good back-story, and good acting

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I actually really enjoyed this movie- the all star cast really pulled it off - Yes the story and characters were twisted but lets face it - what in reality (esp nowadays) is not twisted? America should embrace real films like this as the American dream gives way to the exposure of reality. Dont live in Disneyland. Having said that - a profound movie is like a thought provoking essay - with an emphasis on THOUGHTS - it requires a certain level of intellect to appreciate.

I don't really even know what the movie was fully about after watching it, I guess the story of Cusack's character and the murders...? I knew nothing about this movie, and vaguely remember seeing some poster with multiple big name actors and I swore one of them was Brad Pitt, so when I started this movie I thought it was a Pitt movie...Well, I was surprised by who was in it, and pleasantly so as each new character was introduced. I like M'Con, I find he does have a place in Hollywood movies. As I've mentioned before I am a fan of Cusack, so it was a surprise when his creepy prisoner character showed up.There are several weird and kind of disturbing parts in this movie. The scene with Cusack and Kidman in the prison was just gross, but apparently it was arousing to old M'Con's character. It felt like it was trying to hard to be dark, and the narration from a mush mouthed and incoherent (literally) Macy Gray was very annoying. I had to strain to understand what she was saying, because she doesn't seem to pronounce her words very well. She acted fairly well in this movie, it's just she was hard to understand. The Paperboy had some strange moments with Cusack in the swamp, and Zac Efron saying the N word, it really wasn't that good. The actors in this movie are all quite good, it's just the poor story and narration that makes this movie a fail. From what others have said repeated viewings help to improve the murkiness of the story and things you may have missed become clearer. I may give this one another shot another time, but for now it stands as a weird one for me. 5/10

The Paperboy is a lurid, confusing, steamy film noir set in the South Florida of 1969 and relying on the narrative of Anita, a maid to the Jansen family who herself might be an unreliable source.Jack Jansen (Zac Efron) is a college dropout who drives for his idealistic older brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) an undercover investigative journalist. He has returned to town with a posh black English colleague, Yardley (David Oyelowo) to maybe exonerate swamp hillbilly Hillary (John Cusack) for the murder of a sheriff. They have been put on to him by Charlotte (Nicole Kidman) a brassy, trashy Death Row groupie who is convinced he is innocent.The plot is really a Mcguffin as we really examine a slimy slice of life of the characters many of them wearing mask. Jack becomes infatuated by Charlotte. Hillary is as rough as some of his relatives we meet in the swamp. When we first see him in jail, he is more interested in getting off with Charlotte than talk about his innocence. There are clues laid that Ward has something to hide and even Yardley has an accent that seems to slip. All this is mixed with casual racism, sensuality, rough sex. You even have Charlotte peeing on Jack after he is stung by jellyfish.The film is stylishly shot, I found it compelling as well as overwrought but I also found it confusing. It seems Yardley and Charlotte made up sources for the story. What was the evidence that suddenly gets the Governor to review the case? What exactly did Ward wanted from the men in the club and did it get out of hand? Still I liked the film despite the messy story.

From Peter Dexter's novel about the investigation into the stabbing murder of a racist sheriff in a small Florida town in 1969; a suspect has already been convicted and sentenced to die, but a newspaper reporter and his colleague from the Big City aren't so certain he's guilty. Framed in flashback by testimony from the mouthy black maid who works for the reporter's family, the scenario is filled with nothing but one-dimensional people--caricatures substituting for characters--nasty, racially-hostile dialogue and ugly scenes such as bleach-blonde Nicole Kidman bringing her prisoner-crush to orgasm during visitor's hours (she also urinates on paper-delivering drop-out Zac Efron after he's stung by a jellyfish!). Adapted by Dexter and director Lee Daniels, the film may be considered brave (or bravely outré) for its 'colorful' examination of racial hatred, but as a tale of murder it surely falls short. It's also a failure as a starring vehicle for the likes of Kidman, Efron, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey as the reporter and David Oyelowo as his partner. Oyelowo, as a black British man in America's south at the end of the 1960s, appears to have no clue as to how this impossibly-conceived role should be played, and Daniels gives him absolutely no help. Watching Oyelowo and the rest of the cast struggle on-screen is painful to witness. One of the worst-directed, written and edited pictures of the last 10 years. NO STARS from ****