CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

b_kite In 1907, somewhere in the Arizona territory U.S. Marshall Valentine Casey (Dwight Yoakum) procides over his town, its quit and for the most part nothing special or exciting ever seems to happen. It isn't long however before he gets a strange visit from his old family headed by Leland Henry (Luke Askew), Uncle Jud (Michael Jeter) and outlaw brothers Taylor Henry (Vince Vaughn) and Arvid Henry (Paul Reubens). They want Valentine to re-join them in there travels and exploits but he refuses now loving his peaceful life in the small Arizona town. That night the local bank is robbed leading to the deaths of several townspeople and Casey's deputy as well, and the family escape into the night. A while later Casey is no longer the town marshal feeling guilt and pain for what occurred that night he now works on a ranch with his assistant U.S. Christmas (James Terry McIlvain), however Casey is kinda reborn again when he falls in love with the beautiful but troubled Adalyne Dunfries (Bridget Fonda) all seems to be going fine, until his dreaded family manage to track him down again this time, killing several of his farm hands and abusing Adalyne. Now He must confront the sins of his past. And finally bring his evil family to justice.First of all I want to know how you can have some of the best locations in Arizona, and one of the best esambled cast of cult actors in a movie and still manage to screw it up this bad. I mean lets look at the list Billy Bob Thornton and Peter Fonda both in wasted cameos, a young talented Vince Vaughn who is firing on all cylinders here, Bridget Fonda, Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens actually acting in a serious role, Bud Cort, the ever enjoyable late Michael Jeter, the great Bo Hopkins, Nobile Wilingham, and Luke Askew who is putting in a hell of a performance and you still manage to screw this movie up?? The problem with South of Heaven, West of Hell mainly lies in its director Dwight Yoakum a talented country music singer who at this time had acted in several roles, but, had never played a lead character or directed a movie before. The film itself looks gorgeous with its scenery, but, Yoakum doesn't know when to say CUT and end a damn scene, scenes go on and on and on and never stop and when they do they've completely worn out there welcome, he goes for the existential route of long scenes of everyone being weird and strange which just drags the movie out, while IMDB says the film lasts 104 minutes the version I watched lasted 139 minutes yes that right 2 hrs 19 mins. It also doesn't help that Yoakum himself literally sleep walks his way threw this picture its at times like watching paint dry, yes the actor who played the great Doyle Hargraves in Sling Blade in awful here. As for the other actors most of them practically scream there lines in odd scenes were everyone just completely overacts, I'm not exactly sure why but its bad. Joe Unger a actor who I always enjoyed watching is here as well in a strange and embarrassing part of the plot were he's being held prisoner in a shed. The best characters here are Billy Bob who was more then likely just here as a favor, Vince Vaughn who again shows when he tries he's talented, Michael Jeter who is his normal goofy self, and Luke Askew who is probably the best thing here as the crazy family leader Leland Henry. The movie begins to gain steam towards the end, the ranch invasion scene is well shot and makes you think Yoakum might just end this movie on a high note. However the finally gun battle between he and the family in a absolute cluster of people screaming, blowing people up with dynamite (body part flying and all), its all shot with someone who seems to be suffering from ADHD.This thing was a more of a disaster behind the camera as it was in front of it. The film was a critical and box office failure. Shortly before production began, the financier backed out and Yoakam made the decision to finance the film on his own, partially through the sale of his home in Malibu. His production company (A Cast of Strays) ultimately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and several crew members registered complaints with unions and filed lawsuits in small claims court against the company. Yoakam said it was "the hardest experience I've ever gone through in my professional life in terms of executing art" (yeah that's one way to put it). To help pay off the debt accrued while making the movie, Yoakam hired a cheaper backing band in 2002, which resulted in a falling out with his longtime producer, bandleader, and guitarist Pete Anderson. The movie was later picked up by Trimark Pictures (the company that released Leprechaun in the Hood that same year). They where in bad shape when they released the film and went out of business two months later. A lot of this may be why Yoakum looks to be miserable during the film, sadly South of Heaven, West of Hell could had been something special with its cast and locations, but, its sadly a waste from start to finish.

FightingWesterner After a robbery and multiple murders, Marshall Yoakam hunts his scummy outlaw foster family, including bible-thumping dad Luke Askew (who's great), hot-headed brothers Vince Vaughn and Paul Reubens (!), culminating in a strange showdown at Bridget Fonda's father's boarding house.It's always quite a gamble to give a movie camera to someone who's first claim to fame isn't film. Writer/director/star/composer Dwight Yoakam is an excellent entertainer and a good character actor. But this is just too pretentious and rambling, with a plot looser than a two-dollar whore.On the other hand, there's some great photography, loads of amusing moments, and a lot of Dwight's famous friends hanging around.Though not as bad as everyone says it is, I'd say this could have been a great movie if it had only been taken away from Yoakam in post-production. Typical of novice filmmakers, he just doesn't seem to know how to sacrifice unneeded scenes for the greater good of the picture. Another thing novice filmmakers do is write multiple scenes where they get to make out with gorgeous women!As a particularly over-the-top desperado, Joe Unger is the most entertaining thing about the movie, the second being the hilarious Michael Jeter.Billy Bob Thornton, Warren Zevon, Scott Wilson and Peter Fonda are all wasted in pointless cameos. Also apparently wasted was Dwight Yoakam when he wrote the script!

Ian Dark Dwight Yoakam must be a hell of a guy. He's personable in interviews, plays and sings his own music with panache, and did a great job of acting in "Slingblade". He's such a cool guy that he was able to get a lot of his friends to be in a really bad Western.I love a good Western. They're especially scarce these days, but this was not one of them. Most people would consider this movie unwatchable, but I stayed with it because I hoped it would get better.There are a few reasons to see this movie, but not exceptionally strong reasons. One of them was Paul Reuben aka Pee-wee Herman who plays a bad guy named Arvil. That's right - Pee-wee Herman is a bad guy... and he's good at it. I used to make jokes about Pee-wee taking on Chuck Norris in a movie, but after seeing him in this, maybe it's not so far fetched. Reubens does a great job of creating a sadistic, quick tempered little man even with poor direction and writing.Let's talk about the screenplay a little. Dialogue seems clumsy and sluggish. It's as if the language mired that action in General Store bought molasses. My hunch would be that Billy Bob Thorton wrote his own lines because they're not even on the same planet as the rest of the cast in the movie. Thorton is fun to watch, even if I had a hard time understanding what he was saying. Maybe it because I was focusing on the guy playing his sidekick. I didn't see until the credits Thorton's sidekick was the late great songwriter Warren Zevon.What there is of a plot is hard to follow. The whole movie is awkward and unfocused. On the plus side, the scenery is nice and most shots are well lit."South of Heaven, West of Hell" is inaccurately described as a surreal Western. "El Topo" is a surreal Western (and much better film). Surreal shouldn't be a synonym for sloppy.

mustican I bought the DVD to watch due to the fact that it has a brilliant cast. There are not many films to watch with so many famous and talented actors in it. Well, this was my assumption before I sat through South of Heaven West of Hell. One of the issues was the screenplay. It felt like writers had difficulties to remember what they had written in the beginning of movie. There were quite a few things left without question marks in ending. Or I didn't get them like everyone I viewed the film with.(A couple of them had fallen asleep so no need to include those). The second issue was the casting. It is mostly expected to see so many successful actors in Robert Altman movies. In this film they were either there as guest actors or were showing their least as if this was just a movie they were making before their next important project. They were as slow as the film's scenario and dialogs. Of course there were a few pictures but that didn't add much up to films slowness and false dialogs. Well, I cant say this film is not worth watching. I think all films deserve viewing however bad they are. Just make sure you don't spend your pennies on this. Borrow it from someone who has it or watch it on TV. * out of *****