Tom Selleck: Stone Cold
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Movie Reviews of Tom Selleck: Stone Cold
Movie Review: Tom Selleck is Parker's Jesse Stone
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert B.Parker is one of the best - if not the best - in telling a story almost entirely through dialogue and as such perfect for film.
His novels are million sellers, and they deserve to be.
Parker's output is amazing. The Spenser series, the Jesse Stone and the Sunny Randal novels, a couple of westerns and YA novels, the list goes on and on.
Stone Cold is a TV movie based on the 4th novel in the Jesse Stone series. And it's terrific. Parker has never ever before been transmitted to film like this.
Though Jesse in the novels is a little younger than Tom Selleck, Tom is perfect in the role. He's witty, tough, straight, comes equipped with a huge heart, and is ready for action when he needs to be.
Not that you would expect that in Paradise, Massachusetts, the quiet little New England fishing town where Jesse just started as the new police chief. As a former L.A. homicide detective who left behind the big city and his divorced wife, Jesse probably didn't expect a serial killer couple to disrupt the peace. As the killers try to destroy Jesse's private life just as a gang rape case stretches thin his small town police force, Jesse decides it's time to hit back.
Tom Selleck in my opinion has never been better. And he knows it. No wonder he is one of the executive producers on the series.
But this is not just about Tom. Polly Shannon is lovely as his girlfriend (or pal, as Jesse prefers to call her), Viola Davis and Kohl Sudduth shine as small town cops, the dog too - as the dog (what would a Parker tale be without one)
Robert Harmon's directing is state of the art, as are Jeff Beal's music, Rene Ohashi's camera work and the location and production design.
If you keep in mind that this is just a TV production it is amazing what the team pulled off with a relatively small budget. As such it is better than most of what's been around lately.
Get it and watch it. It won't disappoint.
Movie Review: Quietly chilling
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never read a Parker novel and am unlikely to; so I have no comparisons and adaptation issues. But both I and my wife loved this flick.
Hard to say why; a mystery I'm still trying to fathom. I think it was just so well put together, with all the tiny bits and pieces fitting almost seamlessly. Selleck was a wry marvel with a troubled history and a character who left so much unsaid that one wondered just exactly when he would explode. This contrasts nicely with so much over-stated acting that considered great and significant these days. To allow just enough to appear on the outside to give a hint of what depths may lurk inside--without making it 'arty' and pretentiously obscure--it's become a rarity on the small screen and the large.
The supporting cast performed similarly. I think the strength of the movie that everybody appeared to have 'depth', without it ever becoming tedious and tiresome--and the plot and pacing allowed this to shine through.
A word about the killers. Some would like more 'motive' and more 'explanation' I guess. But why? Sometimes people do things for reasons that nobody but themselves will ever be able to understand. Why do we need this all neatly wrapped up? Why not just say 'they did it because they wanted to and because they could'. It happens; and when it happens, I think our lack of understanding of it--which is implicitly our lack of understanding of the complexity of human nature--is what really scares us. Which is why those two killers may be more terrifying than Leatherface.
5/5 for performance and story
Till Noever, owlglass.com, Author: KEAEN, CONTINUITY SLIP, SELADIENNA
Movie Review: Stay with me here . . .better movie than the book
Summary: 5 Stars
OK. We're talking icon here. If you read novels, mystery thrillers, loyal protaganists, Robert B. Parker is the master. Are there better mystery-thrillers? Yeah. The Long Goodbye still is the tops, Big Sleep not far behind, currently lots of good ones, Mystic, Diehl's (unfortunately not) critically acclaimed Eureka, Landay's recent first timer in Mission Flats.
But, Parker does so many things "first." Really, first buddy anti-heros, Spenser and Hawk. Lots of cross racial conversations. Gay friends (you weren't the first, Kellerman), tremendous intellect, tremendous loyalty, and a tremendous code to live by.
But Spenser is getting on in years and so Parker introduces Jesse Stone. This is the poorest of the Stone novels so I hope Selleck does more. I liked the book for the analysis of Stone's love of his ex; here in the movie it's kind of superficial and Stone's weakness (thank you Bob) is it's always the relationship. He can't let go of his ex-wife. That's why he drinks. And he was a great Triple A ball player. And that unfortunately gets a thin explanation.
All in all, kudos to the cast. It's well filmed and the cinematography enhances the double entendre of the name of the town, "Paradise." The serial killers were creepy in the book and likewise here. The High School rape issue was a balancing point to show Jesse's humanity, the 'pure' side he likes to hide. Selleck as always does a great job.
I liked it. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury
Movie Review: Tom Selleck at his best...
Summary: 5 Stars
Stone Cold is a great find because Tom Selleck is one of our favorite actors and we own the entire Magnum PI collection. In this series a more mature but still incredibly handsome Tom Selleck plays the character of the Chief of Police of a small New England town called Paradise, Massachusetts.
Jesse Stone is a former Los Angeles homicide detective who left life in the big city and is now underemployed, but still doing service to the community, which he loves. He divorced the "only woman he is able to love" and in each of the movies, for we now own three, he has relationships with rather sophisticated and interesting women, such as the attorney played here by Mimi Rogers.
While life in Paradise is slow and for the most part the Chief of Police only gives out traffic or parking tickets, a series of murders take place, and in this episode a high school girl is raped and we see the Chief of Police solving murders, and protecting the young girl, allowing her father to "extract" vengeance in ways that we simply cheered.
Don't miss it, the pace is slow but introspective, the plot is deep and intelligent, and you are left with feeling admiration for a man that has done wrong things while always attempting to do what is right!
Movie Review: Fair Book, Good Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a BIG fan of Robert Parker's earlier "Spenser" novels, so thought I would take a look at his "Jesse Stone" series. The book on which this film is based is, in my opinion, only fair. But Selleck made it into a very good, small/initimate detective/police procedural thriller.
(Ironically, in an interview included in the "Special Features" on the DVD, Selleck apologies to Parker fans for certain plot changes made in the movie. In my opinion, these changes greatly improved the plot - and I say that as a Parker fan.)
Selleck seems to bring more and more authenticity and . . . well . . .gravitas . . . to each new role he tackles. You see this in his Westerns, e.g., Quigley Down Under (which I also recommend). Part of it is acting.
But if you know what to look for you can tell that Selleck knows his way around firearms and is not some Hollywood nitwit who would like as not shoot his foot off in Real Life. I think this actual knowledge bleeds over into Selleck's film roles, and helps make him believable.
Bottom Line: "Stone Cold" is better than 95% of the bigger budget, "fantasy" cop films that are out there. No explosions or car chases. Just a good story; good acting; and characters you care about.