FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

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

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

jonnyss i loved the novel by don winslow, and i was disappointed in the movie.first the positives: i liked paul walker. i delighted in the difference between the personas he plays as the decent but easily angered tim kearney and as the asshole bobby z. olivia wilde is indeed beautiful now the negatives: perhaps i should judge the film on its own merits - in which case it's an OK made-for TV film. but i can't help but notice the best parts of the book are missing: the caring, heartfelt relationships.foreground in the novel is the relationship between a bright, worldly, witty, athletic 6 year old and a decent man who knows nothing about kids. there is a tremendous spark between them - and a wealth of snappy repartee - that delights the reader. the movie substitutes a dull, whiny, out-of-shape, monosyllabic, uneducated 12 year old. what were they thinking? in the book, the crazy wisdom of the beach bum "one-way" saves the day. this bit of magic adds a whimsy that makes the novel different from other shoot-em-outs. all gone from the film. in the book, elizabeth is lovely and decent throughout. in the film, she is lovely to look at, but evil and predatory. she becomes a good guy at the last minute, spurred by kearney's kindness to the young kit. i didn't trust the sudden change of heart, and did not enjoy seeing a predatory elizabeth.so the novel is an action adventure deepened by kearney's relationship with the wonderful kit, the lovely elizabeth, and the magical one-way. none of that depth makes it into the movie

nathan-yeo I bought this book in the black author section of a MILITARY PX(AAFES), So you could imagine my surprise when I opened it up and was reading about a Mathew Mc- kind-of-gay toe headed surfer drug dealer type. I read the book and this is a word for word scene by scene adaption of the book, well the crib sheet of the book. Several scenes of the book were not in it for time and budgetary reasons. A' la one of Bobby-Z's great escapes took place in a crowded theme park, and to film that with the cost of X-tras and such would have added an easy cool million. They also let off all of Booby-Z's desert storm flash-back as well. The final scene shoot-out was a down-play as well but all the characters were there. Obviously this well a well produced, they didn't skimp on the production values but they did on scenes and such. The opening desert body for body exchange should have been what pre-ceded , the post shoot-out desert scene that was in "No country for old-men." WIth the trucks and dead Mexican Mafia hench-men laying every-where. But it was scaled down, again for budgetary and time restraints. Paul WALKER was perfectly cast as a Mathew McCONAUGHEY's younger edgier little brother. A three time loser who's winning at escaping the feds, the cartel, and the bikers who are trying to kill him. I read the book, this is the book, I got what I came for PERIOD.

NerdLife While it's no worse than much of the action movie junk that makes it to theatres, Bobby Z, originally entitled The Death and Life of Bobby Z, is a action thriller with Tim Kearney (Walker) as our hero. Kearney is a convict who's an ex-Marine and clearly not so much a bad person as one who has frequently found himself in trouble due to circumstance rather than intent. This gives director John Herzfeld, whose own career hacs been on less than an up-tick since the appropriately named 15 Minutes came and went in about that long, a premise for having a good guy hero who still fits the label of a tough convict.The slightly convoluted storyline sees Kearney – whose life is in peril since he killed a biker gang boss in prison (self defence, of course) – offered an opportunity to walk free, as long as he's willing to impersonate a drug kingpin who happens to look just like Kearney, and who has just died. Fishburne plays the Drug Enforcement Agency cop who puts Kearney up to this task.Before you can say 'gunfights are fun', Kearney is being shot at by the cops, manhandled by Mexican drug thugs, pursued by the bikers, and generally in demand by everyone, regardless of whether they think he's Kearney or Bobby Z. Our hero, of course, dodges the bullets, battles the bad guys, befriends Bobby Z's son (who has never met his dad) and romances a beautiful woman (Olivia Wilde) whose relationship with the bad guys is a bit hazy, but clearly quite intimate.Filled with head scratching twists and cornball dialogue, this is not exactly a brilliant film. Yet it's got a slick look and at least a few passably enjoyable action scenes. And Walker, while never likely to be mistaken for a Shakespearian thespian, has the good looks and charisma to lead the way here. At least his character isn't loaded down with as many stupidly threatening lines as Fishburne's. Wilde also does a passable job as Kearney's conflicted love interest; she's mainly called upon to look good (which she accomplishes rather easily), but also doesn't muff her lines when she does have something to say.Movie was funny, entertaining and I enjoyed it.

gradyharp How this story of freeing a deadly criminal from prison to act as a stand-in for an at large criminal (Bobby Z) to bring revenge and closure to corruption on every level of the playing field can continue to be reproduced ad infinitum will remain a puzzle. This tired, poorly acted, hyper kinetic desert film wastes the talent of some good actors, gives plenty of killings to watch, and then introduces counterfeit kindness as a reason for making the film, is a movie to avoid.Paul Walker is the released Bobby Z look-alike who will be freed from his life in prison by Laurence Fishburne's cop image if he merely shows up in Mexico as bait for drug lord Joaquin de Almeida's hostage demands for Fishburne's partner. Of course it all goes wrong at the exchange point, allowing the fake Bobby Z to find a female interest (Olivia Wilde) as well as a little boy (J.R. Villarreal) who is supposedly the son of the real Bobby Z (and therefore is taken in by the fake Bobby Z), and the rest is just a messy chase sequence and series of killings and kidnappings. The bad guys outnumber the good guys, and, well the rest is yesterday's sandwich. Not recommended even if there is nothing else on the shelves to rent! Grady Harp