Year: 2005

“Sling Blade“. With this kind of title, R rating, and Billy Bob Thornton being in it, I was expecting a really nice action. I guess I didn’t check the genre beforehand.

Directed by: Billy Bob Thornton
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hampton, Robert Duvall, Rick Dial, Brent Briscoe, Christy Ward, Sarah Boss, Kathy Sue Brown, Wendell Rafferty, Bruce Hampton
IMDB raintg: 8.0
My rating: 8.0 [rate 8.0]

But the film was real good non-the-less. It is one of those films that can be easily spoiled by a trailer or a plot outline. A guy who killed his own mother is released from the mental hospital after spending most of his life in it. He is out in the open. And he is Billy Bob Thornton. Yeah.

Another spoiler? No problem. Not a single gun shot in the movie. He killed them all with the blade. One more? He called only one guy and that wasn’t on the screen. Because it’s not an action movie. In fact, I don’t even know why they put a thriller tag on it. It’s not.

It is an excellent drama. Interesting to note that Billy Bob Thornton wrote the screenplay, directed the film, and played the main role in it. And all of these were excellently done. It is indeed an excellent film with a great story and some really good acting. Particularly from Thornton.

This film could have been better with slighly more pace and a bit more work on the soundtrack. But that’s really nitpicking. The film is outstanding.