Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

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

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

hipchecker20 The more I watch, the better I like Jesse Stone. How much coffee does he drink in a day?

cognominal-1 I've read the books by Robert Parker and Paradise is filled with creepy, gloomy characters, so all the movies are certainly spot on. I can get past the cryptic and stilted dialog in the books because I'm curious to see how the plot plays out but for some reason, the dour characters become tedious when you have to actually watch them glumly interact with each other. It's also highly annoying to listen to the cast beat to death the 'it's a small town' gag from beginning to end. I was amazed to see that even the dog looked like a miserable wretch. Tortured characters are always a great hook in both books and movies but there is such a thing as beating a premise to death and Mister Parker is no slouch in this department. The writers, directors and producers of the series of movies would have been prudent to dial back most of the author's character idiosyncrasies because they're more irritating than compelling.

John Raymond Peterson The seventh and hopefully not the last episode aired just this past Sunday, but that prospect looms ominously in my opinion. The seventh instalment of the Jesse Stone character on film delivers the usual mystery death(s) we know Jesse will likely solve, but the faith of the bad guys is most often the biggest surprise of the Jesse Stone stories. Again, to my personal delight, the bad guy dies at the hand of former Sheriff Stone, in a perfect trap we can only somewhat presume was Jesse's checkmate move; as usual we were not privy to the plan until it unfolded.Jesse struggles with his usual demons, the liquor and his divorce. A new love interest in Gloria Reuben is introduced, well maybe just a friend with lovely benefits; and this is one that makes it alive by the end of the movie. Occasionally they die. His friends Luther, Rose, Saul, Commander Healy and Dr. Dix, even quasi-friend Gino, as well as a renewed appearance by Sister Mary John are familiar faces doing their usual thing. About Sister Mary John, we were fooled in believing for a fleeting moment, thanks to very good editing, that she and Jesse have an affair. Well it's the second episode he's blunt about his intention in that respect, so we can hope. All and all, this episode delivered our annual dose of characters we like and a story we can claim is a good mystery. The pace and the mood always the same slow and thoughtful process; I often remark in many other of my reviews that this or that movie leaves me with a grin, a smile or excited still, etc., but a Jesse Stone movie is one that makes me sigh at the end. It's not a sigh of disappointment, absolutely not; but I have a hard time finding the right words. I can describe how I feel; glad most of the key characters are alive and hopeful that Jesse will maybe find something close to happiness at least before the end of that series. We could say there's a Jesse Stone movie cult, if others feel the same way I described.

macilrae 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.