Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

steeledanton oh boy...So from looking at the cover art, I thought that I was about to be watching a Country Western Film. It turns out that this film is about Louisiana, cops, criminals, jewels, drugs, and corruption. There are elements in the film that make it come together, but I'm not sitting there thinking MAN this is such a great chance for the guy to be with his wife and baby...though that is the theme of this movie. Tom Berenger is in the movie. This is one of those movies, where after years and years..I think you'll notice that this could be the first time THEY as actors have worked together...and that's a pretty long time....since Matt Dillon and Tom Berenger have been around since I was prepubescent.

tiger jack Let's get one thing straight: I rely heavily on IMDb average score and reviews. I could say that 9/10 times, IMDb has very accurately reflected the quality of any particular film. However, on the off occasion, it is an extremely non reliable source. In this instance, with Bad Country, I can't understand for the life of me the IMDb score and (some) of the really bad reviews. A movie with its kind of caliber deserves at the bare MINIMUM an average IMDb score of say 6.7/8, not to mention if I watched the film without checking the IMDb rating, I would be more-so expecting a rating of 7.2/3 which is what it most definitely justly deserves. It is quite unfortunate really because I almost did not watch this film due to the terrible rating and reviews. I would genuinely give it an 8.5/10, but for the purposes of this review, am rating it 10/10 in an attempt to push its rating higher.The story is very good, the action is realistic and gritty, the direction is great, the acting is superb and for any of those who think there was not sufficient character development I'm sorry to say is heavily incorrect. This is one of Matt Dillon's finest acting jobs and I was very sympathetic with his character through the entirety of the film. What can I say other than I highly recommend viewing of this film so that more people can appreciate it and its rating can possibly increase closer to what it deserves.

viewsonfilm.com Make no bones about it, if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had an award for Best Picture a la straight to DVD, Bad Country would surely take the prize. Matt Dillon, who seems to love appearing in movies that hardly anyone bothers to see, gives a revealing and rather appealing performance as "Country's" revenge-minded lead role. With this turn, a stint in 2004's Employee of the Month, and the part of Patton Dubois in 2006's Nothing But the Truth, Dillon is for a better word, the Redbox king. To each his own I guess (for the record, I've got no problem paying $1.20 to rent a DVD at a Redbox kiosk, that's for sure).With a working title labeled Whiskey Bay (I almost like that one better) and a promising director who died way too soon (the taskful Chris Brinker), Bad Country goes back to the early 80's with contract killer Jesse Weiland (Dillon) getting caught by an intense police detective named Bud Carter (the forever cool Willem Dafoe). Weiland gets busted on a handful of serious charges. He's looking at life in prison unless he can become an informant by giving up every name on a list of people he works with (other contract killers who inhabit a nasty, dutiful crime ring). Now Weiland is about as laid-back as anyone. He doesn't give a hoot about his well being. But he's got a wife/newborn on the outside and is willing to cooperate in order to avoid going to the perennial slammer.Bad Country harks back to stuff like 1991's Rush, 1982's 48 Hrs, and even Matt Dillon's own earlier work, the critically acclaimed Drugstore Cowboy. Call it a narc flick, a broken down character study, a stylistic mob farce, and mustache abundant (almost every character seems to channel the facial hair of actor Sam Elliott for unabashed inspiration). What you don't want to call "Country" is something that lacks for trying. This thing wants to detour you from knowing that it probably got rejected from numerous theater screenings. Could the generic title be the culprit? I can't be sure. Does it matter at this point? Not really. The original release date was months ago so it's obvious that too much time has passed.Nevertheless, we get the pleasure of seeing a formed dynamic and an unlikely partnership between the characters played by Dafoe and Dillon. It's hard to believe it but they have never been on screen together before the release of "Country". Here they've got great chemistry as opposites who are at large, the same. Watching them trade dialogue in various scenes made me think that they've been working side by side for years. Throw in Tom Berenger (where's he been) as ruthless crime boss Lutin and you've got a cast that makes this thing rise above the ordinary. Yeah, Bad Country does at certain intervals, feel like a full-on rental with carbon copy shootouts and accents used by its actors that don't sound like anybody who lives in Louisiana (the flick's setting and on-site location). But for most of the time, there is plenty of crackling dialogue, a sense of urgency, and smooth, conventional storytelling tactics that make you think otherwise.In retrospect, "Country's" ending and its opening twenty minutes resonate with a lot of police protocol. You know, where if a felon (of any kind) is caught, they have a chance to make a deal, give up a name, and rat out someone higher up on the criminalised food chain. If you've seen anything law and order related, this is a premise that's as old as dirt. Thankfully, this little seen crime drama supplies enough energy, surmised wit, and tough guy machismo to garner my recommendation regardless of all its familiarity. Bottom line: Bad Country ain't so "bad".Of note: Bad Country's setting is in 1983. You wouldn't know it though because its sense of time and place is sort of lacking in detail. Case in point: I didn't really figure out that the film wasn't in present day mode until a handful of scenes involved characters talking on payphones. Anyway, this insight is merely an oversight and shouldn't keep you from enjoying what's on screen.

LeonLouisRicci A Heavy Duty Cast of Crusty Hard-Asses make this Worth a Watch. The Film has some Intrigue and Attraction with its Nasty Criminal Underbelly and the Characters are Believably Bad. But what goes Wrong here is some Erratic Storytelling and a Final Shootout that is about as Common as Could Be.Based on a True Story the Neo-Nazi Element is Only Touched on in a Few Throwaway Lines and Tattoos with a Flag off in the Corner as the Camera Passes by. The Turning of the Key Witness is also Awkward at Times and the Criminal Kingpin and His Lawyer/Lobbyists are never quite Fleshed Out to Satisfaction.The Climactic Gun Blazing Confrontation is a Big Easy Letdown with Bad Guys and Good Good Guys just Showing Up and Dropping Dead. Overall an Unsatisfactory True Crime Entry that is Neither Awful or Very Good but Passable.