Strong and Moving!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The more I watch, the better I like Jesse Stone. How much coffee does he drink in a day?

I enjoy all of the Jesse Stone mini series. To bad they were not filmed in the New England area and Boston. I'm sure the costs would have been substantially higher

The seventh and hopefully not the last episode aired just this past Sunday, but that prospect looms ominously in my opinion. The seventh instalment of the Jesse Stone character on film delivers the usual mystery death(s) we know Jesse will likely solve, but the faith of the bad guys is most often the biggest surprise of the Jesse Stone stories. Again, to my personal delight, the bad guy dies at the hand of former Sheriff Stone, in a perfect trap we can only somewhat presume was Jesse's checkmate move; as usual we were not privy to the plan until it unfolded.Jesse struggles with his usual demons, the liquor and his divorce. A new love interest in Gloria Reuben is introduced, well maybe just a friend with lovely benefits; and this is one that makes it alive by the end of the movie. Occasionally they die. His friends Luther, Rose, Saul, Commander Healy and Dr. Dix, even quasi-friend Gino, as well as a renewed appearance by Sister Mary John are familiar faces doing their usual thing. About Sister Mary John, we were fooled in believing for a fleeting moment, thanks to very good editing, that she and Jesse have an affair. Well it's the second episode he's blunt about his intention in that respect, so we can hope. All and all, this episode delivered our annual dose of characters we like and a story we can claim is a good mystery. The pace and the mood always the same slow and thoughtful process; I often remark in many other of my reviews that this or that movie leaves me with a grin, a smile or excited still, etc., but a Jesse Stone movie is one that makes me sigh at the end. It's not a sigh of disappointment, absolutely not; but I have a hard time finding the right words. I can describe how I feel; glad most of the key characters are alive and hopeful that Jesse will maybe find something close to happiness at least before the end of that series. We could say there's a Jesse Stone movie cult, if others feel the same way I described.

Fans of this serious deserve a medal for being the most patient fans on the planet. Most fans have had to resort to DVD supplements (or the Hallmark Channel) to even catch all the installments. Luckily places like Office Depot and big chain Grocery Stores carry most of the DVD's cheap. CBS hasn't been very helpful, the first two episodes were aired in reverse order and the latest two episodes (parts 6 and 7) put on a shelf for over a year while negotiating with Tom Selleck to do the TV series BLUE BLOODS. Part 6 ultimately aired with little fanfare in a terrible time slot and Part 7 finally found a decent home (and will be released on DVD August 2nd, probably). Even if you were able to catch all of them on TV the time period between films was pretty lengthy to remember some of the plot points in the continuing story line. The 6th film, SEA CHANGE, for example, the one that sat on the shelf and then given a bad time slot, brought back guest characters from all the previous episodes. Nifty idea if you watch all the DVD's in a month, but not spread out over 3 years. For the record in case you need to catch up, the story order of the DVD's (not the order they were aired or related to the book title order) are: 1. Night Passage 2. Stone Cold 3. Death in Paradise 4. Sea Change 5. Thin Ice 6. No Remorse 7. Innocents Lost. So are they worth it? Yes. They are character-driven moody dramas with just enough quirky moments to add some jokeless humor. Jesse Stone is a cop and a drunk who goes from being an LAPD robbery-homicide detective to police chief of a small town in Massachusetts. He solves all the cold cases (unsolved crimes), including the grisly ones that no one in town even knew existed, merely as a way to pass the boredom. This actually upsets the status quo of townsfolk that would rather leave their not-so-peaceful past buried. Story lines unexpectedly spill into sequel films making this a continuous story-line series.