Rating: 
Summary: A Strange but fun ride!
Review: I really enjoyed this movie. Its not for everyone but I think it was a great show. The movie had a sort of authenticity about it. Although, not all of us experience the same things in life we can all agree that it is a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes up and sometimes down. This movie covered the rollercoaster ride of a mans turbulant life and somehow I could relate to it because the directer keept it authentic, fresh, and real
Rating:
Summary: A Strange but fun ride!
Review: I really enjoyed this movie. Its not for everyone but I think it was a great show. The movie had a sort of authenticity about it. Although, not all of us experience the same things in life we can all agree that it is a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes up and sometimes down. This movie covered the rollercoaster ride of a mans turbulant life and somehow I could relate to it because the directer keept it authentic, fresh, and real
Rating:
Summary: Fabulously original and funny movie!!!
Review: I wanted to see this movie, mostly because Billy Crudup was in it and I love him. I was hoping it would be one of those movies that doesn't drag slowly along. Believe me when I say it was one great movie! The way Billy Crudup's character, FH, narrated was great. These weird things he kept encountering, such as when he was working in the ER a man came in with a hunting knife lodged right through his eye. This movie was REALLY weird, but that is what made it so enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Read the Book Instead
Review: I'll start off by saying this is a biased review. I have read the book three times and I absolutely love it. The low rating is because I, perhaps unfairly, am judging the movie against the book. Characters and events are switched around in a way that seems to try making an ordered sense out of the disjointed narrative flow of the book. But I think the disrupted, jump-around style is essential to the FEEL of the book. And I think that's my biggest complaint about the movie. It didn't have the same feel, the same tone, the same mood, as I thought the book had. To produce a movie by the same name and based on (roughly) the same story implies an obligation to faithfully represent the book and it's vision.
As a stand alone movie, perhaps it might be tolerable, but i'm not sure about that. I had to shut it off after about 45 minutes so I didn't ruin the book for myself. Based on the little that i saw of the movie, you'd be better off with the book anyway: it's more complete and more complex in it's feel and in it's philosophy.
Rating:
Summary: Strictly for white bread suburban wannabes
Review: I'm not really sure what market movies like this & Drugstore Cowboy - highly artificial romanticized Hollywood fictions about life's total losers - is meant for. Possibly it's the losers themselves, a potentially large if unsung & untrumpeted demographic; or it could be for the great hard-working law-abiding shop-to-help-the-economy consumer middle class which needs to feel that there is really is some flip-side kind of bandit/outlaw culture out there whose lives make all their own compulsive security meaningful. It could be a combination of both.In any case it's the worst kind of voyeuristic self-indulgent airhead garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: "I Feel Just Like Jesus' Son"
Review: If you came of age (or nearly did) in the 60's, you may recall a moment--very likely sometime in the early 70's, unless you were extremely prescient and saw it coming earlier--when all the hippie idealism pretty much just dissolved before your eyes and was replaced by...well, whatever it was replaced by. I recall being actually kind of angry at all these small town stoners whose only countercultural value was, quite frankly, drug taking. Society was not about to undergo a profound spiritual transformation at their hands. Of course, it was scarcely about to at anyone else's either...but who knew back then? Lost souls like JESUS SON'S "FH" were really not uncommon back in the day. They may not have been uncommon back in any day. But the 60s and early 70s brand was perhaps a little more noticeable and, in some senses, sympathetic because of their vaguely anti-establishment stance. For a brief moment in history, outcasts were almost taken seriously. These people really did exist. As surreal as JESUS' SON sometimes gets, it remains grounded in its very vivid, very authentic characters. Yes, there were certain junkie truths that ultimately became cinematic cliches. The numrerous OD's, the failed love relationships and the sporadic attempts at redemption are all elements of JESUS' SON. And yet, they come across as less cliched in this particular druggie film than in some others. Perhaps it's because the acting is almost uniformly excellent--with leads, Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton, deserving of particular praise. Perhaps too it's, at least in part, because FH's ultimate redemption is a plausible one. Out of rehab, he gets a job in a different kind of rehabilitation center, a home for sufferers of rare neurological diseases. It is finally there that he realizes that there may indeed be a place in the world for people like him. Many viewers will find the final, sobered up segment of the film a little weaker dramatically than the drug addled scenes that precede it. That's true, but the end is also something of a relief. FH would surely have joined the ranks of his fallen comrades in arms had it not been for rehab and the chance at a new life in a new city. It's the kind of ending you could call "bittersweet"--if you use terminology like that. It's also one of only two possible endings for someone like "FH"--and, like him, you're grateful for that much. When I first heard of this movie, I immediately recognized the source of the title as being a line from Lou Reed's "Heroin." I was disappointed, at first, to see that that song was not incluced on the soundtrack. But on further reflection, that actually seemed the better choice. Lou Reed is the quintessetial urban poet. FH never even comes close to New York City or any other real metropolis. The Neil Young, Doug Sahm and Louvin Brothers tracks actually used in the film are actually more fitting.
Rating:
Summary: A Drugstore Cowboy for the '00s
Review: It's hard to believe that Drugstore Cowboy was released as long ago as 1989. Just as Trainspotting was described as a "Drugstore Cowboy for the '90s", it's tempting to describe Jesus' Son as a "Drugstore Cowboy for the '00s". Like Gus Van Sant's now-classic film, the story revolves around two heroin addicts (Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton, both excellent), it's set in the somewhat recent past (the '70s instead of the '60s) and it's based on a previously existing literary source; in this case, Denis Johnson's short story collection of the same name. But despite everything -- mostly bad -- that "FH" (Crudup) experiences throughout the course of the film, Jesus' Son is more of a character study (Crudup also serves as the narrator). Some may still find it just as off-putting as Drugstore Cowboy, which didn't seem to judge its characters. But Jesus' Son isn't as concerned with FH's drug use as much as his very character, his nature -- his "essence", if you will. And if you can't find anything to love about the hapless FH, you'll probably feel the same way about Alison Maclean's striking film (after the well received, but little seen Crush). As in High Fidelity, Jack Black provides much of the humor, although Crudup proves himself surprisingly adept at comedy in a few choice moments. Dennis Hopper, Denis Leary and Holly Hunter (in a well acted, but not particularly convincing role) also star. Fans of The Panic in Needle Park (featuring Al Pacino in his first lead performance), Vincent Gallo's loopy Buffalo 66 and, especially, Drugstore Cowboy should find much to enjoy. Joe Henry's fine soundtrack only sweetens the deal, the highlight of which must surely be Tommy Roe's funky "Sweet Pea", to which Ms. Morton (as Michelle) does *quite* the dance, drawing FH into her dangerously compelling world without saying a word. Sidenote: The Velvet Underground's "Heroin", in which Lou Reed proclaims that he feels "just like Jesus' Son" when he's "rushing on [his] run", isn't featured in either the film or on the soundtrack.
Rating:
Summary: A Drugstore Cowboy for the '00s
Review: It's hard to believe that Drugstore Cowboy was released as long ago as 1989. Just as Trainspotting was described as a "Drugstore Cowboy for the '90s", it's tempting to describe Jesus' Son as a "Drugstore Cowboy for the '00s". Like Gus Van Sant's now-classic film, the story revolves around two heroin addicts (Billy Crudup and Samantha Morton, both excellent), it's set in the somewhat recent past (the '70s instead of the '60s) and it's based on a previously existing literary source; in this case, Denis Johnson's short story collection of the same name. But despite everything -- mostly bad -- that "FH" (Crudup) experiences throughout the course of the film, Jesus' Son is more of a character study (Crudup also serves as the narrator). Some may still find it just as off-putting as Drugstore Cowboy, which didn't seem to judge its characters. But Jesus' Son isn't as concerned with FH's drug use as much as his very character, his nature -- his "essence", if you will. And if you can't find anything to love about the hapless FH, you'll probably feel the same way about Alison Maclean's striking film (after the well received, but little seen Crush). As in High Fidelity, Jack Black provides much of the humor, although Crudup proves himself surprisingly adept at comedy in a few choice moments. Dennis Hopper, Denis Leary and Holly Hunter (in a well acted, but not particularly convincing role) also star. Fans of The Panic in Needle Park (featuring Al Pacino in his first lead performance), Vincent Gallo's loopy Buffalo 66 and, especially, Drugstore Cowboy should find much to enjoy. Joe Henry's fine soundtrack only sweetens the deal, the highlight of which must surely be Tommy Roe's funky "Sweet Pea", to which Ms. Morton (as Michelle) does *quite* the dance, drawing FH into her dangerously compelling world without saying a word. Sidenote: The Velvet Underground's "Heroin", in which Lou Reed proclaims that he feels "just like Jesus' Son" when he's "rushing on [his] run", isn't featured in either the film or on the soundtrack.
Rating: 
Summary: Junkie Love
Review: Just what I need to waste two hours of my life. A movie about a slacker who uses drugs. And it's not the drug part that irritates me, it's the slacker part. This movie is the adventures of a guy in the early 70's who basically just drifts. He encounters girls, drugs, a stab at a family life, more drugs, rehab, more girls, and well, you watch it and tell me. I'd say a fair assumption of a movie is that while you don't have to care FOR the characters in it, you should at least care what happens to him. "Bugsy" may not have been a good guy, but you did want to see how that movie ended. With this movie, there is no such caring. The character is not a bad guy. He's fairly friendly an amiable. But to tell you the truth, I'd rather have Bugsy over for dinner in the presence of my children than the hero of this movie. At least Bugsy had drive and ambition, which can be channeled positively. But it would be a greater sin to have my kids grow up to be someone who aimlessly just drains society. You want to see a good movie about drug users? Try "Drugstore Cowboy". These folks may have not had a good lifestyle, but darn it, they worked HARD to keep that lifestyle up. The only reason this movie gets two stars from me is the cameo by Jack Black. The guy just lights up the screen with energy with every movie he's in, and I'd actually watch a movie just because he's in it.
Rating:
Summary: Junkie Love
Review: Just what I need to waste two hours of my life. A movie about a slacker who uses drugs. And it's not the drug part that irritates me, it's the slacker part. This movie is the adventures of a guy in the early 70's who basically just drifts. He encounters girls, drugs, a stab at a family life, more drugs, rehab, more girls, and well, you watch it and tell me. I'd say a fair assumption of a movie is that while you don't have to care FOR the characters in it, you should at least care what happens to him. "Bugsy" may not have been a good guy, but you did want to see how that movie ended. With this movie, there is no such caring. The character is not a bad guy. He's fairly friendly an amiable. But to tell you the truth, I'd rather have Bugsy over for dinner in the presence of my children than the hero of this movie. At least Bugsy had drive and ambition, which can be channeled positively. But it would be a greater sin to have my kids grow up to be someone who aimlessly just drains society. You want to see a good movie about drug users? Try "Drugstore Cowboy". These folks may have not had a good lifestyle, but darn it, they worked HARD to keep that lifestyle up. The only reason this movie gets two stars from me is the cameo by Jack Black. The guy just lights up the screen with energy with every movie he's in, and I'd actually watch a movie just because he's in it.
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