover up the flaws. I feel they should have sticked with the Robert B. Parker's book series. Other than the messed up story, as an individual film, it can be enjoyable. Many Jesse Stone fans upset with this one, though I hope the next one gets better. I'm saying that since last few films, but it is only going down and seems not recovering.

Like Selleck is the only reason this film still watchable. He was wonderful with a good supporting cast. So let's see what's going to happen to the film characters, looks some of the main ones useless here. With the wonderful characters, the makers are not developing the interesting story. I almost lost interest in this, but there are just a couple of films left, so I'm going to finish it off. I hope they can be what I'm expecting.

6/10

Although the Jesse Stone character was created by Robert B. Parker, and he wrote an entire series of books based on him, this particular story was penned by the star, Tom Selleck, along with Michael Brandon (one of the executive producers). As such, their collaboration has resulted in a most-excellent continuation of the Stone series. But Jesse is not reinstated as Chief of the town of Paradise as is stated in the IMDb movie description. Instead, he works solely on his own this time as he strives to solve two unassociated crimes, one which involves the death of a young friend of his. Unfortunately, Jesse is still struggling with personal issues including his interest in hard liquor. Although there may be several times during progression of the story that viewers may feel frustration over how things are going, everyone will come away from the film with an undeniable sense of satisfaction, and the ending, as always, will leave you yearning for additional future stories. Tom Selleck is an impressive, professional actor, and his exquisite portrayal of this role is part of what keeps people coming back for more.

IMDb reviewers enjoy a challenge almost as much as Parker's Jesse Stone character in this series.

For those recently arrived from another planet, this series is not exactly what it seems, to wit:

1. Selleck is in the "mature" stage of his career is here killing two birds with one (sorry for the pun) 'stone' -- the actor spends most of his time in Nova Scotia, loves it, and by producing/starring in this self-made series he gets to have his cake and eat it too

2. The negatives? Not many. You cannot even in this day and age do a Canadian film without casting at least one or two "Canadian extras" with their strange dialects and poorly-formed thespian skills. However the US contingent (Stone, Baker, deVane) are so goshdarned good, and the writing is so goshdarned sharp, and the scenery so goshdarned splendid, that these small moments of pain pass quickly.

3. Slow moving to some, but what you do have on screen is what the late Spencer Tracey would have referred to as "choice"

It's hard to do justice to Jesse Stone watching it on commercial TV: so far I have held out for the DVDs but the ending of the excellent last episode was so suspenseful, I couldn't wait. The greatest strength of this series has always been the subtle characterizations - of course Jesse himself, but also Suitcase, Rose, Dix, Healy, Hasty, Hanson, D'Angelo and Doc Perkins - all brilliantly drawn and acted, without any need to go overboard. Yet, this time, I felt there was a bit too much dependence on past character development and a rehashing of a lot of their old lines (Hasty, for example, must always say "I'm very fond of you, Jesse"): I didn't find any of the new appearances were particularly engaging; with the possible exception of the wonderfully odious new Chief (sorry I didn't get his name), they seemed rather a grey lot - and the issue here is direction and screenplay, not acting.

The end was a bit too sudden for me and, yet again, we must wait for the next episode before a number of loose ends get resolved (including the main plot-line). Actually, my channel concluded so abruptly that there were no end credits and I didn't realize it was over. Robert Harmon builds atmosphere brilliantly, the screenplay is witty and taut (but rather less so this time) and some clever in-jokes with Jesse using Dr. Dix's "what do you think of that?" At times it teeters on the edge of sentimentality with Jesse almost weeping and Gino Fish becoming almost affectionate – on the edge, I say, but certainly not over it.

It's not the best episode but I hugely look forward to seeing it on DVD and may then be obliged to revise some of my first impressions.

The synopsis here is incorrect, by the way, when is says that Jesse is reinstated.