One of my all time favorites.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan are amazing in here. Cage should stick to this kind of cinema.

This is easily the sickest, most disgusting piece of excrement that I have ever seen in my 65 years. I am not squeamish, but this film shamelessly exploited gratuitous violence and sleaziness and truly had no "redeeming social value". All of the director, producer and actors should be ashamed of having participated in this flaming abortion waste of time. This film showcased the worst in human nature and had no lessons for anyone except the hopelessly depraved. I need at least three showers to wash this filth off of me.

Nicholas Cage. Once a bankable star, has found himself falling on the wrong side of some filmic choices of late. Or, to put it another way, he's made some right turkeys recently. However, I'm pleased to say that 'Joe' isn't one of them. Okay, it's not great, but it's better than most of his stuff.Unsurprisingly, Cage plays the titular 'Joe' – the leader of a lumbering crew in America. He's doing his best to make an honest buck, but things don't always go his way. There are plenty of people who seem to want to either bust his skull in over debts, or just shoot him dead. And, if that wasn't enough to be getting on with, he hires a young lad with an alcoholic father – two people who complicate his life yet further.I guess the first thing you need to know if you're contemplating watching Joe is that it is a drama. A straight drama through and through. There's no action, adventure or even light comic relief. It's a pretty bleak affair. You'll need to be in the mood for something very 'character-driven' to appreciate this. But Cage holds it together and we see shades of the reason he was so bankable once upon a time. It's his baby, but credit has to go to the young lad who plays his new crewmember.It's a long film, clocking in at nearly two hours, so you really need to be in the mood for something this 'no thrills.' I would say it was 'fun,' only it wasn't. But then it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be a dark and depressing drama. And for that it succeeds. You just need to make sure you're in the mood for something like this. 'The Rock' it is not.

Over the past ten years or so, it seems Nic Cage has been drifting away from that actor who gave us mesmerizing performances in films like "Leaving Las Vegas", the "Kiss of Death" remake, "Lord of War", "Adaptation", and even more recently in Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans". He seems to have gone down that unsteady path of direct-to-video B-action star. But along with the recent "The Frozen Ground", "Joe" has Cage back in form. The film almost has the feel of something Robert Duvall would've made a couple decades ago- a story of a loser, and the people around him- how they affect each other. Now, I hear, like in a lot of Duvall's work, some reality seeped into "Joe". Apparently, the actor who played the drunk old father (a real-life alcoholic and homeless man himself) actually died during the making of this film tragically. And "Joe" is not a perfect film by any means- it's slow and almost aimless at times, but it's as if the director just sorta stuck a camera there and let things fall where they may. The reason to see this is for it's performances, including that lead kid actor, who's really good as well. And I hope this film & character is a sign that Cage is returning to the right path as an actor...