Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ever lie awake at night, watch something on some obscure cable channel, and end up wondering why you didn't drink yourself into a stupor several hours earlier? I just did. I'd probably feel better tomorrow, had I chosen the booze.THE LOCUSTS is a truly awful film. It's one of those that always makes me ask the questions "WHY was it done and WHERE did the money come from?" Forget the attempts, so en vogue today, of trying to date and sentimentalize a film by mindless overlays of classic music! Genuine inability is timeless.Here is the one good thing I can say about this film: Ms. Judd's make-up artist, Ben Nye, Jr, had the sense to leave her alone. She's radiant...from the safe distance she was photographed. But, everything else is likewise-photographed. I guess the photographer didn't feel comfortable any closer to the storyline.The acting is laughable, especially the three leads. The kid spends two hours trying to do a James Dean and succeeds only in setting back the cause of the speech-impaired a couple decades. He is in rarefied atmosphere here. Only Jennifer Jason Leigh in KANSAS CITY and Richard Gere in BREATHLESS have given comparable performances. Capshaw is, well, Capshaw. Vince who? Doesn't he do novelty records? But the plot takes the cake. To think that human beings would allow themselves to dwell in or near this attempt of some swaggering pump-up to inflict his "values" or "Code of the Cool" on a defenseless kid is ludicrous. The mindset of the executive(s) responsible for the allocation of funds and the filming itself, who must have found SOME potential in the story, is unfathomable. There is none. GIANT and DUEL IN THE SUN and LONG HOT SUMMER have been done before. With taste, opulence, style or length to cover gaps in meaning or worth. This film has none of any of that.Fortunately, the family off themselves at the end, preventing a sequel.I think I now understand why Orion bankrupted.

I thought this movie was pretty good until the end, which made no sense. NOT an uplifting story, in fact, it's unflaggingly grim. But it's worth seeing for good performances. Refreshing after the endless onslaught of phony Hollywood feel-good stuff like Notting Hill.

That this film has a running time OVER 2 hours, and has had little or no theatrical recognition, immediately activates my senses. This length will complicate scheduling on pay-cable, and meant pressing an additional disk for the laser package. Why?. One possibility (rare) is that it is truly an auteur's masterpiece, not for the masses, maybe, but important enough, as is, to be kept intact. The more likely scenario is that this movie is such a waste of time that everyone involved could really care less what gets released. By now they've all changed their names, left town, and moved onto the next..Predictably, The Locusts falls into category 2. Vince Vaughan in a muscle shirt and Ashley Judd with her cotton dress flying in the wind are about all this film has on the plus side. Dragging and nagging situations, disconnected dialogue, and uncertain motivation tend to make most every frame tortuous to endure.First time-writer-directors (John Patrick Kelley here) tend to script a very personal project, one based on material with which they are intimately familiar-they draw on their strength. Subsequent efforts can wane, as the writer ventures into more unfamiliar territory. With this in mind, I leave you with 2 questions: (1) Where in the world did this story come from? And (2) What can we expect from John Patrick Kelly when he starts writing from an unfamiliar point of view ?The answers may scare you.

A cliche-ridden movie with a lusty widow and a mysterious drifter. And oh yeah, they have secrets. And we know it takes place in the quasi-South since everyone drinks iced tea out of Mason jars. Despite the cliches and sloppy film-making, it's completely enjoyable. Cheesy, corny, fun, sexy and often touching thanks to lovely performances by Vince Vaughn and Jeremy Davies. And someone PLEASE remake Streetcar Named Desire quickly. Vince Vaughn is a star in the making, and he and Ashley Judd sizzle. Stanley and Stella, anyone?