Death in Texas

Excellent movie! Full of action-violence 😬 we really enjoyed this movie!

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.

If you strip down the core of the story it is very good. However the script and execution would have lots of room for doing it better. Like if they had the time and money to hire a really good script writer and a bit better direction here and there would have improved it greatly.

Set in El Paso (but mostly filmed in New mexico), a 35-ish man is up for parole and ends up getting out of prison, we later find out after seven years. His 50-ish mom has had a hard life and is a receptionist for a legal firm. But she has bigger problems, even as a non-drinker she is experiencing liver failure. The son will do anything to help his mother live.

I really can't say much more without spoilers. It is a hard movie to stick with for the first half hour or so, it seems a bit rough and over-the-top in many places. My wife gave up at about the 30 minute mark but I was curious so kept watching. Overall I am glad I did, there is a pretty good movie in there, cleverly disguised as an amateur production.

On DVD from my public library.

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.

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.