Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

djbabu_30 The daughter of Freddy Gale (Jack Nicholson) was killed in an accident by John Booth (David Morse). The death of his child took a tool on Freddy, as his marriage broke up and he became an alcoholic, looking for a purpose in his life. Freddy plans to kill Booth as soon as he's released from prison, as he thinks, that the jail sentence is not enough punishment for the death of his daughter. He tells Booth, that he has three days to live. The movie is a mixture of thrill and sadness for the two man who, are connected by the unbelievable tragedy, although for different reasons. An expressive role of a big star Jack Nicholson with an expected final. Pleasant story by writer and director, Sean Penn.

johnnyboyz The opening to Sean Penn's directorial debut tees up its overall thesis of grief, or the studying of various ways of grieving, with a glimpse into that of a group counselling session driven at this point by a woman speaking of the death of her younger brother. She admits that she feels as if she will never again want to feel affectionate towards a human-being as much as she did her brother, for the fear born out of further loss, in what is a revealing and frank monologue of sorts on the issue. It is an instance in which somebody exposes some deeply rooted emotions out of the death of a loved one, Penn's film, The Crossing Guard, branching out into a fascinating and far broader play on the subject allowing actions and highly strung mindsets to drive a look at anguish, a film covering an array of people of grossly differing ilks suffering in some form due to a fatality; the likes of which are an affecting mediation that doubles up as a somewhat gripping tale of revenge that is never exploitative nor dunderheaded, and indeed remains constantly engrossing to its affecting finale.Penn's film is an engrossing low-key drama observing some rather high-key feelings of consciousness, a film with a creative and personal stamp all over it; principally, a film which looks at those on opposite sides of the death of a young girl at the hands of a drunk-driving incident and revolves a subversive nucleus around a number of sub-plots contributing to an overall thesis. One of these individuals is Jack Nicholson's Freddy Gale; a man, whose daughter is Emily and who was killed in that driving incident five years ago, whom is initially revealed as someone combating whatever grief he experiences by frequenting strip clubs so as to meet with his equally sleazy colleagues and which usually leads to the spending of a night with one of the performers. Freddy is the guy we're inclined towards siding with out of victimisation, but he is, in actual fact, a sleazy and unlikeable individual; with the perpetrator of the death coming across as a little bit more than the faceless, drink driving murderer we're, again, naturally inclined towards labelling as such.It's not as if we feel Freddy doesn't care, indeed he has the anniversary of his daughter's death vehemently stencilled in on his calender; while his clinicalness is exemplified in his dealing with a minute employee issue early on at his jewellers in an effective and shrewed manner. Freddy's lifestyle acts as something to sooth the pain, since his ex-wife, in Anjelica Huston's Mary, is seen during that opening therapy session born out of Emily's death; Penn cutting back and forth from such sequences at such places juxtaposing the content and alluding to a harsh duality in dealing with grief. The turntable which will unsettle the balance in each of these people's lives arrives in the form of David Morse's John Booth, the man who was responsible for Emily's death and is now out of prison after his stretch for it. You always feel that a genre piece would demand a man of such a nature be collected by a former criminal cohort or something in the region of; here, Booth is picked up by his parents, and he appears humble enough - speaking of the problems he experienced whilst incarcerated and appearing to have a good rapport with his folks. Indeed, his parents seem like gentle folk and still connect with each other at the age they're at, a far cry from Freddy and Mary on the other strand who're a lot younger but much further apart.Freddy, blinded by some vengeful rage, as well as the seemingly still prominent escalating need to prove his masculinity following the decimation of his marriage, and after so much time spent with women and in those specific locales with other men, tracks Booth with the intent to kill him. The men reach a compromise that sees Booth suggest he come back to his trailer-home in three days time to challenge him if he still wants blood to be spilt. Interestingly, this causes Freddy to go home and make an even larger stencil mark on his calender than that of the anniversary's date; an alluding to the hierarchical element to which date, as well as the actions predestined to be either acknowledged or carried out on such dates, acts as more important to him. Penn's film is one of a revenge ilk in which a lead reckons to grab the nearest firearm and hulk out to get some revenge so as to compensate for a lost or taken loved one; its substance in identifying that as a premise commonly used to drive such films as Commando or Rambo III, and allowing that respective denouement to occur in the first third, crucial to permitting the involved parties to play out what is from there on in an engrossing mediation on revenge; grief and guilt which ought not slip beneath one's radar.

markymark70 First of all, I wanted to like this movie. I like Penn (in both his acting roles and 'some' as director - 'Into The Wild' was fantastic), I like Morse and Nicholson is a good addition as well. The subject of the movie resonates with me too - a father wanting to exact revenge on the drunk-driver killer of his little girl. What father wouldn't feel like that? However, mashing all this together for a film - it just doesn't work.Why? For me - the story was too meandering, too off-the-beaten-track to hook in the viewer. Nicholson's erratic behaviour as a drink-guzzling, topless bar frequenting Lothario - although giving us a look into how his life has become empty and shallow - does not give us much sympathy for him. He tracks down his daughter's killer and gives him 3 days grace. After such time, he will come and shoot him dead. The first question in my mind was why? Why not kill him there and then - get it over with - after all he had been waiting 7 years already.Morse - who had obviously pumped iron for the intervening time in jail - plays his part as best as he can. He's not given much in the way of a script to flesh out his character but he does well to personalise and internalise the pain. Nicholson does okay too - his acting a little spotty at times but in the main he holds it together quite well. A decent turn from Angelica Huston adds to the film. Robin Wright-Penn though does not. It's not entirely her fault as her part is completely irrelevant as Morse's not-quite-love-interest. (In one scene - which I had to replay to see if I saw it properly the first time - I thought Morse had broken her neck for no apparent reason. But it turned out to be a cuddle. Strangest cuddle ever if you ask me.) So the movie meanders through a series of not very exciting moments until we end up at the end of the 3 days with a chase between Nicholson and Morse. This, although leading to some redemption, is almost laughable. First of all Nicholson is an old man, coming off the back of a night of beer and cigarettes and generally out of shape. Morse, on the other hand, looks like a clean-living, hard-working, in-shape perfect human specimen - but yet cannot outrun his predator. A preposterous chase from his trailer through the streets of downtown (where Nicholson has umpteen opportunities to kill his prey and doesn't) ends up in the graveyard where the little girl is buried. Causing both men to finally find some solace and finality.Poor.Don't get me too wrong here - there are some nice scenes, some good dialog too but it is ruined by an unfocused script and an ending that has to be seen to be dis-believed. Penn has had worse outputs than this and he is clearly learning his craft as he goes along but this does go down as a thumbs down rather than up.I'll give it 6/10 for an honest effort at telling a well-worn story in a different way but it was a disappointment at the end of the day.

Leonard Smalls: The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse What a well-directed film. Anyone who says Sean Penn is a hack is full of it. This guy knows how to direct, there is no question about it. But what he is directing? That's another matter."The Crossing Guard" has way too many 'hollywood' elements for it's own good. Kind of reminded me of "21 Grams" in that way. Where "21 Grams" was a Hollywood-version of addiction, "The Crossing Guard" is a Hollywood-version of crime and punishment. There is no clear villain and there is no clear victim. I guess we are all victims, aren't we Sean? Okay, first of all why did Booth get out of prison for killing a girl while drunk driving and his friends throw him a welcome home party with alcohol being served? Only in Hollywood. We are given a small glimpse of Booth's character but not enough to really feel bad for him. Nicholson's character, Gale, is a real creep. He makes it pretty tough to feel sorry for him at all. So the viewer is torn, right up until the end of the movie. The ending throws you for an emotional roller coaster that will make some people laugh and no doubt make others cry, but it is definitely strange. A frantic Gale shooting Booth, then handing his gun over to him.Fine acting, fine directing, just not a great story here. Then there was Robin Wright. We loved you in "The Princess Bride" but please Sean, cool it with the nepotism: the part was useless and your lovely wife did not fit into it.5 out of 10, kids.