Fantastic!

Excellent but underrated film

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Overall, I like this movie. Jeff Bridges paints a believable portrait of a has been, drunken singer. He drives from place to place in a 30 plus year old Chevy Suburban singing in one dive after another while his protégé has become famous and travels with an entire caravan of top-of-the line motor coaches. What has me scratching my head though is why is an Irish actor (Colin Farrell playing the aforementioned protégé), cast as an American country singer? This is a case of severe miscasting. Why didn't the filmmakers have a real, American country singer play that part?

This film is genuinely poor. Characterisation ranges from cliched to nonexistent. Genuinely.Leading character is the architypal broken down drunk who chain smokes and generally wastes his talents.Romantic lead is inexplicably drawn to said broken down drunk. No back history or logic offered there.Lead has long standing rivalry with another younger more commercially successful performer. Yawn. Too bored to continue. It has no depth. No weight of interest. It operates within a genre without doing anything new or expanding that genre. It's not even derivative because nothing within this film is new. At all. Derivative at least suggests something is new.Jeff Bridges delivers a wildly over hyped performance that shouldn't ever win an Oscar. It is wrong that it won an Oscar. This film is up over seven stars. Want to see something similar but undoubtedly better? Walk the Line.

It drops you right in there, in the uncomfortable stuff you don't want to see or feel but what can you expect from some of the best actors.They're so good you kinda have no choice, you're gonna feel it, raw, awful, wonderful. I like how this movie doesn't wallow aimlessly in the shallow nonsense that's too often out there these days it seems that we have to wade through to find a decent movie. Or drop you into a chaotic depressing movie, and then it ends there..confusingly..with no point...that's not art, it's a writer on drugs and producers with no grey cells. It's so damn good to be able to rely on real stuff, true talent and brilliant movies from these guys.

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a drunk broke country singer whose best days are in the past. Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a journalist doing an in-depth piece on the old legend. They open up to each other and start a relationship. He tries to get his life together. He talks to star Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) who was once his mentors. Everybody wants him to write new songs but he hasn't written anything in three years.This movie is simply living off of Jeff Bridges' natural performance. He is absolutely perfect for this role. He is touching and compelling. Gyllenhaal is good. Colin Farrell surprises with a great cameo. Their scene together is so wonderful. The story is rather thin and moves at a leisurely pace. There is a lot of country music. It's an easy comforting journey.