Cowboys and Idiots

Small town Texas mechanic Earl Crest (Joshua Jackson) is a simple man living a simple life with his girlfriend Baby (Jaime King) who also became his stepsister after their parents married each other. Earl had witnessed his father being killed in a bar when he was a boy.

Baby is a waitress who dreams of becoming an actress in LA and they have saved up to move there and hope to make it big.

Events take a dark turn when his dim cousin Junior (DJ Qualls) and his slimy friend Tinker (Ryan Hurst) steal money from local mobsters and Earl gets roped in to save his cousin Junior. Things get confusing as Tinker is double crossing them and a rival set of gangsters are also after them.

Lone Star State of Mind is a southern black comedy with a lot of clichés and a few inverted ones such as the tough gay friend. Unfortunately it has paper thin characters, too many stereotypes and wants to be a left field violent comedy like Raising Arizona. There is a tacked on ending but even that is predictable. Still its sporadically amusing and remains watchable.

This movie is great! Superb mental and physical comedy!

Has the potential to become a real classic. Not quite black comedies like After Hours or Heathers, more subtle like Fandango. All in all, an excellent romp through the white trailer trash subculture.

Jaime King is superb as the "in control" brat. Joshua Jackson becomes believable in this exaggerated fantasy. Excellent characters all around. Ryan Hurst is hilarious! DJ Qualls hilarious! Even a memorable performance by John Mellencamp.

If I had one gripe, it would be to develop the character of Matthew Davis a little more. He starts out as somewhat of a run of the mill gay guy and transforms into a gun wielding, hero at the end. But kinda all in the background...

To sum it up: See it!

What a surprise! Having read no reviews, I picked this film off of the shelf at Hollywood Video and was rewarded with an entirely enjoyable, funny, sweet, and overall entertaining film. The relationship between Earl & Baby is especially tender, refreshing and believable, while the performance by Ryan Hurst as Tinker is perfectly protagonistic (if that's a real word!) and amusing. Great acting by all, great screenplay, great directing, great everything. 9 out of 10 (because perfection is always impossible, but this film comes close: no belly-wrenching-guffaw-laughs, but like I said, entertaining). Rent it with the assurance of an evening's entertainment time well-spent.

I've lived most of my life in Texas and Oklahoma and this movie is very authentic. I've watched it many times and appreciate the script and characters more each time. Many surprises and twists in this movie. All the characters are very unique and funny. The dialogue is very fresh and funny and the running gags are excellent. You'll see things in this movie that you've never seen before and they are FUNNY. The directing is very tight and fast-paced, yet sentimental, more movies should be directed like this. While it is over the top in some places that does not detract from the overall hilarity of the movie. I'm watching it now as I write this review and just heard another line of dialogue I hadn't noticed before, very funny.

I came across this movie when I looked up Ryan Hurst, who played Tinker. I waited and waited for it to come out. Finally it did. I rented it.

This is by far the funniest movie I've seen in years. I think what makes it so funny to me, is the fact that the characters are like a lot of people I know. Even my Dad liked this movie. He fell off the couch laughing a couple of times. I was extremly surprised at the accents of the characters in this movie. In most movies that take place in the south the accents are overflushed and stressed, but not in Lone Star. The accents are perfect. Junior is definatly the funniest character in the movie, following close behind him is Tinker, and then Jimbo, and then Earl, and then Wayne, Baby's Dad. Baby at times was a little sappy, but comedy stamped out the sap and Baby's sappiness was eliminated, if you know what I mean. It was a funny movie and I suggest you see it right away. Oh, and here's a piece of advice, don't eat while your watching this movie.