One of the wrost movies I have ever seen

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"Little Laura and Big John" is an obviously low, low budgeted, and regional production that may not be based on the "Bonnie & Clyde" story, but certainly owes something of a debt to it. It actually tells the true story of the John Ashley gang, which terrorized the Florida countryside in the 1920s. Ashley (former singing idol Fabian Forte) is the charismatic ringleader, and beloved character actress Karen Black is "Little Laura", his sweetheart. They ultimately run afoul of a Sheriff (noted character actor Paul Gleason) who realizes that he will have to shut them down, but GOOD.Taken on its own terms, "Little Laura and Big John" is an okay movie, no more. Fabian and Black won't make you forget Beatty and Dunaway anytime soon, but they do alright. (However, one might wish that Black were given a little more to do.) Directed by a man named Luke Moberly, and scripted by Moberly and Bob Woodburn, it doesn't overflow with filmmaking talent, but does get by thanks to its flavourful rural atmosphere. Moberly and company do whatever they can to recreate the period, with whatever limited means they had. The film actually begins with a narrated overview of criminal activity during this era, citing key players like Capone and Schultz, and the activities of people like Pretty Boy Floyd in the more rural areas. Then it segues into the story proper. The oddest element is that the character of Laura's mother (Ivy Thayer) does some of the narration, straight to the camera. An offbeat score and some silly but catchy songs are - how shall I put it? - interesting to hear. Some viewers may be pleased to note that the film is violent without being particularly gory. However, the storytelling can get awfully incoherent at times.Not very many people in this cast have substantial acting experience, other than Black and Gleason. Even Fabian comes off as more professional than a lot of the locally selected thespians hired for the production. Still, this viewer will give some of them credit for at least being fairly spirited, in particular Ken Miller as goofy, upbeat Hanford.While this viewer doesn't feel that the picture is nearly as worthless as some people make it out to be, there's really nothing all that great about it either.Five out of 10.

This is a good example of the kind of movies which were influenced massively by Bonnie and Clyde (1967). That film was one of the key American films that kick-started a golden age of 70's cinema that would later become known as New Hollywood. Little Laura and Big John is hardly one of those films in fairness but it nevertheless is clearly indebted to its famous precursor. It shares its rural southern USA location and its period setting, in this case the 20's. It also is a crime drama biopic about real criminals who were a romanticised male/female couple. More specifically, it's based around the exploits of the Ashley Gang who operated in Florida. Their leader John Ashley was jailed for accidentally killing a man, only to escape and become a bank robber and bootlegger.Despite its real-life basis, its characters aren't very well developed sadly. The main star is Karen Black, who is good enough but her role is a very limited one; the main character is played by Fabian Forte who tries his best but lacks the necessary screen charisma to make his character as interesting as he needs to be. It is odd that this low budget film was made after Karen Black had already rose to considerable prominence off the back off Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1971), because it has the definite feel of a minor movie and her role is quite under-written; you would have expected her to be involved in a product that better utilised her at this stage in her career. Some have already noted the contemporary 70's musical score which is used in this period set drama sounds a little odd in this context. However, I personally didn't mind this very much even if it was somewhat unusual. The film on the whole is not very good, yet hardly as bad as it's made out to be either. Its story could certainly have been told in a much more engaging fashion but it was still a half-decent period crime flick in my eyes.

Fifth-rate 1920s crime spree with Fabian Forte cast as real-life Prohibition-era crook John Ashley who, along with his girlfriend Laura and assorted pals, preceded even Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in the bank robbing field. Luke Moberly directs with a wink and a smile; he must have known this threadbare outing was no "Bonnie & Clyde", though he was clearly inspired by that film in visual terms, and his picture gets off to a decent start. However, with very green and inexperienced actors in front of the camera--and poor cinematography and sloppy editing going on behind it--the picture loses steam even before the halfway mark. Bill Walker's inappropriate score and some terrible quasi-period tunes on the soundtrack make the film unbearable to hear, much less to watch. It is inconceivable that rising star Karen Black, having already earned attention for her performances in "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces" (for which she was Oscar-nominated), should appear in such a low-rent production. Black and Forte are really the only cast members with legitimate acting experience (Forte had recently portrayed 'Pretty Boy' Floyd in 1970), yet their performances are just as lousy as everyone else's (like the script, perhaps they were simply confused as to how to proceed). The early scenes give hint that maybe Moberly was onto something with his approach, but he loses his footing quickly--and the movie doesn't so much crash and burn as it does disintegrate on impact. * from ****

My entertainment of this movie was laughing at it. I think the point when it really goes over the edge was when Fabian's eye patch actually switched from his one eye to his other eye and back again. I thought this was such an obvious mistake that I rewound and watched the one scene again. He is running on a dock when this happens. Sure enough his eye patch switched eyes with no explanation.I watched this movie because it was on late night and it was free. And I was interested in seeing Karen Black and Fabian Forte in a movie together. So it was an okay movie for that type of watching. But if you really want to see a movie about lovers being outlaws. I would stick to Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.