Rating: 
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: One of my favorite movies of all time. Wonderful rich characters. Sad at times, but never over-bearing. A great example of powerful acting and lighting / cinematography.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: Geez! What a bowser of a movie! Retarded Karl is released from a mental hospital where he has spent time for killing his mother and her lover years earlier. He then befriends a young boy and defends him and his mother from her abusive boyfriend. THAT'S IT! Naturally this one recieved raves from critics who salivated over Billy Bob Thorton whose performance consists of little more than an under bite, a slouch, and monotone grunts about "french fried taters." Besides, does ANYONE believe that Karl would come up with a howler of a line like "that boy lives inside his own heart, and that's an awfully big place?"Then there is the utterly one dimensional character of the boyfriend and the one note performance by singer Dwight Yokum.A dreadful little movie.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding movie.
Review: Great acting
Rating:
Summary: Profound, Haunting, Touching, Tragic and Triumphant
Review: Profound: This movie goes way beyond the obvious, like the turning point when Karl realizes that he's destined for Hades. Haunting: When Karl tells the story of his little brother and then visits his boyhood home. Touching: The love Karl has for Frank, a fatherless boy whom he befriended, (love Karl never got when he was a boy) is so powerful that Karl knows he must sacrifice everything for it. Tragic and Triumphant: The climax of this movie is when Karl, a loving, caring and gentle man, unleashes his fury to rescue the boy and his mom from and impending harm. Even though the ending is no surprise it is no less powerful. One of the best movies of all time...
Rating:
Summary: Sorry
Review: I have seen this film three times and I still can't figure out what all the fuss is about. The plot is contrived, the characters strictly cardboard, and the acting is just plain awful. Violence is promoted as the answer to our problems and there are so many southern cliches here one loses count very quickly. Pseudo intellectuals will tell you that this is a masterpiece, but in reality the emperor has no clothes.
Rating:
Summary: Lucas Black was brilliant
Review: Many of the platitudes I would like to bestow on this beautiful movie have already been expressed by other reviewers. One aspect that hasn't been discussed much is the wonderful performance by Lucas Black as the boy who befriends Karl (by the way, while it is unusual that his mom lets him be friends with Karl & lets Karl move in, I wouldn't say it is entirely implausible...her character dotes heavily on her son and seems happy to let him get his way...besides, she let herself get involved with and dominated by Doyle, so her lack of backbone factors heavily into it. Also, her friendship with John Ritter's gay character indicates her sympathy for ostracized people, in which category Karl would certainly belong. I guess I'm digressing.) Back to Lucas Black. I know he's too old & too Southern for the role per se, but George Lucas should have had someone like Lucas in mind for the role of Anakin Skywalker...someone who could portray the complex pathos and weaknesses of the person who would grow up to be Darth Vader. Instead he casts a complete no-talent who would have been more appropriate for the "Problem Child" trilogy than the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy. Lucas Black is a major talent worth watching for in the future. His performance reminds me of Mary Badham as Scout in "To Kill A Mockingbird." Of course she never acted again, I don't believe...
Rating:
Summary: check it out , it could change your life
Review: It took me nearly a year to pick this one up despite numerous recommendations. Every time I went into a video store I would see it sitting there but always put off renting it until the next trip and I would take home some piece of Hollywood trash. Well, I finally broke down and brought it home one evening. I popped it in the VCR and sat down expecting two and a half hours of pure boredom. What followed was a story that was so compelling that I couldn't even turn it off to go to the bathroom. Everything about it was perfect. The acting, the posture, the location(Benton,Ark.), the mood, the dialogue, the props, the cast, the length,.... the list goes on. I think what amazed me the most was the emotion that went into it all. This is the one that opened me up to a whole new world. It changed the way I thought about everything from retarded people to homosexuals. As far as performances go, there isn't a bad one in the bunch. This film proves to everyone that you don't need an 80 million dollar budget to make a good film. When I worked in a video store I reccomended this one to everyone that I knew and everyone I didn't know. The only people who didn't enjoy it (3 in all) were the kind that I saw taking home Hollywood garbage like Blade and Commando. Dwight Yokem is a standout as the close minded prick who gets off trying to make everyone else's life miserable. John Ritter proves himself to be a fine actor as Vaughn a gay friend of the Wheatley family. Billy Bob Thornton broke out of the small role career when he wrote, directed and starred in this masterpiece. He also became my favorite actor and I have seen all of his movies since this one. If you haven't already seen this one and you are a fan of great films, trust me, this film is for You. Buy it watch several times yourself and show it to all of your friends and family. I guarantee, you will never look at life the same way again.
Rating: 
Summary: Only Average at Best...
Review: I'm sorry but i dont know what all the hype was about with this flick. Although the acting was superb, the plot was thin, and frankly i didnt really care for billy bob's character. The "climax" was entirely anti-climatic.
Rating:
Summary: A Cut Above the Rest
Review: We know well the visage of the desolate, decadent, sometimes lascivious Southern landscape from the works of William Faulkner and others. Not unlike Faulkner, Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade guides us guiltily toward the region's historical and modern undercurrents of social prejudices, ignored dysfunction, sought acceptance, and resulting violence. The film addresses a universal human condition, however, and not the region. The title of the film looms over the audience as Thornton urges fondness while successfully negotiating the fine line between our fear of, and affection for Karl Childers (Thornton), a recently released mental patient committed as a child for violently murdering his mother and her boyfriend. Sling Blade is a study in tension with thick suspense built through superior character development resulting in conflicts that escalate into deliberate, almost real-time rhythms. The story is one of need and moreover of acceptance, as the collection of limping characters, directly or not, seek it, and to some degree, with the help of Karl, attain it. The boy, Frank (Lucas Black), seeks the love of a father figure after the suicide of his own. Linda, the mother (Natalie Canderday), requires the general acceptance of her perceived role as a Southern woman, and subsequently the acceptance from a mate, which is evident in her destructive dependence upon her demonic, red-neck boyfriend, Doyle (Dwight Yoakam). Her own deep need renders her perhaps overly accepting of others, including Karl, whom most mothers wouldn't let within ten feet of there sons. Vaughn (John Ritter), like the others, seeks love, and on an outward scale, struggles with his half-open homosexuality in the small Southern town. Doyle, not unlike Linda, wants acceptance of his perceived role as a family head and wants to be loved as well, but lacks even the basic tools to a gain it. And finally Karl, the most dynamic character in the film, seeks acceptance only from himself as he works to garner love and to construct some semblance of a life within the limited bounds of his mental capacity, his stunted development, and his own set of morals. While the climax of the film is somewhat telegraphed, it is more inevitable than predictable, and the audience is left alone with the wonderment and self-examination over the questionable choice of a sympathetic character. From Sling Blade we leave with the unsolicited lesson that tenderness and brutality sometimes share the same origin.
Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood masterpiece...
Review: The simplicity of this film cannot be ignored. Other reviewers have argued that it was implausable that the mother would allow her son to associate with Karl (Thornton). Its just as implausable as any other movie plot line. Its not supposed to reflect realism, just authenticity. Get over it. Its story is not representitive of every single detail. Billy Bob is wonderful and steals the show. John Ritter is perfect and should have won an oscar. Dont listen to the cynical armchair critics who dont know a good film. Rent this and be amazed!
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