Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Brakathor While it is not perfect, it is overall a good movie that comes pretty close to perfection by a director that seems to have a "made for TV movie" calling in life. The film is about a teen girl convicted of murder and awaiting her sentence which may result in her execution, which clearly will end up bringing forth quite a few questions of morality, and what I personally like most about that, is the aspect that almost none of the characters in the film are fully GOOD or BAD or RIGHT or WRONG, though I know that will alienate some viewers, failing to find a "hero". Each character seems very human, with human frailties that are hard to avoid in difficult situations, and being that there IS no true "hero" or "villain" in this movie, this seems like a great method to provoke true moral contemplation for anyone willing to partake. As it is quite accurately phrased in the film during the very convincing closing arguments of the court case which is otherwise not shown, thus giving courtroom drama lovers something to enjoy, and sparing courtroom drama haters: "There is no villain, all involved are victims of our troubled times."The acting is quite decent, with Juliette Lewis delivering I would say without exaggeration, an Oscar worthy performance with so much passion, seeming to prompt the other actors who you might not expect to do as well, to give it their all. I couldn't imagine any actor seeming so authentically depressed and sorrowful throughout an entire movie without yelling things in the mirror every morning like. "you're fat! you're stupid! you're a waste of life!" as preparation.In terms of flaws I found that the whole arrest near the end seemed a little too much of a forced wrap up to the movie, with tons of police cars seeming to come out of nowhere, the police having no apparent leads on the case aside from two cartoonishly awful perpetrator sketches, and in this scene it didn't show the reaction between Brad Pitt, and the other actor inside the van, who would likely be yelling at him for trying to outrun the police. Also, though I have little first hand knowledge of this, it seems a bit implausible that a strip bar owner would hire an underage dancer without even asking proof of age, especially given that this particular strip club was being frequented by many army personnel. Indeed there have been famous cases where 14 year olds have worked in strip bars, but all the ones I know of needed fake I.D's and big tits to do so, neither of which Juliette Lewis had. Perhaps in small towns they just don't take the law seriously??? Another reviewer said this was a bad movie, because on a website listing underage perpetrators convicted to death for murder, none were as young as 15 at the time, which I think is a moot point, because who is to say there won't ever be, which is perhaps one of the moral questions this film tries to invoke.In the end, if you're interested in moral questions in general, if you're like me and you enjoy seeing movies about teenagers played by ACTUAL teens who end up giving a good and raw performance unlike a lot of school trained "25 year old teenagers" we see going to high school in movies these days, it is definitely worth checking out, and especially if you have any appeal for brad Pitt or Juliette lewis, as it is the strong performance of those actors that carry this film, which is led by adequate yet underwhelming directing.

vchimpanzee At the beginning of the movie, Amanda is being arrested for murder. Through flashbacks we learn of the circumstances, and the movie goes back and forth between the present and the past. Amanda tells her lawyer she didn't do it, but she is not very helpful in keeping herself out of prison--or possibly death row.Amanda was only 14 when her stepfather asked her to do something she didn't want to do, and when her mother blamed her, she soon felt her only option was to run away. Once she ended up broke and alone in another town, Billy came to her rescue with a job no 14-year-old should have. Soon Amanda needed rescuing again, and Mark, divorced with children, proved to be her knight in shining armor. But things did not improve for Amanda, and we know something terrible eventually happened.Juliette Lewis did a better than average job, showing a range of emotions and dimensions to the troubled Amanda character. I don't know that I saw the potential for the respected actor Brad Pitt became, but maybe there was something there.It's a real shame this was based on a true story. No teen should have to go through what Amanda did. Still, maybe showing the circumstances of her life will help others in her situation.

w-heilig If this movie was true to fact, Well then the people who were on the jury was very blind. This poor girl was a puppet on a string, Form the way I got it is the dead beat she was with influenced her with drugs,fear, and a misguided sense of the word Love. Pumping her up with drugs then pumping her up with words to do something that with out the drugs she wouldn't even think of doing. full grown adults can be influenced with the help of drugs, and we're talking about a 15 year old child with a want to be needed and a place too call home. They had a chance too help this little girl, But instead they influenced one another too kill her. Did this happen during an election year? I don't know but it's very wrong when WE stop helping kids when they get into trouble, Ain't that what kids do?

alliesmom97 This has to be one of the most depressing movies I have ever seen in my life. I can honestly say that there is maybe five minutes of happiness in it.Juliette Lewis is cast as Amanda Sue Bradley, a sexually abused and somewhat dim teenager who runs away from home and eventually finds herself involved in murder and on trial for her life. What the movie does make you do is analyze how you feel about the death penalty and when it is or is not appropriate and how much should the previous circumstances in someone's life be considered when pronouncing a sentence. One thing that truly bothered me about the movie was the fact that the character was REALLY portrayed as seriously lacking in intelligence. I mean that in a very serious way--if Amanda Sue Bradley was ANYTHING like she was portrayed here, then I have doubts she could possibly understand what she was faced with. When her lawyer came to see her in jail, her main concern was whether or not he had brought her any "candy covered chocolates." I really wonder if this girl was all there. I've done some internet searcher and not had any lucky finding out how this all came out in the end. Anybody know?