RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

trublu215 Jamesy Boy is the type of film you go into, knowing it will probably be somewhat enjoyable and far from the best film ever made. But what I was left with was just a horrid film with terrible performances and a laughable plot line that we've seen done a thousand times over and done way better in films like Midnight Express and American History X. Spencer Lofranco gives a very one dimensional, and paper thin performance as our titular character while everyone else around him drowns him out with better, more controlled performances. This is never a good sign for a film. The supporting actors make Lofranco look like a fish out of water as he tries to navigate the film and keep his head above float when acting with veteran actors such as James Woods and Ving Rhames. One big surprise here, however, is Taissa Farmiga. She was absolutely amazing in this film and I believe she will stand as the only real reason to ever sit through something as incompetent as this is, furthermore, she is the only reason I am not rating this a 1 star film. The story of the little prison boy going straight wears out its welcome after the first five minutes as it dabs into every cliché in the metaphoric book, from befriending the friendly rapist killer in Ving Rhames to going head to head with the "evil" warden in James Woods. I didn't know whether this film was a satire on prison movie clichés or the script was really just that bad. Even for the first time writer/director, Trevor White, this is pretty bad. This is a film that doesn't have any sense of reality, yet it tries to be things like "raw" and "gritty" instead it just turns out hokey and laughable. Overall, Jamesy Boy is one bad film from top to bottom and the only reason why this film is remotely watchable is because of Taissa Farmiga...and even she can't save this film from itself.

Peter Pluymers Now you keep writing. It don't matter about what, it don't even matter if it's good or not.Yet another moralizing "boy-on-bad-path-comes-to-reflection" story. There are probably several such individuals of whom a story could be told. Despite the fact that this is a story based on true events, it is a film stuffed with cliché elements. It will be an inspiration for some, but that was the movie "Life of a King" with Cuba Gooding Jr.. too. Only the latter was more convincing and credible. James Burns looks more like a member of "The Backstreet Boys" or a modern parody of James Dean, with his clean-shaven appearance and perfect hairstyle. Hopefully the air conditioners worked on maximum in the cinema, so that they didn't need to evacuate massively fainted teenage girls.James Burns ( Spencer Lofranco ) is a troubled boy who has spent most of his youth in institutions and already running around with an ankle strap at the age of 14. He has an impressive long criminal record, including threatening his mother's boyfriend with a knife. His single mother Tracy (Mary - Louise Parker) does everything to get him back on a by society accepted track. Only James feels misunderstood, and he lacks the will to tackle his life in a different way. As a result, he derails soon and begins again with loitering, truancy, smoking joints and eventually participate in robbing a local store. There he meets Crystal (Rosa Salazar), the local mattress of the neighborhood, who introduced him to Roc (Michael Trotter), a local gang leader and drug trafficker. Because of his sturdy and apparently fearless attitude, James gets more respect from Roc who is promoting him to his right hand after a certain period of time. Yet James tries to get his life back in order and he meets Sarah (Taissa Farmiga), the daughter of the owner of the local store they have previously robbed. Eventually it goes wrong anyway and James ends up in jail. His tough and self-destructive attitude crumbles there slowly. Partly caused by Conrad (Ving Rhames) who's been sentenced to life and tries to convince James not to end up in the same way.Besides the cliché content, also the implausible performance of Lofranco is a setback. He doesn't look like a self-destructive and menacing mobster. Several times I found it a bit ridiculous as this good-looking teen idol waves around with a heavy gun at a fierce looking gangster. Immediately I associated it with the arrest pictures of "Justin Bieber". Also such an angelic face. In general, the acting performance of Lofranco wasn't that bad. Just his looks didn't fit. Obviously we have a mother who'll never give up and still has a little hope that her son will still come to his senses, but eventually realises it's hopeless. Also a girlfriend appears and naturally she introduces him to the wrong friends and drags him into his downfall. Prison life is of course a battleground with different rival gangs and a rather impressive tough gang leader (Taboo from The Black Eyed Peas) of whom, how is it possible, James isn't impressed. That makes that they end up in a fight regularly. The pathetic newcomer also has to be present. Again it's someone who looks like he wouldn't even hurt a fly and the tough guys start harassing him. James of course comes to the rescue for this weakling. And then there's the savior in the form of Ving Rhames. A figure that looks like a steamroller who would crush you effortless to serve as fillings between his sandwich, but repentance came while in prison and he dreams of Rio de Janeiro and the huge statue with spread arms on top of a mountain ... sigh . Eventually, he manages to convince James to change gear. So James subsequently emerge as a future poet and he starts to write down deeply human rhymes. We get the well-known images of someone writing down something diligently, then thoughtfully looking into infinity for a few seconds and then writing enthusiastically again."Jamesy Boy" is a typical story. You start wondering if it really was necessary to make a movie about it. There are so many other like James in the world. The only beautiful moments were the quiet and fragile ones with James and Sarah. Tomorrow I'll forget all this and in the future as it is broad-casted once again on some television channel, I will think deeply whether I've seen it or not. More reviews here : http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

alejandro_chamorro Jamesy Boy takes you back when James was a teenager. Doing bad things, being rebellious and getting in to trouble with the law. I like how the story plays out back and forth from when he was younger and in to when he was more mature and decides to change his ways. His clues were always there from when he started befriending Vign Rhames who eventually tells him to keep writing no matter what he does. Also Taissa Farmiga who he meets and starts to like throughout the movie. I like how James finally decides to eventually find work and save money and not try to take the easy way and try to move to NY and pursue a better life for himself.

doug_park2001 Gritty yet inspiring, based-upon-truth story of an angry young gangster-criminal who gets paroled, faces the hardships of being a parolee, and manages to stay out despite the temptations of going back to his old "friends" and lifestyle. In the process of it all, he discovers the catharsis of writing, something he's always halfheartedly done. The time-shifts between James as a delinquent at 14 and James as a convict several years later are well-synchronized even though his appearance hardly changes over the years. Violent with some fairly mild gore, it goes no further in those areas than is really necessary. JAMESY BOY is quite watchable, but it has neither the impact nor the originality that it aims for.Both the script of protagonist "Jamesy Boy" and Spencer Lofranco's performance as same are so-so, by-the-numbers. We simply don't get to know this character as well as we should. More on his earlier life and background might have helped. Some of the supporting cast, particularly Taissa Farmiga and Ving Rhames, give excellent performances. I agree: We see or hear very little of James's poetry and musings, and more in that area might have been a plus. Yet, the whole point seems to be that even though his writing is nothing exceptional and he doesn't have any big dreams of "making it" as a poet/author, the very act of writing still gives James a means of expression and purpose that saves him in the end.Probably worth seeing if you generally like crime drama with young gangster characters and prison settings.