Rating: 
Summary: 1 star is too many for this movie
Review: A good friend of mine, one who only watches critically acclaimed movies recommended this movie to me. So I thought I'd give it a try. I watched it with a couple friends which was good... that way when I fell asleep they were able to clue me in on what transpired...NOTHING. you could litterally watch the first 20 minutes of this movie (only 2 minutes of content mind you, but they somehow draw it out fully 10 fold that amount!), then the middle 5, then the end 5 and you're good to go, and you didn't have to lose the 2 or 3 hours of your life to this movie. I have never in my life seen a more horrendous movie. I thought teletubbies were mind numbing on TV, well this is the lobatomization from the film industry. In Amazon's max of 1,000 words, I do not think I can possibly portray how horrible this movie is. Nay, I don't think the english language has the ability to properly discribe how truely bad this movie is. There were several times I fell asleep, only to wake up 15, 20 minutes later only to find that I missed absolutely *nothing* of value. My friends and I did find some entertainment, which was derived from the complete lack of effort we found in making fun of this movie during our viewing of it. Many parts of it were unncessesary (99.87% of it) and it was down right painful to watch. In summation, if you value your time do not watch this movie. If you want to see what a truely horrible movie is like, then watch it.
Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT MOVIE WITH AN EXCELLENT STORY!!!
Review: One of the best films ever made. Both emotional and sad in all respects. Billy Bob Thornton is a true genius. Dwight Yoakam gives a wonderful performance. This is a touching film that you will never forget and you will want to see it again!! It helps us all to realize that everyone has a heart and everyone deserves a chance. Uh-huh!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: In a word..Brilliant. If you have not seen this movie yet my opinion is that you are missing out. This film is of major importance. This is not dramatic film scoring..this is REAL life. This is an example of the lives of folks from the south. Me gots kin-folk down der too sos I noze.This motion picture is Powerful and Moving. If you do not come away from this viewing with a bitter-deep compassion for humanity than I can say you are either a corpse or paid no attention whatsoever to the film. Well maybe you just didn't like it - everyone is different. I loved this movie and I feel that this work was done for a reason as an eye-opener. Do forget what you may have heard negative regarding this film, see and judge it for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies I've ever seen
Review: My husband brought this movie home, and, from the title, I thought it would be some tiresome action/adventure thriller. But the depth and quality of it was completely unexpected. I was deeply moved by this movie, and am a different person for seeing it. There is so much human goodness in it, and Billy Bob Thornton is a mind-blowing talent. If you haven't seen it, you're really in for an experience. There's actually a lot of humor in this movie, too, in places you don't expect it. (I don't want to spoil it for you by telling too much, but you might be surprised at your own reaction, at the end. You might laugh in places you don't expect to.)
Rating: 
Summary: UNCOMMONLY GOOD
Review: Startling film with a predictable ending, but for all its predictable conclusions, it is still gripping and sad in its inevitability. Thornton plays a mentally challenged adult being released from a hospital for the criminally insane. You learn early that he has murdered his mother and the mother's lover and is finally being released into the wider world of free people. He soon makes friends with a young boy, and this is of course when the conflict begins. The boy lives in a contentious situation with his mother and the mother's abusive, alcoholic boyfriend (Dwight Yoakum). Thornton's character, Karl Childers, does a great deal to change the boy's life, ultimately insisting in the end, "You Will Be Happy". You will just have to watch to see how. Also memorable here are the characters played by the late JT Walsh and a highly underrated John Ritter. Also look out for film director Jim Jarmusch in a small role. A wholly surprising film with a unique and fresh script written by Thornton. It took everyone by surprise.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This movie stands the test of time. It is one of the very few movies I have seen that literally *improves* with each viewing. The first time I saw it, I thought, "Good, but I don't know what the fuss is about." The second time, I thought, "No, this is a fine film indeed." The third time, I was awed by it and couldn't get it out of my mind. Astonishing ... This is what all movies should be like. I don't think they should show you all their cards at first. There is no way that they can get across everything in just one screening.
Rating:
Summary: PLEASE UNDERSTAND.......
Review: Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in this facinating story of a mentally retarded man's adjustment to life outside of an institution. Sling Blade starts out with Karl (played by Thornton) telling his story to a high school reporter just before his release from the institution. Once released, Karl befriends a boy who has no father and his mother is seeing a man-Doyle (played by Dwight Yoakam) who is both physically and mentally abusive. First of all, the performance by Billy Bob Thornton is absolutely brilliant as Karl. His character is very well portrayed and very accurate. My mother worked in a mental institution for her entire life. I was exposed to mentally ill people from a very young age. Believe me (I also have a B.A. in Psychology) his portrayal is absolutely perfect. His actions, murmurings, and habits are very true to life. Although it may vary depending on the degree of mental illness. Dwight Yoakam's performance as Doyle the abusive and often cruel boyfriend is also very convincing. It is said that ignorance is the enemy. Doyle does not understand mental retardation and thinks that anyone who is somehow "different" is a threat to his ego. Probably because of his compassionate girlfriend. He is also obviously threatened by Vaughn, a gay man(played by John Ritter) who is also a friend of his girlfriend. I have heard many comment on "why did she let Karl become a companion with her young son?" or "why did she let Karl live with them?" My answer to this is who is the bigger monster?? Is it Doyle for being the ignorant, insecure, and abusive person that he is? Or is it Karl who is mentally retarded?? Linda is a very compassionate person but she is also very co-dependent on Doyle. The issue of co-dependent could be 1. Her losing her husband to suicide and needing a companion other than a friend such as Vaughn. 2. Financial reasons- she works at a dime store probably making minimum wage and has a hard time raising her son on this little money. Why does she allow Frank to be friends with Karl?? I think that she allows this because she is very concerned with Frank's well-being. He obviously does not have a friend in Doyle. Doyle feels that he is a threat to the relationship with Linda, Frank's mother. Karl is someone that Frank can look up to as maybe a kind of "father figure" Karl is someone who will give her son encouragement and credit and see him for what he is. I also believe that Linda has a very close relationship with her son and trusts his "instincts." I think that Linda allowed Karl to live with them for protection, both emotional and physical from Doyle. Sling Blade is beautifully written and acted. The cinematography and setting are outstanding. The characters are very real. Sling Blade is a classic to be. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates good cinema.
Rating:
Summary: That country music singer says "Mmm hmm" a lot
Review: A very emotional, good movie. The ending is quietly powerful; I sort of felt dissatisfied with it, but after thinking it out I realized it's pretty good. Thornton's character was truly a lovable, admirable one, with his simple standards and to-the-point talking. The homosexual character is also an interesting plot idea. That boyfriend was sure a jerk, though. One of the cool things about this movie is that everybody's believable in their character. I mean, I felt like I KNEW these people!
Rating: 
Summary: A waste of time if you have the VHS
Review: First, I have to say that I absolutely love this movie. I bought the VHS when it was first released as a rental copy. The DVD version of this film states that this is a "widescreen" or "letterboxed" presentation. I must say however that what they call "widescreen" is little more than the original VHS presentation with black bars cutting even more from the film! This is a ridiculous concept to me. The film on this DVD has been chopped on all sides from the theatrical version.
Rating: 
Summary: Matricide and then some
Review: Billy Bob Thornton plays Karl Childers, a mentally retarded man who, as a 14-year-old boy, murdered his mother's boy friend (with a sling blade) because he mistook the man's having his way with her for a violent attack. When she apprized him of the facts, he killed her too. Mmm hmm. So Karl spends twenty-five years in the state mental institution and then they let him go. He has improved himself and learned to read. He's read the Bible and he reckons he understands it, mostly. He meets a boy and they become best buds showering one another and the audience with "idiot savant" and "precocious lad" bits of phony wisdom. Sometimes it gets so corny you just want to blush for the players. This is not to say that the script has no redeeming qualities. It does, especially the first, last and penultimate scenes-and there are some nice touches in between. But overall it's heavy-handed and insufferably preachy. The main problem is Billy Bob himself, who also wrote the script and directed. His performance (upper lip buried in lower, dead pan voice, etc.) is more mannerism than substance. In the beginning he had the timing down very well when Karl was saying little, but later on when Karl started dispensing all that wisdom, he had to talk faster and it started to come out phony. There's a great temptation, when writing of the down-trodden to cover ourselves with them, like the flag, and unabashedly champion the underdogs of society without regard for reality. When that happens we have a political movie, an "I'm in favor of motherhood" editorial instead of a film. Thornton falls into this trap as he attempts to catapult the second class citizens of our society halfway to sainthood over the straw body of bigots and the usual small town mentality. Consequently, both Karl and the boy become far too wise, too sensitive, too considerate, too loving and frankly, too saintly to be believed. I'm not sure that anything could have allowed this movie to live up to the PC adoration given it, but Thornton might have helped his cause by cutting some of Karl's more goody-goody pronouncements, and by giving more time and scope to the other characters, especially the boy's mother (Natalie Canerday) who is too narrowly presented. He had a very fine cast: he should have used them more and himself less. Dwight Yoakam was properly despicable as the insufferably self-centered, woman-battering, bigoted boyfriend of the boy's mother. John Ritter was close to brilliant as a small town, thirty-something gay. J.T. Walsh, as a psychopathic rapist/murderer, was sardonically humorous, and Robert Duvall's cameo as Karl's falling-down poor white trash father was good (as far as it went). Lucas Black, who played the boy was excellent. In short, the cast carried the film, and if Thornton had given them more depth and himself less he might have had a work of art.
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