Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

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

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Michael Ledo This is a soft hitting environmental film. Steve Butler (Matt Damon) represents Global which wants to buy the gas drilling rights to a town. He is from a farming community, but can't drive a stick shift. He is also ill informed of the dangers of fracking. His partner is Sue (Frances McDormand) a working mom who tries to parent from Skype. In the town of Miller's Falls, they meet resistance from Frank (Hal Holbrook) the local science teacher and an environmental activist (John Krasinski).Rob (Titus Welliver) who owns Rob's Guns and Groceries is sweet on Sue while flirty school teacher Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt) sparks Matt's love interest. The film uses stock cardboard characters to create a nice feel good tale. There is a twist at the end that wasn't too much of a shock. The farmer's have to decide if they want to sell the rights and risk losing their land to environmental poisoning, or wait and lose the land due to poverty as government subsidies dwindle and market prices fall. It is a gamble either way.The film is not a documentary. It does inform the viewer what fracking is and why it poses danger, but doesn't drive it home to the point of turn off.Parental Guide: f-bomb. No sex or nudity.

tanchimc-11296 I haven't seen a movie for a while, that would be so honest and deep in so many levels, as this one. I was surprised to see such low grades on it, when everything and everyone in it, are just brilliant. Matt Damon, superb as always, Frances the same, dialogs are good and witty, scenery and message of the movie is touching. Its a crazy thing, where this world is going...We are losing everything and still nobody cares about all that, when the right amount is offered. Yes, there is money in our land, its in the gas or oil, or something else, but when this money is spent, what is there left?what will we eat and where will we live?...Its a scary thought and a scary future, that will happen, whether we like it or not.There isn't a lot of Matt Damons out there that could stop it happen and even he wasn't able to... I will be thinking about this movie and its message for a very long time..

GeoPierpont Thank you UAE for backing a delightful comedy about the competition for your wonderful export. As a former general partner in an Oil & Gas Exploration venture based in Dallas, I was intrigued to uncover the great debate over fracing. Looks like I was more than blessed in the many rewards in viewing this film by educating the masses in the rural dumb folk mentality, how to build an entire town fair with your own two hands, and how young entrepreneurs hate tips!! Once Damon gets promoted to the big kids table all hell breaks loose when he gets a conscience and this after getting the VP of Land Management position in the city! It was a lurid white knuckler until the great reveal and all I wanted to know is did he get the girl. So much for fiction, fantasy and fracing.I was not on site for the filming of Gasland but it kinda looked grim and the fact that Putin is pushing for world domination....again....all this survival nonsense is actually working to keep that petro dollar live n kickin. So you figure all the casualties of war greatly overshadow a few farm animals and we do not slide into oblivion like other nations.I, for one, am a tree hugger to the max, however, not at the price of freedom and a semblance of democracy. So, hats off to UAE for letting us know you are very, very afraid of us. Love it!PS-The corporate plant was obvious after Open Mic Night! DUH!

sesht (Did not post this when I watched it last year) Another in-flight entertainment, with a 'too-pat' on-the-nose obvious title (not necessarily a bad thing).Promised Land - Gus Van Sant. Matt Damon. Frances 'Fargo' 'Burn after reading' McDormand. Rosemarie 'Your sister's sister' DeWitt. John 'The (US) Office' Krasinski. Hal 'All the president's men' Holbrook.A piece of trivia that interested me - Krasinski and Damon even share screenplay credit, and it was once supposed to be Damon's directorial debut. If it had been, it would've been clear that Affleck picks them way better than Damon does, though Damon's raking it all in for now.....Matt Damon seems to be wearing his politics on his sleeve these days. With this and 'Elysium', it will be no wonder if he's berated by the conservatives. Set in rural farmland being targeted for gas drilling, Damon plays the sales veep for one such entity who's being thwarted at the game by a spokesman for an environmental agency. Who makes it? Why the interest? Why the focus on this small town? Why gas and not other elements of climate change? I did not get answers to most, but was not dissatisfied either. Little elements like the initial conversation between the town rep and Damon's character in a bar prior to the town hall meeting the next day, trying to emotionally influence an Afghan war vet who's the guardian of his dead vet bro's son, a bar brawl that doesn't conform to expectations - there are a few more such moments that drew me in.I found the movie and its twists decent and engaging, but bereft of emotional heft that could secure more buy-in from me as an audience-member. Matt's playing the bad guy everyman, but his performance still resonates, like it always has, and we still end up rooting for him, not to win, but for eventual redemption, even it needs convenient contrivances. However, his path, and what happens to him is not all straightforward, and credit needs to be given for that. I can watch DeWitt in anything, but having her character in the movie was a major distraction that the plot did not need at all, as it is with love-interests in movies these days. Other than that, and a few other missteps like not completely developing the relationship between McDormand and Titus 'Gone baby gone' 'The town' Welliver's characters, this movie gets everything else right, and can be watched once. Not a completely missed opportunity.