Rating: 
Summary: Extremely funny and extremely sad! A must See!
Review: Mellanies best Film yet.She acts so naturally like never before and she plays the role of a beautyfull,intelligent,and strong woman who decapetated her husband Chester and which dream is to become an actress called "Carolyne Clay". In the meantime her nephew Pee-Joe has to fight extreme rassism in Alabama a young collored boy has been killed by the Sherif and Pee-Joe saw everything! Its a movie who showes us the "real" life out there!
Rating: 
Summary: A Sensitive Film
Review: Overall, Crazy in Alabama is a thought-provoking , funny and sensitive film. Yes it borders on farce, Lucille running toward Hollywood with her husband's head in tow. But Melanie Grifith really grabs our attention in court and makes us think seriously about a woman being killed little by little. In addition, Director Banderas is able to skillfully weave together the story of the civil rights struggle to Lucille's bid for freedom. I rented the film and after viewing it, felt that it was a film that I'd want to see again and share it with my friends. My only criticism is that the ending with the three kids going of fishing was a little Mark Twainish. The director would have been well advised to have them look a bit scruffier to be believable. As it stands the scene looks too staged for my taste. All criticisms aside, I think this is an enjoyable family film.
Rating: 
Summary: An Alabamian who enjoyed the book....
Review: Possibly the worst movie ever produced ?
Rating:
Summary: Likeable film (SPOILER WARNING)
Review: SPOILER WARNING: This comment discusses the ending of this film in detail. If you haven't seen the film, you might want to wait until you have seen it before you read this comment. This is a very likeable film about a flaky woman and her family in 60's Alabama. Lucille (Melanie Griffith) is fleeing her small town because she just killed her husband and cut off his head. She left the body in her freezer and decided to take the head with her as she embarks on her new career in Hollywood. This is actually two stories. The first is Lucille's escapades and the second follows her young nephew Peejoe back home, who finds himself in the middle of a civil rights incident involving the death of a young black man who refuses to leave an all white swimming pool. Both stories are well done, but disparate. This is my first criticism of the Mark Childress screenplay based on his own novel. This story can't make up its mind whether it is a farce (the Lucille story) or a serious drama about civil rights in the 1960's. It succeeds in both regards, but putting the two together takes impact and credibility away from the serious civil rights story, which in my mind was the better element. My second criticism was the ending. Lucille is tried and convicted of the first degree murder of her husband and is sentenced to 20 years, (suspended) and five years of therapy, then set free. Although this panders shamelessly to the feel good audience, and Lucille was a lovable character, films like this send the wrong message to the masses regarding justice and accountability. The message is that if you are likeable, flaky and a victim, the rule of law doesn't have to apply to you. I feel that the film industry needs to take a little more responsibility than this. When I saw the movie, I started out skeptical about the prospects of a film directed by Antonio Banderas, even more since his wife Melanie Griffith was cast in the lead. I was pleasantly surprised on both counts. Banderas showed very solid direction, good camera work, excellent period props (great vintage cars), and an attention to detail that was impressive for a first time director. Melanie Griffith was the best I can remember her since "Working Girl". She was charmingly loopy and brightened up every scene she was in. But as good as she was, the best performance was from young Lucas Black as Peejoe. After a fine performance in "Sling Blade" he proves it wasn't just a fluke. Black has a natural, plain spoken acting style with that heavy southern drawl which is I'm sure must be close to his real accent. He projects sincerity and character and an inner strength far greater than one would expect for his years. I look forward to seeing more of his work. I rate this film 7/10. It was a good story with an identity crisis, but most people will have an easy time liking this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Good performances can't save choppy film
Review: The DVD included an interview with director Antonio Banderas. I mention this because he introduced some of the movie's out takes. In doing so, he said that the original rough cut ran three and a half hours and that cutting it to its present length was very difficult. I am of the 'shorter is better' film school, but, in this case, I would be curious to see the long version. I suspect that Carzy in Alabama's heart wound up on the cutting room floor. In the movie, as in the book, thirteen-year old Peejoe [Lucas Black] narrates two stories. These are two life-altering events that happened to him in his hometown of Industry, Alabama in 1965. One is about about how his Aunt Lucille [Melanie Griffith] kills her abusive husband with rat posioning, parks her seven kids with her mother and drives to California to be a star. The other concerns his witnessing the killing of a young black boy by the local sheriff during a sit-in at a local public swimming pool. Both stories are about the high price of freedom. Carzy in Alabama is very professionally done. It's equal parts sweet and bitter-sweet. The bad thing is that it also has very little substance. Imagine that you are driving down a long, tree-lined driveway. You arrive at a large, beautiful house. You are impressed by your surroundings. You enter the house, which is beautifully decorated, except for one glaring detail - there are no furnishings. You find there are not even any clothes in the closets. That's what movies such as Crazy in Alabama are like. Impressive looking yet sadly empty. This hollowness is not the fault of the actors. What we see of them is quite good. I suspect that the only way to really judge their performance would be to see the rest of the footage. There is a scene during Lucille's trial where she points at a woman in the gallery. She says that she knew all along that this woman, her best friend, had been having an affair with her now dead husband. As if to prove the point, the woman flees the court room in tears. The problem with this scene is that it's the first and last time the audience sees Lucille's best friend. So, the moment lacks impact. I can't blame Banderas. In fact, he seems to have had little problem in directing the cast or in supervising the photography. I can't point the finger at the book's author, because I haven't read it. There is only one place I can lay the blame. The movie's distributor was afraid to release a three-hour version of a film that wasn't very commercial to begin with. [You can tell when a studio has a problem picture when the trailers have virtually nothing to do with the storyline.] I believe that, if you know you are going to lose your investment, why does it matter how long the product runs? Isn't getting praise from a limited audience some kind of consolation? Because it is so badly edited, Crazy in Alabama is unable to tell either of its two stories well. You don't get enough background to relate to Lucille's insisting she had no other option than to kill her husband. She comes across as self-centered, which surely was not the movie's intent. The civil rights story has the picture's most moving and dramatically interesting moments, but this tale gets quitely put in a corner about three-fourths of the way through.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: The fault of this film cannot be blamed on the actors or the director. Melanie Griffith and Lucas Black are excellent and they also get excellent support from the supporting players. It was especially fun seeing Fannie Flagg and Rod Steiger. Director Antonio Banderas also shows that he is quite adept at direction and suprisingly shows a strong feel for the South. The fault of the movie lies with the script which can't decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a racial drama. We long to see more of Melanie Griffith's escapades as she travels cross country with her husband's head in a Tupperware container but we are sent back and forth from her adventure to a racial drama that is anything but funny. The story plays much better in the book but as a film, it just does not gel.
Rating:
Summary: Strange movie, but good lessons!
Review: The movie's incredible concept was spoiled by the way they wrote Melanie Griffith's character. Her little nephew is a strong young man who stands up against the evil sheriff and risks it all. His father is a man who stands by his son even as their fight to end racism is life-threatening.
It was 2 major stories going on at once - the one that didn't involve Ms. Griffith was realistic. Her character and story was just very annoying. Who actually could carry around a severed head for weeks without being caught? This could have been a great movie if her character and story were better. Anyway, I recommend it with reservations. The plot is messy and the story drags.
Rating:
Summary: The Tale of a Decade
Review: This DVD is in my library of Great films because it was entertaining but at the same time had a moral I'd like my son to understand. It was comedic in its dealing with the theme of the decades of the 60's and the 70's ( and even today) yet at the same time dealt seriously and respectfully with the topic. There was one theme, of a group's search for recognition of humanity and inalienable rights in the story of a young woman who kills her husband for her freedom and a younger Black man who gives his life in a similar cause. The two ongoing stories were handled in a unique and entertaining manner. I will watch this DVD over again and enjoy it many times in the future. I will watch for other films directed by Antonio Banderas.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best movies of 1999!
Review: this film was fantastic.a little weird,but great.a little funny and a little sad.see this film and you'll love it.it takes place in 1965,and i dont usually care for movies like that but this one is one that i enjoyed a lot!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This has to be one of the best films of 1999, and is definitely one of my favorites. I missed it in the theater, and was so glad when it came out on DVD. As a first time director, Antonio Banderas deserves a lot of the credit. He does an amazing job using all of his actors to bring both parts of the story to life. Melanie Griffith gives an Oscar worthy performance as Aunt Lucille, and the entire supporting cast, led by a powerful performance by Meat Loaf as the bigoted sheriff, is fantastic. It's a wonderful story, one that you'll want to watch over and over again.
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