For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is one of the funniest documentaries of all time. The absurdity of Morris' interviewees creates a sense of comedy that was also included in his film "Gates of Heaven", but with "Gates of Heaven" their is a bit more of a range with it's emotion. However, "Vernon, Florida" is really just a comedy, and is really funny!The film, like "Gates of Heaven", can be portrayed as either a satire of, or a celebration of those featured in the film. However you look at it, "Vernon, Florida" is a documentary film far funnier than most. At only 56 minutes, it is one of the greatest documentaries of all time, and my favorite film from my favorite filmmaker, Errol Morris ("Gates of Heaven", "The Thin Blue Line", "The Fog of War"). Why is it so great? It's weird, entertaining, and, of course, funny! An easy 10!

Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.I love the discussion of the four-track mind, and I love the man who has the living opossum. But more than anything else, the "therefore" sermon is amazing -- he assumes Paul used that word, and then goes off on a weird series of connections that have nothing to do with anything. Capturing this on film is priceless.What inspired this? I have no idea. Apparently originally it was supposed to focus on residents who purposely cut off their own limbs to collect insurance money. And is it representative of the city as a whole? I would certainly hope not. But with a population under 800, this film does show a big enough cross section to say something about the citizens.

Ever been on a train or in a bar or at a party where some socially retarded person corners you into listening to some pointless, rambling monologue about their job, their hobby or their relationship with their parents? That's exactly what this movie feels like. Back in the early 80s Errol Morris, the guy who made "The Thin Blue Line", went to the little podunk town of Vernon, Florida and filmed various residents flapping their gums about whatever they felt like talking about. Not surprisingly the movie is an excruciatingly boring viewing experience. It's only 55 minutes long but it feels like about five hours. It's considered kind of a cult classic but damned if I know why. It's seriously one of the worst documentaries I've ever seen.

It's strange to see an Errol Morris film that works and doesn't work all the same. The film is short, maybe too short, and doesn't really take much time to going into much of what the town of Vernon is about, or if these interviewed are its only residents. There's no unifying theme though to the work, which is the basic problem, as Morris at his best (Thin Blue Line with the stylization and depth of reasonable doubt in true crime; Gates of Heaven with loss of life as a means to understand what human nature is all about; Fog of War about knowing limitations and understanding mistakes made in history; Fast Cheap & Out of Control with the process and joys of a job well done), as it's simply a series of interviews with the residents. Maybe, as one person here pointed out, it's that everyone has a story. But, not to be modest, you sometimes can't understand what these people are saying anyway in their storytelling.But at the same time, as Morris just goes about with his very unobtrusive and expert eye for human detail (the detail, anyway, of people at their goofiest and more sincere), it's very funny to see these backwoods folk and old guys tell their everyday stories and tales of hunting turkey and other animals. Favorite scenes would include: the preacher, who is part-time a laborer and part-time an obsessive word nut, specifically the word 'therefore' as it appears in the bible and what it means; the guy with his pet tortoise, who he tries to get to move around by gentle kicks, and also with his wild possum; the simple coot who's got one tooth and plenty of pictures of possible life elsewhere with clouds and stars in the sky. Morris doesn't shy away from these idiosyncrasies that one can find right away in the not-quite-Deliverance parts of the deep south, and watching the film with an audience is an added treat, to see who may laugh at who doing what.At the end, there aren't really any big ideas to take away from the film, at least on a first viewing, and it may be a little repetitive for some- or maybe not, as it may hit so close to home that it's a likely candidate for best documentary about a town with population 40. It's a little quirk of a doc-comedy that's worth it for Morris fans, but far from being any kind of masterpiece.