Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and moving film
Review: I loved this movie and found it to be moving, romantic and beautiful. Matt Damon is superb and does a great job as always. Penelope Cruz is stunning and I adore her in this. I don't understand the negative reviews. I had no trouble understanding it or following the plot. It has action, drama, romance and the scenery is so lovely it makes you ache. One of the best films I have seen.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty but aimless
Review: All the Pretty Horses, adapted from the novel by Cormac McCarthy, follows the tale of a young Texas rancher who sets out for Mexico to find adventure. Though promoted as a love story, this serious coming-of-age drama offers more than the usual "boy-meets-girl" plot.Despite the fact that the protagonist of the novel is only 16, the casting is excellent. Matt Damon plays the lead character of John Grady Cole and, although he is convincing, it is not the role of a lifetime. Henry Thomas shines in the supporting role of John's friend, Rawlins, who accompanies him on the epic journey. Along the way, they are joined by Blevins, a young boy played by Lucas Black (Sling Blade) with perhaps a secret or two. The weakest link is actress Penelope Cruz, who plays Cole's love interest, Alejandra; there is no chemistry whatsoever between her and Damon. The film also includes brief cameos by Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick, and Bruce Dern. Director Billy Bob Thornton has said All the Pretty Horses is the best work he'll ever do but, although his directing is adequate, it is hardly spectacular. The narrative becomes choppy at times, and fails to define Cole's motivation. Following the book closely, the film offers many unforeseen plot twists. Among the most exciting developments is a harrowing prison sequence, which captures both the fear and confusion of someone wrongly incarcerated. Further, a scene depicting Cole's attempt to tame a stallion is also notable, but is somewhat hampered by the obvious use of a stunt double. The cinematography throughout the film is breathtaking, and it's refreshing to know that there are parts of this world still unblemished by modern progress. This gives the story the look and feel of an old western. Set in 1949, just after the close of World War II and the advent of rock and roll, it is a world that Cole turns his back on. Perhaps searching for a bygone era, he looks upon the vast wilds of Mexico as a land of freedom and independence. Once can empathize with a lost soul who doesn't know where he belongs, but running away is clearly no solution. It's a shame Thornton didn't know into which genre to place his film, as it runs aimlessly from one event to another, like all the pretty horses with nowhere to go. Rating: 7 out of 10.
Rating: 
Summary: All the Pretty Horses vs All the Pretty Horses
Review: All the Pretty Horses
In the first few moments you know how the film will go wrong. Voice offer-which is often misused in movies based on books as a way to capture some of the original author's voice-is especially damning here. We hear the miscast Matt Damon offering Cole's commentary on what has happened where he lives, what is wrong with it, and thus, why he must go. The problem is, that commentary doesn't exist in the novel. In fact, we never get inside a character's head except through witnessing acts and listening to dialogue-and this is true of all of McCarthy's work. He writes, in essence, beautiful screenplays. Stories that are told in carefully controlled images and well honed and realistic dialogue. Director Thorton and screenwriting Tally make the huge mistake of trying to give this film a "literary" feel. Most certainly they were overwhelmed by the beauty and the poetry of the descriptions of place and action offered in the novel, and I suppose some of the choices they've made were out of a kind of panic. Damon, who is too old and earnest in the wrong ways for the part, may have been likewise intimidated by the source material and decided to make the character his own as opposed to McCarthy's. The Grady of the novel is not one who is just pure and straightforward; rather, he is a character at odds with the darker ways of the world, for it can be navigated only through careful use of reason and he is a character who doesn't just choose to remain more true to his feelings, but who can hardly help it, a character emblematic of a stubborn type of innocence that carries with it an infectious aura of danger-we see it and its consequences later on in the third book of the trilogy, Cities on the Plain. To create a work film which doesn't understand and showcase this trait is to do not even the minimal of justice to its source.
A good film can be made of McCarthy's work; it will take boldness and a screenwriter and a director who realize that the poetry of the prose can only be approximated-perhaps paralleled-in the poetry of the cinematography, and that, beyond that, the plots and what they represent, and the efficiency of the dialogue, is enough. Maybe even more than enough.
Rating: 
Summary: A sleeper
Review: Not only did I like the movie, it introduced me to a great writer, Cormac McCarthy. Cormac McCarthy is a modern realist, my American Lit class first brought my attention to this author and the happenstance of picking this movie off the shelf brought a screenplay based on his book to my viewing "pleasure." It's an interesting movie, some call it a typical picture, but I was taken in and thought the story superb. Get past the negativity of the reviews here and see it for yourself. Comac McCarthy deserves recognition for his craft. Matt Damon did a respectable job in the effort and Penelope Cruz (Correlli's Mandolin) put her on my radar screen. I liked it, what more can I say. Oh by the way, I thought this was going to be a "horsey movie" not a tragedy.
Rating: 
Summary: Really a disappointment
Review: Billy Bob really botched this one. Cormac McCarthy's amazing and epic book deserved much better. Overall, the acting is spotty, and why he would choose someone from Boston to play Grady Cole, a Texan, is beyond me. Barry Pepper would have been a better choice for the lead. Anybody would have been better than an overrated Matt Damon. The outdoor scenes are all shot during the middle of the day, in pale lighting, and the mystique of the southwestern desert landscape that Cormac so eloquently captures on print is lost on film. The cinematography leans more toward a made-for-TV look than film. Marty Stuart provides a slick, polished country music gloss to the soundtrack, when a better band like Calexico, from Tucson, could have provided more haunting and appropriate accompaniments. Hopefully someday a more promising director like Alejandro González Iñárritu or Christopher Nolan will get the rights and give the book the treatment it deserves. Stick to B-movies and Bad Santa sequels Billy Bob!
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Authentic
Review: It's a shame that Billy Bob Thorton and Co. had to cut so much from this movie. After two hours, I felt as though I could stand another two. This movie is an excellent rendition of Cormac McCarthy's novel, and remains very, very true to the book. The acting is nearly flawless, especially that of Matt Damon (John Grady Cole), Henry Thomas (Rawlins), and Lucas Black (Blevins). The directing was great, the scenery and landscape all very beautiful. That having been said, I must include the comment that I wish this movie had not been edited so much. Having read the book, I could easily follow the story of the movie, and enjoyed it thoroughly. My wife, on the other hand, has not read the novel, and was completely lost throughout despite my attempts to piece together the scattered fragments for her. This flaw (and a large one it is) makes it difficult for this movie to have widespread appeal. Unless you've read the book, plan on being confused most of the time. Still, this movie is well worth seeing, even if you have to read McCarthy's novel first so you can understand it.
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