CommentsXp Best movie ever!

StyleSk8r 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.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

carlacryptic This is one of the best films I've seen which I've never been able to turn other people on to. It doesn't seem to exist as a video or DVD rental. I think that's a travesty. It is definitely a sleeper but, unlike the other commenter, I don't see it as being anything like Pulp Fiction.. In fact, one of the reasons I like this film so much is that it deals with extraordinary things which happen to, and because of, ordinary people bumping up against circumstance and a serial killer. Somehow serendipity threads through everything in a way which I really liked. I'm a big Robert Forester fan and especially love the films he has made in the past 15 years or so. He plays the kind of person I like to meet in real life and that's pretty rare. One other thing I love about this film is the cinematography, especially fun being the first 15 or twenty minutes of the film. No spoilers! Just watch it if you get a chance. I keep hoping it'll come back on cable so I can see it another time.

Movie-12 OUTSIDE OZONA / (1998) **1/2 (out of four)By Blake French: "Outside Ozona" wanders just a little too much to warrant a recommendation. It's a solid attempt from first time director and screenwriter J.S. Cardone; he creates a sordid environment for his characters and often provokes a real sense of community and compassion, but there are just too many characters and too little of a plot to carry them through. I enjoyed much of the film, enough to call this movie a close miss-but I cannot recommend a movie that doesn't know what it's about. There is so much material here, the thin plot threads quickly break apart, and the audience is the group who wishes there we're some kind of boundaries to keep everything together. The movie takes place during a single night on the stretching deserted highways outside Ozona, Oklahoma. We meet a lot of characters, too many, that all seem to live separate lives unrelated to the others. There's a circus clown (Kevin Pollack) who gets mad when he's fired, but becomes even more angry when he discovers his stripper girlfriend (Penelope Ann Miller) has previously slept with his boss to help save his job. There is a lonesome truck driver (Robert Forster) who lends a helping hand to a Navajo Indian woman, whose grandmother (Keteri Walker) is dying. Two bitter sisters (including Sherilyn Fenn) who pick up hitchhiker (David Paymer) who may or may not be a serial killer roaming the highways. The film makes several attempts to connect these stories, which we cut back and forth from throughout the film. One of those attempts deals with a disco jockey on his last strings (Taj Mahal), whose boss (Meat Loaf) isn't happy that his radio station has become under the heat of higher powers. Another attempt is the film's climax, in which all of these stories come to a literal crash. This is disposable and needless. It concludes the various circumstances, but doesn't succeed in bringing them together for a final showdown. It's kind of a disappointment. There are many scenes in which the various characters exchange lengthy conversations that really don't further the plot. But is there really a central plot? Not really. Perhaps that's why the movie doesn't work, because it has no focus, no purpose to build the tension, no story to develop. This is a simple character study. One that often becomes violent (there are some graphically bloody images) gratuitous (there's a scene in a strip club that involves so much unwarranted nudity it feels awkward), and boring (look up "talking heads" in a film analysis book and you'll probably find references to this film). Some of the characters are interesting, but with so many, the film doesn't know which ones. After all of this I forgot to mention the subplot involving the FBI tracking down a serial killer who brutally murders young women as a means of religious rituals. When you forget a subplot that major and important, you know the film's plate is a little too full.

darkstrangers You just can't judge a book by its cover, ya'know? That nice, harmless looking geek stranded on the side of the road with a broken-down car could very well be a raving, ax murderer.This is a nicely done film dealing with several different people that are on a collision course outside of the little western town of Ozona. One is a homicidal lunatic and the rest are relatively innocent folks who may or may not have the misfortune of running into him.Meatloaf gives a nice performance as the manager of a radio station that realizes the nut calling in on the phone is the killer. Robert Forster is excellent as a sweet, but lonely truck driver.Casting David Paymer as the murderer was a stroke of genius, reminding one that people are not always as they seem. Making someone so harmless looking into a cold-blooded killer is exactly what makes him so frightening. Nice work all-around. A very good choice for a stay-at-home-night date.

jtur88 This movie had a lot of outstanding actors in it, but none of them were impressive. In general, the script was wooden and none of the people reading it were very convincing. Also, the geography was a mess. whoever wrote the script apparently thinks Texas is about the size of San Bernardino County.